Coinciding with Japan's "adult day" holiday and weekend off, three new films with relatively good strength entered the market on the same day, and the pattern of old holiday films dominating the market was finally broken. The local sequel film "Gambling Apocalypse 3" earned 440 million yen in the three days of painting, beating out two Disney movies and topped the weekend box office charts. Disney's animated "Frozen 2" won weekend attendance, but it was the runner-up at the weekend box office. The sci-fi sequel "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" collected another 330 million yen over the weekend, falling back to third place. The Oscar-nominated "Speed King" earned about 200 million yen in the first weekend, ranking fourth in the weekend list. The South Korean film "Parasite" grossed 140 million yen in its first weekend, making it one of the top five weekends.
Toho's local drama film "Gambling Apocalypse 3" officially opened on Friday, starting with 333 screens across the country in the first weekend, mobilizing 248,000 spectators in two days over the weekend, and winning 362 million yen at the box office, although the number of people was slightly inferior to "Frozen 2", but the box office surpassed "Queen Elsa", successfully representing the local two months to recover the weekend box office list. Based on The Original Manga by Nobuyuki Fukumoto, the Gambling Apocalypse series was launched as the first in 2009 and the Gambling Apocalypse 2 in 2011. The film is the final chapter of the Gambling Apocalypse series, still starring Ryuya Fujiwara, telling the story of the protagonist Kaiji Ito, who will continue to carry out a gambling game of life and death, facing an overwhelming disadvantage. The film's opening score is slightly higher than that of "Gambling Apocalypse 2" eight years ago, and the progress is relatively weak. Referring to the trend of the previous game, the final box office landing point of this film will hit 1.6 billion to 1.8 billion yen.
Disney's princess animation "Frozen 2" slowed down the momentum of gold after the New Year's holiday, mobilizing 265,000 spectators in the seventh weekend of release, and collecting another 345 million yen at the box office, although it held the weekend number of people champion, but the box office was slightly inferior to the newly opened local film "Gambling Apocalypse 3". The song and dance animation is only down 30% from the previous weekend, and the trend is as stunning as the previous one, but it is still relatively stable. As of Monday's "Coming of Age" holiday, the film's cumulative box office in the 52 days of release has reached 12.2 billion yen, surpassing films such as "Aladdin" and Miyazaki's "The Wind Rises" and rising to the 21st place in the history of Japanese film. Up to now, "Ice 2" has surpassed "Toy Story 3" and become the highest-grossing animated sequel movie in film history. According to the current momentum, its final box office is still expected to hit around 14 billion yen, and the landing point will be very close to "Weather Child". The film has a fair trend in the European and American markets, and the current global cumulative box office has reached 1.375 billion US dollars, which has increased by nearly 100 million US dollars compared with the previous game.
Disney's space opera epic Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker mobilized 222,000 spectators in its fourth weekend of release, earning another 331 million yen at the box office, pushing it back to third place in the weekend box office list. The end of Skywalker Saga is down 32% from the previous week, still far better than other markets, and is also closer to Frozen 2. After 24 days of release, the cumulative box office of "The Rise of Skywalker" has reached about 5.95 billion yen, and it is about to break the 6 billion yen mark. The film's subsequent gold-sucking momentum will continue to slow down, and its final box office will only be able to match the 7.51 billion yen of the previous game. While Star Wars 9 is weak in North America, the series' farewell has grossed $990 million worldwide and will cross the $1 billion mark this week.
Released by Disney, the racing movie "Speed King" came to the Japanese market on Friday, and it started on a large scale on 500 screens in its first weekend, attracting 132,000 spectators over two days of the weekend, and earning 194 million yen at the box office, ranking fourth on the weekend list. Co-starring Christian Bell and Matt Damon, the film is based on the novel by A. Thompson. J. Bemi's documentary novel, Hell Drive: Ford, Ferrari and Le Mans, tells the story of several partners running Ford together and eventually becoming the first Le Mans championship team. The film has just received four nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards, including best picture. After counting the results of the first day on Friday, the box office of "Speed King" reached 245 million yen in the three days of painting; with the Oscar effect, its final box office should easily exceed the 1 billion yen mark.
The awards season film "Parasite", directed by Bong Joon-ho, also landed in theaters last weekend, starting on a large scale in the first weekend of 131 screens, and earning 140 million yen at the box office in two days over the weekend, becoming one of the best Korean films to open. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival and has just received six nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards, including two major awards for best director and best picture. As of Sunday, the film grossed 224 million yen in the first three days of the film, and the performance was not much behind "Speed King" in the case of a far inferior opening scale. According to preliminary estimates, the film's final box office can also hit more than 1 billion yen. The number of viewers of the film in South Korea exceeded 10 million, and it also performed well in France, North America and other markets, of which the cumulative box office in North America has exceeded 25 million US dollars. So far, the film has grossed more than $133 million worldwide (according to box office Mojo).
Shochiku's local comedy "Injiro's Story: Welcome Home" received another 95.9 million yen at the box office on the third weekend of release, squeezing out of the top five weekend lists by the new film. The new work by the nearly ninety-year-old director Yoji Yamada is down 43% from the previous weekend, and the trend of the New Year's holiday is more mediocre. Seventeen days after its release, the film, starring Atsumi Kiyoshi (replayed in old episodes), Chieko Doubi, and Hidetaka Yoshioka, grossed 1.035 billion yen at the box office and successfully exceeded the 1 billion mark. According to the current trend, it is difficult for the film to hit the final box office of 1.5 billion yen.
Toho's theatrical version of the anime "My Hero Academia: Rise of Heroes" grossed another 72.9 million yen over the weekend, and also fell to the seventh place at the weekend box office. The sequel, which was directed by the original author Kohei Horikoshi and the character of the original case, was 25% more than the previous week, and the trend was added to the "Adult Day" holiday, and the cumulative box office in the 24 days of release has reached 1.323 billion yen, and the cumulative number of moviegoers has exceeded 1 million. The film is slightly better than "My Hero Academia: Two Heroes" released in the summer of 2018, and it is also expected to hit 1.5 billion in the end.
Toei's animated theatrical version of Kamen Rider and The First Generation collected another 46.6 million yen over the weekend, ranking eighth on the weekend list. The fourth installment in the "Kamen Rider Generations" series fell 33 percent from the previous weekend and moved better than expected. As of Sunday, the film had grossed 824 million yen. According to the historical trend of the previous game, its final box office is still expected to hit 1 billion yen.
Toho's suspenseful mystery film "The Murder of corpse man Zhuang" grossed another 40.2 million yen over the weekend, falling to the ninth place at the weekend box office. Based on Masahiro Imamura's mystery novel of the same name, the film is only 40% lower than the previous weekend, and has accumulated 978 million yen in the 31 days of release, and there is no suspense that it will break the 1 billion mark this week.
Shochiku's romance film "Kiss at Midnight" grossed more than 36 million yen, ranking tenth at the weekend box office. The film, based on Mikimoto's girl manga of the same name, fell 36 percent from the previous weekend and has grossed 1.075 billion yen in the five weeks of release, easily exceeding 1 billion yen on consecutive breaks as scheduled, already meeting the producer's expectations.
Note: Unless otherwise specified, the box office units in this article are all in Japanese yen.