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Shirobako Sequel Film Opens at #3 With 115 Million Yen

The Shirobako (Gekijō-ban Shirobako) sequel anime film sold 84,000 tickets and earned 115 million yen (about US$1.05 million) to rank at #3 in its opening weekend. The film opened in 158 theaters in Japan last Saturday. Despite selling less tickets that the #2 film, Stolen Identity 2 (SmaPho o Otoshita Dake Nanoni: Toraware no Satsujinki), Shirobako actually earned 3 million yen more (about US$30,000) due to its higher ticket prices.

The film's opening weekend gross is 89.5% that of the 2015 Girls und Panzer der Film, director Tsutomu Mizushima's previous feature-length anime film. The Eiga.com website projects that the film will earn 1 billion yen (about US$9.23 million) or higher.

Pia's exit poll of filmgoers on opening day reported a satisfaction rating of 93.6,, the highest among this past week's new films, from a survey sample of 73 people.

The film's story is set four years after the events of the original Shirobako anime. Aoi Miyamori keeps busy dealing with the ordinary troubles in her daily work at Musashino Animation. After a morning meeting, Watanabe talks to Aoi and puts her in charge of a new theatrical anime project for the studio. The project has unexpected problems, and Aoi is unsure if the company can proceed with a theatrical anime with its current state of affairs. While dealing with that anxiety, Aoi meets a new colleague named Kaede Miyai (voiced by Ayane Sakura). She and the MusAni team work together to complete the project.

The returning staff includes director Tsutomu Mizushima, animation studio P.A. Works, series script supervisor Michiko Yokote, character designer Ponkan8, animation character designer and chief animation director Kanami Sekiguchi, and production company Infinite.

The live-action film of Fujita's Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku (Otaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii) manga dropped from #4 to #7 in its fourth weekend. The film earned 48,682,750 yen (about US$449,600) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 1,123,119,600 yen (about US$10.37 million).

The film debuted at #1 in its opening weekend. The film sold 169,000 tickets for 229,400,150 yen (about US$2.08 million) from Saturday to Sunday, and sold over 220,000 tickets for over 300 million yen (about US$2.73 million) from Friday to Sunday. The film opened on February 7 in 304 screens. The film earned 18% more in its opening weekend than the live-action The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. film, which also starred Kento Yamazaki and was directed by Yūichi Fukuda.

The Eiga.com website is projecting that the film will eventually earn more than 1.5 billion yen (about US$13.66 million). Pia's exit poll of filmgoers on opening day reported a satisfaction rating of 83.9 from a survey sample of 85 people.

The manga inspired an 11-episode television anime that premiered in April 2018. The anime streamed on Amazon Prime Video inside and outside of Japan.

The Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna anime film dropped from #6 to #9 in its second weekend. The film earned 32,197,700 yen (about US$297,400) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 196,270,300 yen (about US$1.81 million).

The film opened at #6 in its opening weekend. The film opened on February 21 in 48 theaters.

Fathom Events and Toei Animation will screen the film with English subtitles in select theaters in the United States on March 25.

Tomohisa Taguchi (four-part Persona 3 the Movie film series, Kino's Journey - The Beautiful World, Twin Star Exorcists) directed the film at Yumeta Company. Akatsuki Yamatoya (Digimon Adventure, Digimon Frontier, Digimon: Data Squad) wrote the screenplay, and Seiji Tachikawa (Kino's Journey - The Beautiful World, Blue Spring Ride) was the chief animation director. Toei Animation is credited for production.

Hiromi Seki, Toei Animation's original producer for the Digimon anime projects, served as the supervisor of the new film project. Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru also returned from the first Digimon anime projects as the new film project's character designer. Kenji Watanabe designed the Digimon monsters for the new project, as he did for the previous Digimon projects.

Kamen Rider Zi-O Next Time: Geiz, Majesty opened at #1 on the mini-theater chart.

Reconguista in G the Movie II Bellri's Fierce Charge (Gekijōban Gundam G no Reconguista II: Bellri Gekishin), the second of the planned five compilation films for the Gundam Reconguista in G anime, dropped from #1 to #2 in the mini-theater ranking in its second weekend. The film opened in Japan on February 21.

The first film, Gekijōban Gundam G no Reconguista I: Ike! Core Fighter (Go! Core Fighter), opened in Japan last November. The film screened in 22 theaters in Japan for two weeks. The film ranked at #1 in the mini-theater rankings for its two weekends.

Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi: Propose-Hen (The World's Greatest First Love: Proposal Arc), the new anime based on Shungiku Nakamura's The World's Greatest First Love: The Case of Ritsu Onodera boys-love manga, dropped from #2 to #4 in the mini-theater ranking in its second weekend. The film opened in Japan on February 21.

Sources: Eiga.com, Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2), comScore via KOFIC