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SPY×FAMILY Code: White Film Stays at #1 in 2nd Weekend in Japan with 800 Million Yen

The SPY×FAMILY Code: White anime film stayed at #1 in its second weekend in the Japanese box office. The film sold 585,000 tickets and earned 800 million yen (about US$5.56 million) from December 29-31. The film sold 2.08 million tickets and has earned a cumulative total of 2.8 billion yen (about US$19.47 million) in its 10 days of screening (from December 22-31). As of Wednesday, in its 13 days of screening, the film sold 2.59 million tickets, and has earned a cumulative total of 3.4 billion yen. (about US$23.62 million).

The film opened in Japan on December 22. The film is an all-new work with an original story. The film sold 866,000 tickets and earned 1.224 billion yen (about US$8.61 million) in its first three days.

Crunchyroll will screen the film in North America in 2024.

Original manga creator Tatsuya Endō is credited with the original work and original character designs for the film, and he also supervised the film. WIT STUDIO and CloverWorks again animated the film.

New cast members for the film include Tomoya Nakamura as Dmitri, Kento Kaku as Luka, Banjō Ginga as Snijder, and Shunsuke Takeuchi as Type F.

TOHO animation posted a "Big Hit Thank You" video of the film on Thursday.

Godzilla Minus One, Takashi Yamazaki's new film in TOHO's Godzilla franchise, rose from #8 to #6 in its ninth weekend. The film's Twitter account reported on Thursday that the film has sold 3.26 million tickets and has a total cumulative earning of 5.01 billion yen (about US$34.81 million) as of Wednesday, its 62nd day of screening. Starting on January 12, the film will be screened on MX4D and 4DX in Japan, and a 70th Anniversary Original Art Board will be given to filmgoers.

Godzilla Minus One opened in Japan on November 3, 2023 ("Godzilla Day"), which was the anniversary of the first Godzilla film's November 3, 1954 release. The new film screened at The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) as the closing film of this year's event on November 1.

The film sold 648,600 tickets for 1,041,193,460 yen (about US$6.93 million) in its first three days in the Japanese box office. The film sold 14.7% more tickets and earned 22.8% more in its first three days than the last live-action Japanese Godzilla film, Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi's Shin Godzilla, did in its first three days in 2016.

Ryunosuke Kamiki plays protagonist Kōichi Shikishima, and Minami Hamabe plays heroine Noriko Ōishi. (The two also lead the cast of NHK's ongoing weekday morning series Ranman.) Other cast members include Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Andō, and Kuranosuke Sasaki.

The film opened in U.S. theaters on December 1, and earned US$11,419,975 in its first three days to rank #3 in the U.S. box office in its opening weekend. The film has the highest opening weekend for a foreign film in the United States in 2023, surpassing the US$10.1 million opening weekend earnings of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc in March. The film has become the highest-earning live-action Japanese film in North America.

Yamazaki is the director and writer, and is also credited for visual effects. Yamazaki has primarily directed live-action films, including the Always: Sunset on Third Street, Returner, and Parasyte films, but has also directed CG films such as Stand By Me Doraemon.

The Kitarō Tanjō: Gegege no Nazo (Kitarō Birth: The Mystery of Gegege) anime film dropped from #5 to #7 in its seventh weekend.

The film opened in Japan on November 17 and sold 111,500 tickets and earned 160,106,620 yen (about US$1.07 million) in its first three days.

Gō Koga (Gegege no Kitarō: Nippon Bakuretsu!!, One Piece Episode of Sabo) directed the film at Toei Animation, and Hiroyuki Yoshino (Macross Frontier, World Trigger, 13 episodes in 2018 GeGeGe no Kitarō) wrote the screenplay. Tōko Yatabe (2018 GeGeGe no Kitarō's third ending sequence unit director, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time assistant director) designed the characters. The main cast includes Toshihiko Seki as Kitarō's father, who would eventually become Medama Oyaji, and Hidenobu Kikuchi as Mizuki, a salaryman who heads to a cursed village under secret orders.

The live-action sequel film Tonde Saitama ~Biwako Yori Ai o Komete~ (Fly Me to Saitama: From Lake Biwa With Love) rose from #10 to #8 in its sixth weekend.

The film opened on November 24 and ranked at #1. The film sold 292,300 tickets and earned 415,361,850 yen (about US$2.80 million) from Friday to Sunday in its opening weekend, and sold 444,500 tickets to earn 629,616,310 yen (about US$4.25 million) in its first four days, counting its Thursday opening day. (Thursday, November 23 was the Labor Thanksgiving Day holiday in Japan.)

The sequel film centers on the second phase of the "Japan Saitamization Plan" of the Saitama Liberation Front led by Rei Asami (Gackt) and Momomi Dannoura (Nikaidō). Seeking greater freedom and peace, the group heads to the Kansai region in the west, where an incident between the east and west will spark a fierce battle.

The first Tonde Saitama (Fly Me to Saitama) film opened in Japan in February 2019. The movie sold 191,000 tickets for 259,038,800 yen (about US$2.33 million) in its opening weekend to top the Japanese box office.

Kamen Rider the Winter Movie: Gotchard & Geats Strongest Chemy ★ Gotcha Great Operation dropped from #6 to #9 in its second weekend.

Sources: Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2), Godzilla Minus One film's X/Twitter account