Japan Box Office: THE FIRST SLAM DUNK Maintains Its No.1 Position for Five Consecutive Weekends
The momentum continued unabated even during the New Year’s break. In its fifth weekend, THE FIRST SLAM DUNK, the new anime feature film adaptation of Takehiko Inoue’s basket ball-themed sports manga in the 1990s, still earned an impressive 362 million yen (2.75 million USD) on 276,000 admissions, maintaining its No.1 position for five consecutive weekends.
In 32 days since its release in Japan on December 3, the 124-minute film has made 6.7 billion yen (50.8 million USD) on 4.61 million admissions to become the fourth top-grossing Japanese anime film of 2022.
Coming in second was, still, Makoto Shinkai’s latest feature Suzume, which has stayed on the same position for five weekends. In other words, THE FIRST SLUM DUNK and Suzume have kept their one-two position for five weeks, beating James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water in third for three times. Suzume earned 245 million yen (1.86 million USD) on 199,000 admissions in its eighth weekend, bringing its total to 11.3 billion yen (85.6 million USD) on 8.51 million admissions. Now it has become the 12th top-grossing Japanese film of all-time, behind Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises (2013 / 12.02 billion yen).
Crunchyroll teams up with Sony Pictures and Wild Bunch International to bring the feature to global audiences outside of Asia starting April 12, 2023.
RELATED: Suzume Anime Film Hits 30th Place on Japan Box Office All-Time Chart With Over 11 Billion Yen
The anime film adaptation of Mizuki Tsujimura’s fantasy novel Kagami no Kojou (English edition title: Lonely Castle in the Mirror) still ranked the same sixth place in its second weekend, bringing its total to 390 million yen (2.95 million USD).
After last weekend, when it disappeared from the top 10 list for the first time, One Piece Film Red has surprisingly returned to the top 10, ranking seventh in its 22nd weekend. One of the reasons for this return may be Uta’s highly-praised performance in Kohaku Uta Gassen on December 31. Its cumulative box office gross is expected to surpass 19 billion yen (144 million USD) pretty soon.
RELATED: Watch One Piece Film Red’s Uta Perform at Japan’s New Year’s Yearly Music Competition
In its sixth weekend, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime The Movie: Scarlet Bond, a new anime feature film sequel based on Fuse’s Japanese fantasy light novel series, also stayed on the same tenth place. Its cumulative total domestic gross has reached 1.24 billion yen (9.39 million USD). Crunchyroll will release the film in all major global territories (excluding Asia) in early 2023.
Weekend box office Top 10 in Japan (December 31, 2022 – January 1, 2023)
(ticket sales basis)
1 (1). “THE FIRST SLAM DUNK” – 6.7 billion yen
2 (1). “Suzume” – 11.3 billion yen
3 (3). “Avatar: The Way of Water” – 2.5 billion yen
4 (5). “Dr. Koto Shinryojo” – 1.37 billion yen
5 (8). “Lager yori Ai wo Komete” – 1.37 billion yen
6 (6). “Lonely Castle in the Mirror” – 390 million yen
7 (-). “One Piece Film Red” – 18.95 billion yen
8 (4). “Black Night Parade” – 440 million yen
9 (7). “Kamen Rider Geats × Revice: Movie Battle Royale” – 270 million yen
10 (10). “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime The Movie: Scarlet Bond” – 1.24 billion yen
Sources: Kogyo Tsushin, Pixiin
(C)I.T.PLANNING,INC. (C)2022 SLAM DUNK Film Partners
