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25th Detective Conan Film Opens at #1, Doraemon Film Drops to #4

Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween (Meitantei Conan: Halloween no Hanayome), the 25th anime film in the Detective Conan franchise, ranked at #1 in its opening weekend.

The film opened in Japan on Friday and sold 1,321,944 tickets for 1,907,467,150 yen (about US$15.06 million) in its first three days from Friday to Sunday. It also ranked #1 in the Japanese box office for the April 16-17 weekend.

The film earned 1% more in its first three days than the previous record-holding film (for total earnings) in the franchise, Detective Conan: Fist of Blue Sapphire, in its first three days. That film earned 1,886,292,700 yen (about US$16.85 million at the time) in its first three days.

The film earned 523,668,950 yen (about US$4.13 million) and sold 355,577 tickets on Friday. On Saturday, it pulled in 726,220,800 yen (about US$5.73 million) and sold 502,578 tickets. It earned 657,577,400 yen (about US$5.19 million) and sold 463,789 tickets on Sunday. The film earned 24% more than Detective Conan: Fist of Blue Sapphire in its first day. That film earned 422 million yen (about US$3.77 million at the time) in its first day.

Detective Conan: Fist of Blue Sapphire went on to earn 9.37 billion yen (about US$86.2 million). The staff of the Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween film aim for the film to be the first in the franchise to earn 10 billion yen.

Susumu Mitsunaka (Haikyu!!) directed the film at TMS Entertainment. Takahiro Ōkura (Detective Conan: Fist of Blue Sapphire, Detective Conan: The Crimson Love Letter) wrote the screenplay. Gosho Aoyama was credited for the original work. Yūgo Kanno (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Psycho-Pass) composed the music for the film. Bump of Chicken performed the film's theme song "Chronostasis."

The movie takes places in Shibuya on Halloween. At the Shibuya Hikarie building, a certain wedding ceremony is taking place. There, Miwako Sato is in a wedding dress. Suddenly, an intruder bursts in, and Wataru Takagi is injured protecting Miwako. At the same time, the serial bombing criminal from the incident three years ago that killed Jinpei Matsuda (whom Miwako was in love with) escapes. Rei Furuya, who used to be a classmate of Jinpei's at the police academy, tracks the culprit down, but a mysterious costumed person appears and attaches a collar bomb to his neck. Conan hears about the incident that happened three years ago from Rei, and tries to disarm the collar bomb.

Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet (Meitantei Conan: Hiiro no Dangan), the 24th film in the franchise, opened in Japan in April 2021 after a one-year COVID-19 delay. TMS Entertainment screened the world premiere of the film's English dub at Anime NYC in November 2021. The film also had a simultaneous release in 22 countries and territories outside of Japan.

The Doraemon: Nobita's Little Star Wars 2021 anime film dropped from #3 to #4 (in the number of tickets sold) in its seventh weekend. The film earned a total of 53,923,700 yen (about US$422,600) from Friday, to Sunday. It has sold a total of 2.06 million tickets for 2,455,042,800 yen (about US$19.2 million).

The film opened at #1, and sold 350,000 tickets for 440 million yen (about US$3.81 million) in its first three days. The film opened on March 4 after a yearlong delay due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Doraemon: Nobita's Little Star Wars 2021 is the 41st film in the Doraemon franchise. The film is a remake of the 1985 Doraemon film of the same title. Susumu Yamaguchi — a key animator on many previous Doraemon movies, unit director of Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration, and the director of Mobile Suit Gundam AGE — directed the new film. Dai Sato (Eureka Seven, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Listeners) penned the script. Official HiGE DANdism created the theme song "Universe" specifically for the film. Sibling folk duo Billy BanBan performed the insert song "Kokoro Arigatō" (Thank You for the Heart). Shirogumi, the 3D CG studio behind the production of the Stand By Me Doraemon films, handled the CG for the spaceships in the film.

The live-action film of the Mr. Osomatsu (Osomatsu-san) franchise dropped from #4 to #6 (in the number of tickets sold) in its third weekend. The film earned 58,248,000 yen (about US$456,500) from Friday to Sunday, and it has earned a total of 1,360,201,700 yen (about US$10.66 million).

The film opened on March 25.

In the film's story, a rich man appears, proclaiming that he will adopt one of the sextuplets. Just as the six engage in a battle royale to be the rich man's heir, three mysterious "story-ending" figures take on the brothers in a battle to the finish.

Tsutomu Hanabusa (Kakegurui, Tokyo Revengers live-action films) directed the film. Ryōichi Tsuchiya wrote the screenplay, and Daiki Sugawara was a producer. Cinebazar and Hachinoji produced the film for Toho to distribute.

CheriMaho the Movie ~30-sai Dōtei da to Mahō Tsukai ni Nareru Rashii~ (Cherry Magic! the Movie: Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!), the film sequel to the live-action television series of Yuu Toyota's Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! (30-sai Dōtei da to Mahō Tsukai ni Nareru Rashii) manga, ranked dropped from #6 to #8 in its second weekend. The film earned 35,892,260 yen (about US$281,300) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 207,989,920 yen (about US$1.63 million).

The film opened on April 8.

Eiji Akaso (Kamen Rider Build), who played 30-year-old salaryman Kiyoshi Adachi, and Keita Machida (Gekidan Exile member), who played his elite, handsome co-worker Yūichi Kurosawa, returned for the film. Hiroki Kazama (live-action Cheer Boys!!) also returned to direct the film, and Riko Sakaguchi (The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Mary and The Witch's Flower, Koi wa Ameagari no You ni) wrote the screenplay.

Square Enix Manga & Books licensed the manga, and it describes the story:

Adachi, a thirty-year-old virgin, has developed the power to read people's minds by touching them. After a brush with his very handsome colleague, Adachi realizes he has a raging crush on none other than Adachi himself!

The Gekijō-ban Jujutsu Kaisen 0 anime film rejoined the ranking at #10 after being off the list last week. The film dropped out of the top 10 in its 16th weekend, after 15 weeks in the top 10. The film earned 23,783,650 yen (about US$186,400) from Friday to Sunday.

The film has sold a total of 9.6 million tickets for 13,462,460,490 yen (about US$105 million) since it opened on December 24. It is now the 18th highest-earning film of all time in Japan, overtaking Frozen 2.

The film is now the #1 highest-earning film at the Japanese box office from the 2021 calendar year, after surpassing Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time, according to the Mainichi Shimbun paper's Mantan Web.

The film earned 2,694,128,150 yen (about US$23.5 million) in its first three days, and topped the box office chart for its opening weekend. The film also has IMAX, 4D, and Dolby Cinema screenings. The film opened with English subtitles and with an English dub in the U.S. and Canada on March 18 and crossed US$29,693,448 on Monday.

The film is based on Gege Akutami's Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Tokyo Toritsu Jujutsu Kōtō Senmon Gakkō (Jujutsu Kaisen 0: Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School) manga prequel story, with MAPPA animating again and Toho distributing. Viz Media released the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 manga in January 2021, and it describes the story:

Yuta Okkotsu is a nervous high school student who is suffering from a serious problem—his childhood friend Rika has turned into a Curse and won't leave him alone. Since Rika is no ordinary Curse, his plight is noticed by Satoru Gojo, a teacher at Jujutsu High, a school where fledgling exorcists learn how to combat Curses. Gojo convinces Yuta to enroll, but can he learn enough in time to confront the Curse that haunts him?

Megumi Ogata voiced the main character Yuta Okkotsu, and Kana Hanazawa voiced the character Rika Orimoto.

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