Japan's new wave of COVID-19 continues to develop, with the number of new confirmed cases in 14 regions of the country breaking the historical record; since the 12th, the "emergency situation" being implemented in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Hyogo prefectures has been doubled to the end of this month, and Aichi and Fukuoka prefectures have also been newly included in the scope of implementation. The worsening impact of the epidemic on the film industry has also deepened, with more theaters closing and many popular works falling significantly at the box office. Last week, the Japanese market did not have a strong new film opening, "Detective Conan: Crimson Bullets" and "Langke Sword Heart Final Chapter" and other old films are still the top pillars of the market, the weekend market has also fallen below the 500 million yen mark, the market heat hit the worst performance in the second half of the year. "Detective Conan: Crimson Bullets" collected nearly 180 million yen over the weekend, achieving four consecutive weekend box office titles. The latest manga sequel, "Ranger Sword Heart Final Chapter", collected more than 150 million yen over the weekend, still ranking second on the weekend list. "New Evangelion Theater Edition: The End" collected nearly 40 million more over the weekend, still ranking third on the weekend list. Gehrig's "Gentlemen" opened in fourth place, and the film history champion "Ghost Blade: Infinite Train" still ranked in the top five of the weekend.
Toho's new hit animated series, Detective Conan: Crimson Bullets, slowed down significantly after a break, continuing to dominate the film market in the absence of a formidable rival. The film mobilized 124,000 people in two days over the weekend, and won 177 million yen at the box office, achieving four consecutive weekend box office titles. The new series, based on Tsuyoshi Aoyama's popular manga, fell 61% from the previous weekend, and the decline was significantly expanded due to the worsening of the epidemic, and the trend was far less than that of the previous series. As of Sunday, the 24th "Conan" theatrical version has reached a cumulative domestic box office of 5.923 billion yen, and the cumulative number of moviegoers has exceeded 4.23 million, and it is currently ranked second in the annual box office in Japan, second only to "EVA: The End", which temporarily ranked first in the year. Crimson Bullets has risen to the fifth highest grossing spot in the Detective Conan series, behind the four Conan series released from 2016 to 2019. The film has grossed more than 210 million yuan (about 3.56 billion yen) in the mainland market, and is close to the end of its box office journey.
The popular comic adaptation of the live-action series of the new work "Ranger Sword Heart Final Chapter Ren Jie" mobilized 107,000 spectators in two days over the weekend, and won 156 million yen at the box office, still inferior to "Detective Conan: Crimson Bullets", but the gap between the two has narrowed to about 20 million. The fourth installment of the "Rangers Sword Heart" series fell 51% from the previous weekend, and the trend is far less than the previous series, and it continues to be affected by a new wave of the epidemic. As of Sunday, the anime sequel's cumulative box office in Japan has risen to the 2.318 billion yen mark, surpassing "The Promised Neverland" to rise to the seventh place in the annual box office. The first three films of the Rangers Sword Heart series grossed 3.01 billion yen, 5.22 billion yen and 4.35 billion yen, respectively. According to the current momentum, the hope of the final performance of "The Curse of Man" exceeding the first part of the series is relatively slim, but it is still very promising that the four box offices of the entire series will exceed the 15 billion mark. The last work in the series, "The Final Chapter of the Wandering Sword Heart", will be released on June 4 this year.
The super-popular animated finale, New Evangelion Theatrical Edition: The End, overwhelmed the newly opened imported film "Gentlemen" and still ranked third in the weekend box office list. The film closed another 3,960 yen on the ninth weekend of release, down 45% from the previous weekend, and the decline was significantly expanded. As of Sunday, the cumulative box office of the anime, curated by Hideaki Anno and written by the original film, has also risen to 8.353 billion yen, surpassing the 8.25 billion yen of "New Godzilla" and setting a record for the highest domestic box office in the film career of "Hideaki Anno". According to the current momentum, the final box office of "The End" will hit more than 8.5 billion yen, and it is very likely to hold the annual championship.
Guy Richie's Anglo-American co-production crime comedy film The Gentlemen was released in Japanese theaters last week, 16 months behind its North American market. The film won 23.2 million yen in the opening weekend, which was inferior to the three Japanese manga big IP works, ranking fourth in the weekend list, and received a total of 33.66 million yen at the box office in the three days of opening. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hannum, Hugh Grant and others, The Gentleman tells the story of a British drug lord who tries to sell his cannabis empire to a billionaire from Oklahoma. The film was released in most markets before the outbreak of the epidemic, and the $22 million film also grossed $115 million worldwide, with a fairly good rate of return among films in the genre.
The animated theatrical version of Devil's Blade: Infinity Train grossed 21 million yen in its 30th week of release, still ranking fifth on the weekend list. After winning back some of the special effects hall schedules, the film only fell 40% from the previous week, and the trend was the best in the top five. After 206 days of release, the cumulative box office of this phenomenal animation giant has reached 39.92 billion yen, which is only about 80 million yuan away from the 40 billion mark. According to the current momentum, the film is expected to reach the ultimate goal of 40 billion by the end of this month. In addition, "Devil's Blade" is currently released in North America and Latin America, and its global cumulative total has approached $480 million.
Other films have grossed less than 10 million yen at the weekend, and the Japanese drama theatrical version of "Signal: Long-term Unresolved Incident Search Team" received another 8.96 million yen over the weekend, ranking sixth in the weekend box office list. Starring Kentaro Sakaguchi, Kazuki Kitamura and Michiko Yoshise, the film grossed around 785 million yen in the 38 days of release.
The tokyo theater's romantic film "Bouquet of Love" grossed 7.86 million yen on the 15th weekend of its release, ranking in the top 10 of the weekend box office. The romance film, starring Shoki Sugata and Jun Arimura, has grossed 3.777 billion yen at the box office and will eventually break the 3.8 billion mark.
Note: Unless otherwise specified, the box office units in this article are all in Japanese yen.