THE FIRST SLAM DUNK Anime Film Tops Avatar: The Way of Water in Third Weekend

 

After more than a decade, the biggest film of all time, James Cameron’s Avatar, finally had its sequel released in theaters globally. While the film has topped box offices around the world, not even The Way of Water can beat THE FIRST SLAM DUNK in its home court, coming second to the anime film in both weekend box office gross and attendance. 

 

In fact, in attendance over the weekend, Avatar: The Way of Water came in third place with Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume taking second place, though due to Avatar mostly being watched in premium formats, its weekend box office takings were higher than Suzume. 

 

Not only that, but THE FIRST SLAM DUNK passed 4 billion yen of total box office gross over the weekend with a total of 4.18 billion yen (US$30.65 million) made on the back of 2.81 million tickets sold. It is by far the highest-grossing Slam Dunk anime film of all-time and caps off an amazing year for Toei Animation-produced films.

 

 

RELATED: Japan Box Office: THE FIRST SLAM DUNK Stays on No.1 for Two Consecutive Weekends

 

The original Slam Dunk TV anime aired from 1993 to 1996, with four anime films being spun off from the original anime. You can catch an on-demand replay of the TV anime right here on Crunchyroll, which describes the series as such:

 

Hanamichi Sakuragi, an entering freshman at Shohoku High, holds a record for being rejected by 50 girls during middle school. Ever since the last girl turned him down for a guy on the basketball team, Sakuragi’s been traumatized by the sport.

 

THE FIRST SLAM DUNK opened in Japan on December 3 in regular and IMAX theaters and expanded to Dolby Cinema screens on December 10.

 

Source: Kogyo Tsushin

 

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Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.