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

[CelestialFairyIX]

By Wednesday mid-day, I'm sure BH6 will pass $10 million.  Great legs thus far and am hoping it keeps up this performance!

[Dingdong123]

By Wednesday mid-day, I'm sure BH6 will pass $10 million.  Great legs thus far and am hoping it keeps up this performance!

You mean by great legs, is it something like extraordinary? Beyond the norm of december releases? Or too early to tell?

[druv10]

Per Corpse

 

Tuesday (Emperor's Birthday) Results
Usual Locations (~1/3 of the Market)

190,956 (-24%) - Yo-Kai Watch: It's the Secret of Birth, Nyan! (Week 1)
85,472 (+01%) - Big Hero 6 (Week 1)
26,874 (-02%) - Ao Haru Ride (Week 2)
20,519 (-04%) - The Vancouver Asahi (Week 1)
14,364 (-18%) - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Week 3)
13,395 (-19%) - The Last: Naruto the Movie (Week 3)
12,470 (-10%) - Gone Girl (Week 2)
11,099 (-06%) - Parasyte Part 1 (Week 4)
8,206 (-23%) - Aikatsu! The Movie (Week 2)
5,882 (-25%) - Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Gaim & Drive: Full Throttle (Week 2)

*% increases/decreases compared to Sunday*

>Yo-Kai Watch sold through ~56% of its available tickets at the usual locations on Tuesday. Once the evening showtimes began, business really died down, but this is the biggest weekday I can ever recall.

It's clear now its audience is definitely, overwhelmingly, young children, Elementary/Middle School aged kids. Its ticket sales in the morning/afternoon were gargantuan on Saturday/Sunday and on Tuesday (holiday) with no school, while it performed much better during the day/evening on Monday. This can be a cause of concern for its legs after New Year because Doraemon usually crashes after Spring Break; and Pokemon after Summer Vacation each year.

However... it achieves the biggest known Emperor's Day (beating Avatar's opening day on Emperor's Day in 2009), and potentially achieved the most-attended weekday ever. I need to continue research on the latter claim, but I still haven't found a film that looks to have earned a guaranteed weekday over 500,000 admissions in the past...

>Big Hero 6 was roughly dead even with Sunday, suggesting its audience is a bit older, with more High School students and young adults, keeping it active into the evening/night. This is a great sign for its inevitable strong legs.

Tuesday Estimates (Emperor's Day):

¥570 million ($4.8 million) / 530,000 - Yo-Kai Watch: It's the Secret of Birth, Nyan! (Week 1)
¥300 million ($2.6 million) / 240,000 - Big Hero 6 (Week 1)
¥85 million ($730,000) / 71,000 - Ao Haru Ride (Week 2)
¥73 million ($620,000) / 59,000 - The Vancouver Asahi (Week 1)
¥60 million ($510,000) / 45,000 - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Week 2)
¥43 million ($365,000) / 34,000 - The Last: Naruto the Movie (Week 3)
¥40 million ($340,000) / 31,000 - Gone Girl (Week 2)
¥38 million ($325,000) / 30,000 - Parasyte Part 1 (Week 4)
¥23 million ($195,000) / 19,000 - Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Gaim & Drive: Full Throttle (Week 2)
¥20 million ($170,000) / 17,000 - Aikatsu! The Movie (Week 2)

After 4-Days (Estimates):

¥2.45 billion ($20.9 million) / 2.24 million - Yo-Kai Watch: It's the Secret of Birth, Nyan!
¥1.01 billion ($8.6 million) / 780,000 - Big Hero 6

[Melvin Frohike]

Per Corpse

...

>Yo-Kai Watch sold through ~56% of its available tickets at the usual locations on Tuesday. Once the evening showtimes began, business really died down, but this is the biggest weekday I can ever recall.

It's clear now its audience is definitely, overwhelmingly, young children, Elementary/Middle School aged kids. Its ticket sales in the morning/afternoon were gargantuan on Saturday/Sunday and on Tuesday (holiday) with no school, while it performed much better during the day/evening on Monday.

This is obvious from its low average ticket price alone.

 

However... it achieves the biggest known Emperor's Day (beating Avatar's opening day on Emperor's Day in 2009), and potentially achieved the most-attended weekday ever. I need to continue research on the latter claim, but I still haven't found a film that looks to have earned a guaranteed weekday over 500,000 admissions in the past...

For Japan this is really something to behold, especially with the movie's relatively narrow demographic--what a feverish craze!

 

>Big Hero 6 was roughly dead even with Sunday, suggesting its audience is a bit older, with more High School students and young adults, keeping it active into the evening/night. This is a great sign for its inevitable strong legs.

Its average ticket price is virtually identical to those of other recent WDAS animated features, as well as those of Pixar and Studio Ghibli, generally speaking, indicating plenty of children but also plenty of adults to balance things out and increase the size of the potential audience pool. Good legs are the norm for these movies, albeit like everything in the world there is no ironclad guarantee (e.g. Brave, which did very well in NA but Japanese people sure didn't like it much).

[edroger3]

Corpse

If it maintains this pace, it'll probably set a Emperor's Day Record (I think this is a 100% lock) or simply the all-time weekday record. I can't think of anything that would have done more than 500,000 admissions on a weekday, which it's very likely to do, in the past even if it was an opening day...

For Corpse

Frozen in day 53, a holiday Monday, did 117K admissions on Toho and 559K total.

Edited December 24, 2014 by edroger

[catlover]

For Corpse

Frozen in day 53, a holiday Monday, did 117K admissions on Toho and 559K total.

 

Of course Frozen did it.

[Olive]

At Usual Locations (~1/3 of the Market), Yo-kai Watch Wednesday was about 30% of Sunday while BH6 nearly 70%.

[edroger3]

Toho admissions

 

Day      Frozen    BH6       YoHW

0-Fri    49.224
1-Sat    58.491    46.753   133.455
2-Sun    64.414    47.611   137.103
3-Mon    19.967    16.834    45.005

4-Tue    21.651    47.073   107.265

5-Wed    43.281    32.637    43.836
Tot     257.028   190.908   466.664

 

Today Yohai returns on the earth: it is on par with first wed of Frozen and only +34% vs BH6 (+23% for the four-chains combined).

[Fullbuster]

Toho admissions

 

Day      Frozen    BH6       YoHW

0-Fri    49.224

1-Sat    58.491    46.753   133.455

2-Sun    64.414    47.611   137.103

3-Mon    19.967    16.834    45.005

4-Tue    21.651    47.073   107.265

5-Wed    43.281    32.637    43.836

Tot     257.028   190.908   466.664

 

Today Yohai returns on the earth: it is on par with first wed of Frozen and only +34% vs BH6 (+23% for the four-chains combined).

 

BH6 is closer than ever, I wouldn't be surprised to see it higher than Yokai by next week.

[SchumacherFTW]

Why such a severe drop for yokai today compared to big hero 6?

[Cynosure]

BH6 is closer than ever, I wouldn't be surprised to see it higher than Yokai by next week.

 

Kids will be on holiday next week so that's unlikely. Maybe the week after.

[Fullbuster]

Kids will be on holiday next week so that's unlikely. Maybe the week after.

 

Maybe these kids will watch BH6 this time

[Olive]

50% of Yokai Watch's audience are under age 12.

[rhfqkddl45]

*Frozen Wednesday at Toho

 

 Wk     Adm     Seats      Saturation                          

2nd - 43,281 / 160,538        27%             

3rd - 83,765 / 156,152        53%                 

4th - 74,515 / 149,041        50%             

5th - 35,386 / 153,848        23%             

6th - 31,370 / 151,538        20%             

7th - 34,536 / 141,038        24%                

8th - 41,542 / 124,075        33%                   

9th - 29,067 / 139,900        21%             

10th- 35,609 / 141,810        25%                   

 

 

 

*Maleficent Wednesday at Toho

 

 Wk     Adm     Seats      Saturation

2nd - 34,910 / 183,659        19%

3rd - 30,899 / 197,136        16%

4th - 25,492 / 101,681        25%

5th - 25,675 /  79,259        32%

6th - 19,212 /  67,873        28%

7th - 20,608 /  44,601        46%

8th - 10,556 /  38,200        27%

9th -  7,001 /  31,860        22%

10th-  1,977 /  17,783        11%   

 

::Maleficent Total Gross - 6.65 billion Yen ($63.3m)

 

 

 

*Yo-kai Watch Wednesday at Toho

 

 Wk     Adm     Seats       Saturation  

2nd - 43,836 / 166,258        26.3%

 

 

 

*BH6 Wednesday at Toho

 

 Wk     Adm     Seats       Saturation  

2nd - 32,637 / 110,599        29.5%

 

 

**Wednesday is discount day for women. 

[seduh]

great numbers for BH6! i hope these numbers continue so it can make $400 OS

[Quigley]

I've reached my quota for the number of likes (why on Earth  is there such a limitation?!?). Just wanted you to know I would've liked all of your posts. Keep updating with daily numbers. Thanks and Merry Christmas.

[Cynosure]

Maybe these kids will watch BH6 this time

 

Nope, BH6 is apparently attracting a more adult audience, which is better for its legs anyway.

 

 

50% of Yokai Watch's audience are under age 12.

 

And the other 50% are the parents...

Edited December 25, 2014 by Cynosure

[cremino]

Corpse

 

>Yo-Kai Watch had its weakest day on Wednesday, though still pulled in around 200,000 admissions. It was actually tracking much higher earlier in the day, but business came to a screeching halt in the evening.

Its opening weekend demographic breakdown is also very telling:

49:51 (Male:Female)
49.2% - 0-10 year olds (Nursery School/Elementary School children)
44.6% - 30-50+ year olds (Parents/Grandparents)

Over 90% of its weekend audience was made up of parents/grandparents and their very young children. Only 6% of its weekend audience was represented by non-families.

This explains why it's barely selling any tickets after 6/7PM. So with parents and their children, basically its entire audience, having work/school until next week, its evening shows are dead. Christmas is celebrated in the gift exchange sense by some in Japan, but it's not a holiday so people still attend school/work until next week.

But for it to be doing the massive numbers it's earning with just very young children with their parents is very impressive, though it also limits its potential since there's only so many elementary school children in Japan.

>Big Hero 6 was very strong on Wednesday, suggesting it has great female appeal (females get half-off their tickets at cinemas every Wednesday). It only tailed Yo-Kai Watch by 20/25% for the day as it continues to catch up, quickly, in the daily race.

After 5-days (estimates):

¥2.66 billion ($22.7 million) / 2.44 million - Yo-Kai Watch: It's the Secret of Birth, Nyan!
¥1.19 billion ($10.2 million) / 940,000 - Big Hero 6

[lab276]

So it's gonna be huge next week?

[Melvin Frohike]

Of course Frozen did it.

Sure, although it did have 52 days in theaters to build up toward it....

Yes, that was intended to be ironic and nonsensical , as doing this on day 53 is an astonishing feat.

 

 

Why such a severe drop for yokai today compared to big hero 6?

Well, Yōkai Watch drew so much of its potential audience into theaters on OW that it was never going to have legs that are as strong, or even of average strength for movies in Japan, necessarily. Big Hero 6, in contrast, is having a more normal box office run, and should have broader appeal overall, at least demographically. As usual in Japan, people weren't chomping at the bit to see the movie RIGHT NOW--most will wait to hear what others say about the movie before deciding whether to see it in theaters, while the other movie had a built-in audience who were going to see it as soon as they could no matter what (more of a known quantity and far more hyped in certain ways--things besides how good the movie might be).

Now, for all I know it could be that Yōkai Watch is a truly great movie that will eventually appeal to a broad audience, including many adults, in which case it could still have great legs and become the highest-grossing release of all time in Japan, but from what I've heard and can surmise, this seems very unlikely indeed. Most likely it will be a really big--maybe even huge--hit with an audience that primarily consists of children, but its legs won't be that great. Meanwhile Big Hero 6's final gross will be far more dependent on how much the Japanese audience like it (WOM), and if they like it like they do most WDAS animated features, then it should have strong to very strong legs.

Edited December 25, 2014 by Melvin Frohike