Japan's new wave of new crown epidemic has not completely subsided, and the number of new confirmed cases in a single day in the country is still as high as less than 1,000, of course, the situation is still much better than a month ago. The authorities decided to immediately lift the "emergency declaration" in nine prefectures, including Tokyo, and more movie theaters are expected to resume business, which is undoubtedly good news for the Japanese summer market. Last week, the Japanese market also had several strong new films open, and the market rebounded to about 1.39 billion yen over the weekend, up 50% from the previous weekend. The animated theatrical version of Mobile Suit Gundam Glittering Hasavi opened for 330 million yen in its first week, winning the weekend box office. The popular animated theatrical version of "New Evangelion Theatrical Edition: The End" soared nearly tenfold from the previous week, rebounding from outside the charts to second at the weekend box office, and also won the number one. The sequel to the comic adaptation, "Ranger Sword Heart Final Chapter Remembrance", fell by about 30% the following week, retreating to the third place in the weekend box office. The new local film "Character" ranked fourth with a score of nearly 200 million in the first week, and "Ranger Sword Heart 4" still ranked fifth on the weekend.
The new "Gundam" series "Mobile Suit Gundam Flashing Hasavi" officially opened on Friday, and it won nearly 190 million yen on the first day of the opening, a strong airborne single-day box office champion. The new theatrical version was released on 215 screens in the first weekend, mobilizing 165,000 spectators over two days of the weekend, slightly inferior to "EVA: The End" and "Ranger Sword Heart 5" to the third place in the weekend attendance list; however, with a super high ticket price of more than 2,000 yen, its two-day weekend box office reached 330 million yen, with a fairly obvious advantage to the weekend box office list. Counting the first days of Friday, "Glittering Hasavi" mobilized a total of 259,000 spectators in the first three days, attracting a total of 524 million yen, and the opening performance exceeded market expectations. Based on the novel of the same name by Yuki Tomino in 1989, produced by SUNRISE Studios and the first work of the planned trilogy, the film was originally scheduled to be released on July 23, 2020, but due to the spread of the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic in Japan, it was postponed to May 21, 2021, and finally postponed to June 11, 2021 in Japan. The film set the best opening result of the "Gundam" series, and the cumulative box office will also break the record of the "Gundam" series.
The super-popular animated ending, "New Evangelion Theater Edition: The End", rose from the outside of the circle to the second place in the weekend list on the 14th weekend, and mobilized 169,300 people in two days over the weekend to force "Gundam" to return to the weekend number one; however, due to the disadvantage of ticket prices, its two-day weekend box office was only 266 million yen, and it could only rank second in the weekend box office. Curated by Hideaki Anno and written by the original and screenwriter, the anime began to distribute the officially produced 36P booklet "EVA-EXTRA-EXTRA" special ceremony materials on Saturday, and also re-released the Dolby Cinema version, which double-stimulated its weekend box office soared by 960% month-on-month and rebounded significantly. As of Sunday, the cumulative box office of the ending animation has risen to 8.965 billion yen, and it is about to become the first film work of director Hideaki Anno's film career to break 9 billion yen. As of now, EVA: Finale is still ranked as the champion of the year with a large advantage and is expected to maintain this title until the end of the year.
The finale of the popular comic book series", "Ranger Sword Heart Final Chapter Memories", mobilized 167,000 spectators the next weekend and won 245 million yen at the box office, ranking second in the weekend and third in the weekend box office. The fifth work in the "Ranger Sword Heart" series fell 32% from the opening weekend, the trend is relatively stable, and the box office has risen to 1.088 billion yen in the ten days of release, easily breaking the 1 billion mark. The same series of works, "The Final Chapter of the Sword Heart of Langke", is still ranked in the top five of the weekend, and it collected another 98.8 million yen in two days, down only 10% from the previous weekend, and the cumulative box office has reached 3.668 billion yen. Both works of "Langke Sword Heart Final Chapter" have been greatly affected by this round of works, and have not been able to rewrite the series's new box office highs, but as of now, the cumulative box office of the five works of the "Langke Sword Heart" series has exceeded 17 billion yen, and it is still the most successful live-action manga series in Japan in recent years.
Toho's new live-action film "Characters" also landed on 320 screens on Friday, mobilizing 133,000 viewers over two days over the weekend and earning 191 million yen at the box office, ranking fourth on the list. This work is written by Naoshi Nagasaki, co-producer of "20th Century Boy" and "Danger Investigator", shot by Satoshi Nagai, director of works such as "If the Cat Disappears from the World" and "Emperor No Kuni", starring Shoko Sugata, a young acting school, and fukase, the lead singer of the popular band SEKAI NO OWARI. His life was thus plunged into a chaotic story. The film grossed 257 million yen in the first three days, and its performance was basically in line with expectations, and its final result is expected to hit 1 billion yen.
Toho's popular anime series, Detective Conan: Crimson Bullets, grossed another 77.14 million yen over the weekend, squeezing out of the top five weekend lists by the new film. The new series, based on Tsuyoshi Aoyama's original manga, fell 21% from the previous weekend and remained relatively stable, with a cumulative box office of 6.94 billion yen in the nine weeks of release and more than 4.95 million viewers. Up to now, the film has surpassed the previous work of the series "Tang Hong's Love Song" (2017), rising to the 96th place in the history of Japanese cinema, and the fifth work in the "Conan series" to rank among the top 100 works in the history of Japanese cinema. According to the current momentum, the final landing point of the film will also hit more than 7.2 billion yen.
There are also two new films on the weekend list, based on the best-selling book of Naoko Nishigana, and the animated film "Meat Sauce in the Fishing Port" planned and produced by Akashi Akira, which debuted for more than 52 million yen over the weekend, ranking seventh on the list. Directed by Step Watanabe from "Children of the Sea Beast" and written by Rimi Oshima in "The New Life of Kai", the film revolves around the growth of the mother and daughter of the "meat sauce" who lives in the fishing port. The imported new film "Nobody" only received 36.55 million yen in the first weekend, barely ranking among the top ten weekends. Directed by the popular action film Series screenwriter Derek Corsta and producer David Ricky, the film is a tough guy action movie that has performed well in Hollywood's epidemic era.
Among other old films, Disney's new work "Black and White Witch Kuila" received another 45.66 million yen over the weekend, down 21% from the previous weekend and falling back to the weekend list. Starring Emma Stone, Emma Thompson and Mark Strong, the film has grossed 314 million yen at the Japanese box office, and the final landing point is expected to hit about 500 million yen. Nagano's local film "Hell's Garden" grossed another 43 million yen at the weekend, down 37% from the previous weekend and approaching 600 million yen.
Note: Unless otherwise specified, the box office units in this article are all in Japanese yen.