Last week, the Japanese market ushered in a strong local film, and the summer fever continued to rise. Makoto Shinkai's new work "Weather Child" easily exceeded 1 billion yen in its first week, and won the weekend box office championship. Pixar's animated Toy Story 4 fell less than 40% the following weekend, falling to the second place at the weekend box office. Disney's fairy tale blockbuster "Aladdin" received nearly 300 million yen more over the weekend, still ranking third in the charts. The theatrical version of Pokémon: Super Dream Strikes Back and Evolution collected another 250 million yen the following weekend, falling to fourth place on the weekend charts. The marvel universe's new film "Spider-Man: The Hero's Expedition" fell 50% this weekend to rank fifth on the list.
Toho's local animation "Weather Child" officially opened on Friday, starting at 442 screens in the first weekend, mobilizing 830,000 spectators in two days over the weekend, and winning 1.185 billion yen at the box office, beating "Toy Story 4" with a clear advantage and winning the weekend box office championship. "Weather Child" is also the fourth film to break 1 billion yen this year after Detective Conan: Fist of Cyan (first weekend 1.464 billion yen), Toy Story 4 (1.377 billion yen) and Aladdin (1.122 billion yen). Set against the backdrop of a time of chaotic weather, the film, the latest original animation by "Your Name" director, tells the story of high school student Morishima Morishima Who runs away from home for Tokyo, where he meets Ayori Amano, a young girl with incredible powers, who can make the weather clearer through prayer. Taking into account the results of the first day of Friday, "Weather child" grossed 1.644 billion yen in the first three days of painting, and the number of people in the first week was close to 1.16 million.
"Your Name" released in 2016. The first three days of the film grossed 1.28 billion yen, compared with only two days on the weekend, "Weather Child" opened 28.6% higher than "Your Name", which also exceeded the 1.155 billion yen in the first weekend of "The Golden City of the Sailor King", ranking eighth in the opening list of animated films in the history of Japanese cinema. Among the non-animated films, its opening performance is second only to the 1.484 billion yen in the first weekend of Hayao Miyazaki's "Hal's Moving Castle". Three years ago, "Your Name" finally ranked fourth in the history of Japanese film at the box office with a record of 25.03 billion yen with super staying power. "Weather Child" started so well, and there is no doubt that it also ate the dividends brought about by the great success of the director's previous work. Under the blessing of the summer file, although "Weather Child" will face great competition from foreign paintings, there should be no problem in the final box office breaking through 10 billion yen, but whether it can impact the annual champion of the box office year is still suspenseful.
Disney's Disney-released Pixar animated "Toy Story 4" continued to perform strongly the following weekend under strong competition for new films. The sequel mobilized another 630,000 viewers over two days over the weekend and grossed another 855 million yen, giving up the weekend box office title. After nine years, the film is only down 38% from the opening weekend, which is not bad considering the fan trend of the sequel movie and the new film's preemption of the IMAX special effects studio. Ten days after its release, Toy Story 4 has grossed 3.985 billion yen in Japan, and is about to become the eighth work this year to break 4 billion yen at the box office. "Toy Story 4" box office was closer to the first "Finding Nemo" (860 million yen) in the second weekend, and the decline the next weekend was basically the same as "Detective Conan: Fist of Cyan" (-39%). Next, "Toy 4" will also face the impact of Hollywood family movies such as "Pet Secret 2" and "The Lion King", but its final box office should not be difficult to match the final 10.8 billion yen of "Toy 3", and it is also expected to break the Pixar record held by "Finding Nemo" in Japan (11 billion yen).
Disney's live-action fairy tale film "Aladdin" grossed another 287 million yen on the seventh weekend of release, still ranking third on the weekend list. The fantasy film, starring Will Smith, is down 41 percent from the previous week and is markedly worsened by the opening of the new film. As of Sunday, the cumulative Japanese box office of this family movie has reached 10.42 billion yen, becoming the first work in 2019 to break the 10 billion mark. With the blessing of excellent audience reputation, "Aladdin" should still have plenty of room for growth, and its final results are still expected to impact the 12.4 billion yen of the live-action version of "Beauty and the Beast".
Toho's theatrical version of the anime Pokémon: Strike Back on Super Dreams mobilized more than 200,000 spectators the following weekend, earning another 251 million yen at the box office, slipping to fourth place on the weekend charts. The first theatrical version of the Pokémon series in the Reiwa era fell 55% from the opening weekend, and the trend was quite fan-oriented, cut by the new film, and its decline was even slightly higher than that of other previous works in the series. Ten days after its release, "Super Dream Strikes Back: Evolution" has grossed 1.298 billion yen at the box office. The 22nd installment of the Pokémon series will receive a summer bonus, and its final box office should exceed the 2.96 billion yen of Hollywood's live-action "Detective Pikachu" revenue, which will hit 3 billion yen.
Sony's Release of the Marvel Universe movie Spider-Man: The Hero's Quest grossed another 104 million yen in its fourth weekend, slipping to fifth on the weekend charts. The 23rd film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is down 50% from the previous weekend and is not ideal. As the finale of the third phase of the MCU, "Hero Expedition" has accumulated 2.685 billion yen in the Japanese market, and in this year's Hollywood, its performance is about to surpass godzilla 2: King of the Monsters' 2.79 billion yen. According to the current trend, the final landing point of "Hero Expedition" will be around 3 billion yen, and the performance will not be much improved from the previous game.
Warner's local drama film "Killer Restaurant" grossed another 79.77 million yen over the weekend, falling back to the weekend box office list. The suspense film, based on Mr. Hirayama's novel of the same name, fell 47 percent from the previous weekend, and the decline also widened significantly. Seventeen days after its release, the film, starring Ryuya Fujiwara and others, has grossed 910 million yen at the box office and will exceed 1 billion yen this week.
Donghe's American horror film "Ghost Baby Returns" opened on 188 screens on Friday, mobilized 81,000 viewers in the first three days, and earned 110 million yen at the box office, ranking seventh on the weekend list. Based on a remake of the 1988 classic horror film of the same name and the seventh in the Ghost Baby series, the film tells the story of a mother who gives her son a doll as a birthday present, but is unaware of the sinister nature of the doll, and the nightmarish experience is unveiled. The horror film, which invested only tens of millions of dollars, has achieved more than $28 million in the North American market and has achieved its goal of returning the cost.
Shochiku's live-action comic adaptation of Tokyo Ghoul 2 officially opened on Friday and grossed around 110 million yen on 292 screens in its first three days, ranking eighth on the weekend charts. Starring Masataka Kuwata and Shota Matsuda, the sequel did not start as well as its predecessor two years ago, and the final box office will be a significant setback from the previous game's 1.1 billion yen.
Shochiku's action comedy "Killer's Fables" collected another 47.6 million yen over the weekend, falling back to the weekend box office list. The film, starring Junichi Okada, Fumino Kimura and Fukushi Soki, also fell by more than 50% over the weekend, accumulating 1.635 billion yen in the five weeks of release, and it is unlikely to hit the 2 billion yen mark in the end.
Shochiku's theatrical version of the anime "His Royal Highness the Prince of Song: Kingdom of True Love" collected more than 46 million yen over the weekend, and the cumulative box office has successfully exceeded 1 billion yen.
Note: Unless otherwise specified, the box office units in this article are all in Japanese yen.