JAPAN BOX OFFICE | Demon Slayer breaks all time record for OW

[Olive]

The Last: Naruto the Movie  OW actuals: 515.33M yen or $4.25M

[TheseDays]

I am a bit disappointed with Parasyte numbers. It had huge promotion and it actually looked decent, well-produced and had a good cast. Even though I'm not familiar with the original, it seemed like a very solid adaption unlike all the ones that are obviously just after a quick buck (the live-action adaptation of Lupin, for example). Then again, as a franchise, it is nowhere near as big as "Rurouni Kenshin" and it is been years since it was first published (it's not even an adaptation of a "hot" property right now) so I guess the numbers were to be expected.

 

Next huge adaptation by Toho is the "Attack on Titan" one which seems to be like the epitome of EVERYTHING the Japanese public don't like: not faithful to the original and with a cast that is purely made out of actors and actresses that are hot right now and bear no resemblance to the original source material. Originally, they had a highly respected director attached to the project (Tetsuya Nakashima) but he jumped ship too. Even so, the manga creator seems to be heavily involved and the franchise is so huge there's no way it won't open big. But guess we will have to wait until next summer to see if it has legs.

[xSabrinax]

The Last: Naruto the Movie  OW actuals: 515.33M yen or $4.25M

So the news about Naruto were fake? Sad.

[Rsyu]

Toho is making a new Godzilla movie to stomp on American Godzilla movies

 

 

Ten years after Godzilla: Final Wars lumbered back into the ocean, Japan’s Toho Studios is preparing a svelte new Godzilla movie that will crush all those otherGodzilla movies like a balsa-wood model of Tokyo. “The time has come for Japan to make a film that will not lose to Hollywood,” producer Taichi Ueda tells Variety, tacitly noting the irony of Japan having to reclaim from America a metaphor for the nuclear bomb that America dropped on Japan.

To accomplish its goal, Toho has assembled a team of studio executives, directors, and presumably badly dubbed scientists that calls itself the Godzilla Strategic Conference, or Godzi-Con. Besides pointing and staring upwards in horror, Godzi-Con will be responsible for rebooting the Godzilla brand and preparing a newGodzilla movie that will film in 2015 for a 2016 release, two years before Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla 2 is set to hit theaters. 

 

Link: http://www.avclub.com/article/toho-making-new-godzilla-movie-stomp-american-godz-212737

[Olive]

This Saturday, let's see how the final Hobbit movie will perform.

[Rsyu]

This Saturday, let's see how the final Hobbit movie will perform.

 

I think it will do well to do $20M plus. 

[TheseDays]

I heard the word of mouth from this new Naruto movie is terrible which surely can't mean very good things for the box office results in the long run but who knows... In any case, there will be a sequel out in August next year.

[xSabrinax]

I heard the word of mouth from this new Naruto movie is terrible which surely can't mean very good things for the box office results in the long run but who knows... In any case, there will be a sequel out in August next year.

The bad WOM already started way before the movie release. The manga JUST ended. And A LOT of people disliked the ending of the manga. The movie is just an adaptation of this same end.

 

Also, this is the first Naruto movie to be focused on a love story. And, Sasuke didn't have more than 4 minutes of screentime, which is bad because, he's a favourite.

 

Anyway, most of the crazy hate are from americans. I don't know if it's the same for the japanese. I hope it can hold well anyway.

Edited December 10, 2014 by xSabrinax

[Mojoguy]

Corpse

 

So here is how the 2015 release schedule is shaping up so far. I'll provide a closer look later this month.

The release schedule below only covers the year's most popular time frames (Spring/Golden Week, Summer/Obon Week and Winter/New Year), and the only films on the schedule below are those likely to earn at least ¥2 billion (up to $20 million+) or more.

About 80% of the yearly box-office regularly comes from these 6 months:

Spring/Golden Week Releases (March/April)
Doraemon: Nobita's Space Heroes (Toho) 03/07
Strobe Edge (Toho) 03/14
Into the Woods (Disney) 03/14
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (Fox) 03/20
Assassination Classroom (Toho) 03/21
Furious 7 (Toho-Towa) 04/17
Detective Conan: Sunflowers of Inferno (Toho) 04/18
Dragon Ball Z: Revival of F (Toei) 04/18
Golden Week Releases Below:
Parasyte - Part 2 (Toho) 04/25
Cinderella (Disney) 04/25
Golden Week Releases Above:

Summer/Obon Week Releases (July/August):
Avengers: Age of Ultron (Disney) 07/04
Terminator: Genisys (Paramount) 07/10
Pokemon XY: TBA (Toho) 07/11
Inside Out (Disney) 07/18
Hero 2 (Toho) 7/18
Minions (Toho-Towa) 07/31
Obon Week Releases Below:
Jurassic World (Paramount) 08/07
Obon Week Releases Above:
Ted 2 (Toho-Towa) 08/28
Attack on Titan - Part 1 (Toho) Summer TBA
Japan's Longest Day (Shochiku) August TBA

Winter/New Year Releases (November/December):
007: Spectre (Sony) November TBA
Mission: Impossible V (Paramount) December TBA
New Year Releases Below:
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (Fox) 12/18
Yokai Watch 2 (Toho) December TBA
New Year Releases Above:

It's going to be a big, big year. A lot of these films are ¥3 billion ($25/30 million+) contenders, too.

And there are still some big announcements to come, especially for the Winter/New Year frame (where I expect will see the final Evangelion film, and possibly a new One Piece film, too, just like in 2012). Obon Week (early/mid August) is also vacant right now, so some big films will move into the dates, too.

I actually just found out about Hero 2 while doing this. The first film released in 2007, based on the TV drama that averaged over 30% in the weekly ratings, earned over ¥8 billion. And the ongoing TV drama the sequel will be based on debuted this past year and has averaged over 20% in the TV ratings itself so far. Hero 2 will be a top film of 2015 contender.

[TheseDays]

Oooh, Cinderella and Parasyte - Part 2 opening on the same day. It'll be embarrassing if the Toho movie opens at #2 (which is a strong possibility).

 

And this list reminded me there's Yokai Watch Movie on Dec 20th. Definitely will be big.

[AJG]

I heard the word of mouth from this new Naruto movie is terrible which surely can't mean very good things for the box office results in the long run but who knows... In any case, there will be a sequel out in August next year.

Apparantly there's some sort of huge online backlash against the completely random Naruto/Hinata pairing. In other words "the main character got with someone else instead of the person everyone wanted him to be with". I doubt it actually hurts the movie, though.

[catlover]

I actually just found out about Hero 2 while doing this. The first film released in 2007, based on the TV drama that averaged over 30% in the weekly ratings, earned over ¥8 billion. And the ongoing TV drama the sequel will be based on debuted this past year and has averaged over 20% in the TV ratings itself so far. Hero 2 will be a top film of 2015 contender.

 

 

Oh wow I didn't even know there was a new Hero TV drama this year. Dang I missed it! Hero is one of my favorite Japanese TV dramas. But I just found out Takako Matsu and some regular casts are not in the 2014 drama. That sucks, because Matsu is one of my favorite Japanese actresses. I think because of this, Hero 2 will not be as big as the first movie.

[TheseDays]

Oh wow I didn't even know there was a new Hero TV drama this year. Dang I missed it! Hero is one of my favorite Japanese TV dramas. But I just found out Takako Matsu and some regular casts are not in the 2014 drama. That sucks, because Matsu is one of my favorite Japanese actresses. I think because of this, Hero 2 will not be as big as the first movie.

 

Matsu Takako was not in Hero 2 the TV show but she will be in the second movie

 

And AJG, I don't care about Naruto but you should be careful about spoilers anyway.

[catlover]

Matsu Takako was not in Hero 2 the TV show but she will be in the second movie

 

 

That's great! With new and original casts, the 2nd movie will be big then.

 

Btw, Stand By Me Doraemon has just been released here. It's only playing in one theater chain, but the hype is HUGE. Since the announcement of its release, it has been one of the most anticipated movies this year. Everyone I know is talking about it. In my theater, it's playing in 5 screens and for Saturday shows, the tickets are already sold out or nearly sold out! With the success of Detective Conan, Kenshin and now Doraemon, I hope more Japanese movies will be released here in the future.

[Olive]

[Olive]

Hobbit 3 is doing horribly bad so far... #3 in admissions behind 2 local movies.

[Olive]

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - ¥1.40 billion ($13.6 million) / 1.08 million admissions

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - ¥1.64 billion ($18.9 million) / 1.16 million admissions

[Olive]

Weekend Forecast (12/13-14)

 

ImageImageImageImage

 

01 (--) ¥360 million ($3.10 million), 0, ¥360 million ($3.10 million), The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Warner Bros.) NEW

02 (--) ¥310 million ($2.67 million), 0, ¥310 million ($2.67 million), Ao Haru Ride (Toho) NEW

03 (01) ¥267 million ($2.30 million), -48%, ¥1.08 billion ($9.3 million), The Last: Naruto the Movie (Toho) Week 2

04 (--) ¥250 million ($2.15 million), 0, ¥250 million ($2.15 million), Aikatsu! The Movie (Toei) NEW

05 (--) ¥230 million ($1.98 million), 0, ¥230 million ($1.98 million), Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Drive & Gaim: Movie Wars Full Throttle (Toei) NEW

06 (02) ¥153 million ($1.32 million), -32%, ¥1.12 billion ($9.7 million), Parasyte Part 1 (Toho) Week 3

07 (--) ¥130 million ($1.12 million), 0, ¥170 million ($1.46 million), Gone Girl (Fox) NEW

08 (03) ¥67 million ($0.58 million), -35%, ¥750 million ($6.5 million), Fury (Kadokawa) Week 3

09 (04) ¥56 million ($0.48 million), -31%, ¥910 million ($7.8 million), Interstellar (Warner Bros.) Week 4

10 (05) ¥52 million ($0.45 million), -25%, ¥1.04 billion ($9.1 million), As the Gods Will (Toho) Week 5

 

This should be a very good weekend ahead of us. Studios have unleashed the first big batch of Winter/New Year releases of the year.

 

>The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies has the advantage since it'll have a very high avg. ticket price thanks to 3D/IMAX/etc., and while it should receive that conclusion film boost, the franchise has been brushed to the side by Japan. I expect the opening to be the best in the trilogy, but these films are such a far cry from the success of The Lord of the Rings in the market (The entire Hobbit trilogy will have earned just over 50% of a single Lord of the Rings film). 

 

>Ao Haru Ride is the most-likely candidate to snatch the #1 debut away from The Hobbit over the weekend. Popular manga, popular director in the genre, and popular cast members should assure it success. Ticket sales are a little subpar so far this morning/afternoon, but as a teen date movie, it'll perform strongly tonight. The admissions should be there to contend for the #1 debut, but the avg. ticket prices in this genre are typically very low. 

 

>Aikatsu! is the least-likely candidate to debut at #1, but it wouldn't be a total shock either. In fact, it's probably going to win Saturday as it appears ahead right now. There's a freebie going out to the first 400,000 attendees, so its opening day is going to be strong. I might even be lowballing it, but the likely Sunday dropoff and the screen count (151) make me cautious of a real breakout debut (¥300/400 million).

 

>The Kamen Rider film franchise has lost a lot of its audience over the past couple years (perhaps from releasing 3 films every single year...), but the Winter releases have remained the most-stable. A debut above ¥200 million really shouldn't be too difficult. Toei is also putting this one on 307 screens, making it the first since 2013 to open on 300+. I know 2013 was literally last year, but there have been 4 Kamen Rider films since then. 

 

>Gone Girl is the final opener and from its numbers on Friday, and the ticket sales so far today, it's likely to be the weakest debut. An opening around the ¥150 million mark would still be pretty solid for this, though.

[Olive]

Saturday admissions by 5PM local time:

 

#1 - Ao Haru Ride 19,359

#2 - The Last: Naruto the Movie 16,917

#3 - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 14,380

 

4 chains only.

[Noctis]

So what can we expect from BotFA to finish with? 15m?