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Dragon Ball Super: Broly Anime Film Opens at #1 at Japanese Box Office (Updated)
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The Dragon Ball Super: Broly anime film topped the Japanese box office in terms of tickets sold during its opening weekend of December 15-16. The film opened in Japan on Friday, and also has 4DX screenings in Japan in addition to normal screenings.
The film sold more than 820,000 tickets and earned more than 1,050,000,000 yen (about US$9.26 million) in its first three days. Toei stated it anticipates the film will earn more than 5 billion yen (about US$44 million).
Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama wrote the script and designed the characters. Tatsuya Nagamine (One Piece Film Z) directed the film, Naohiro Shintani served as animation director, and Kazuo Ogura served as art director. Norihito Sumitomo composed the music, and Daichi Miura performed the film's theme song "Blizzard."
Bin Shimada returned to the role of Broly for the film, and Katsuhisa Houki joined the cast as Paragus. The film adds two original characters: Chirai (voiced by Nana Mizuki) and Remo (voiced by Tomokazu Sugita). The film's story takes place after the events of the Dragon Ball Super television anime.
The film's English dub had its world premiere at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood on December 13, and the film will open in the United States and Canada on January 16.
The Eiga Yōkai Watch: Forever Friends anime film opened at #4. The film 223,000 tickets to earn 251 million yen (about US$2.23 million) over the weekend. The film earned 37% less in its opening weekend compared to last year's Yo-kai Watch Shadowside: Oni-ō no Fukkatsu film, which earned 399 million yen (about US$3.6 million) in its opening weekend.
The live-action film of Anashin's Waiting for Spring (Harumatsu Bokura) manga opened at #7.
The Mobile Suit Gundam NT anime fell from #5 to #9 in its third weekend. It earned 44,270,600 yen (about US$393,300) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 449,862,300 yen (about US$3.99 million).
The live-action film of Yukimo Hoshimori's Uirabu. -Uiuishii Koi no Ohanashi- (Uirabu.: Story of Innocent Love) manga dropped off the top 10 in its sixth weekend, but still earned 22,567,000 yen (about US$200,500) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 908,392,200 yen (about US$8.07 million).
Update: The film sold more than 820,000 tickets and earned more than 1,050,000,000 yen (about US$9.26 million) in its first three days. Toei stated it anticipates the film will earn more than 5 billion yen (about US$44 million) overall. Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web
Update 2: Added box office numbers for Yo-kai Watch, Gundam NT, and Uirabu. Sources: Eiga.com, Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2), comScore via KOFIC
Source: Kōgyō Tsūshinsha
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