By the way Corpse, what chains represent the remaining 57% of the market and what is/are their respective preferred demographic(s) (at least for the important ones) ? I only know about Aeon and the fact that they usually attract more kids than other chains.

Also, the website has something about sales from 109 and sales of 1 Shin-chan and 3 Conan screenings not being reported (only 2 of them having taking place as of now) ?

What time of the day is usually the busiest for movies over there?

The usual locations isn't exactly 43%, but it's a close estimate.

Aeon represents nearly 30% of the market now, making them the largest chain. And yes, kid/family films tend to do much better at their chain versus the other chains.

The remaining are small chains, like Cinema Sunshine, and distributors like Toei and Shochiku also operate some of their own theaters. Cinemark also has some theaters in Japan.

11PM-4PM is usually the strongest time of day during the weekends, but it depends on the audience.

Kids/family and Senior citizen films play MUCH stronger in the early morning (8AM-11PM) than any other time of day, and often quit playing after 6PM after they open.

Adult films play poorly in the morning and sometimes even in the afternoon, but surge at night.

We have a perfect example of this happening right now with Crayon Shin-chan and Furious 7. The former is well ahead right now (selling more than 2x as many tickets so far), and will be for awhile, but the latter will catch up very quickly in the evening and likely pass it during the night.

Do DBZ films have a largely kid/family audience or is it more balanced and there's a sizable adult audience too?

Seeing as how the last film dropped on Sunday and that it's a 1980's/1990's brand, it's primary audience probably isn't kids/families, and skews more adult.

Usual Locations (43% of Market) - Saturday Admissions (As of 12PM)

40,886 - Dragon Ball Z: Revival of F (Toei) NEW
32,759 - Detective Conan: Sunflowers of Inferno (Toho) NEW
18,871 - Crayon Shin-chan: My Moving Story! Cactus Large Attack! (Toho) NEW
12,190 - Furious 7 (Toho-Towa) NEW
2,410 - Assassination Classroom (Toho) Week 5
1,912 - Doraemon: Nobita's Space Record of Space Heroes (Toho) Week 7
1,839 - Solomon's Perjury (Part 2) (Shochiku) Week 2
1,717 - Whiplash (Gaga) NEW
1,236 - Birdman (Fox) Week 2
879 - Super Hero Taisen GP: Kamen Rider 3 (Toei) Week 5

Note that pre-sales are included in the running tally for the time they were purchased for. So, if Detective Conan had an advance ticket sold for 7PM, it wouldn't be included in the tally above yet, only once the showing has begun.

Next update in an hour.

Usual Locations (43% of Market) - Saturday Admissions (As of 1PM)

51,780 - Dragon Ball Z: Revival of F (Toei) NEW
43,449 - Detective Conan: Sunflowers of Inferno (Toho) NEW
24,021 - Crayon Shin-chan: My Moving Story! Cactus Large Attack! (Toho) NEW
17,338 - Furious 7 (Toho-Towa) NEW
3,386 - Assassination Classroom (Toho) Week 5
3,037 - Solomon's Perjury (Part 2) (Shochiku) Week 2
2,387 - Doraemon: Nobita's Space Record of Space Heroes (Toho) Week 7
2,121 - Birdman (Fox) Week 2
1,749 - Whiplash (Gaga) NEW
1,256 - Night at the Museum: The Secret of the Tomb (Toei) Week 5

Note that pre-sales are included in the running tally for the time they were purchased for. So, if Detective Conan had an advance ticket sold for 7PM, it wouldn't be included in the tally above yet, only once the showing has begun.

Next update in an hour.

Usual Locations (43% of Market) - Saturday Admissions (As of 2PM)

Saturday Afternoon Report:

Admissions (% change) [#Theaters/#Showtimes] - Film (Distributor) Week of Release
67,201 (--) [145/452] - Dragon Ball Z: Revival of F (Toei) NEW
56,898 (--) [145/380] - Detective Conan: Sunflowers of Inferno (Toho) NEW
33,392 (--) [145/396] - Crayon Shin-chan: My Moving Story! Cactus Large Attack! (Toho) NEW
19,973 (--) [149/340] - Furious 7 (Toho-Towa) NEW
5,053 (-51%) [137/192] - Assassination Classroom (Toho) Week 5
3,597 (-67%) [139/201] - Solomon's Perjury (Part 2) (Shochiku) Week 2
3,245 (--) [12/32] - Whiplash (Gaga) NEW
3,096 (-70%) [137/175] - Doraemon: Nobita's Space Record of Space Heroes (Toho) Week 7
2,934 (-48%) [91/119] - Birdman (Fox) Week 2
2,842 (-56%) [118/132] - April Fools (Toho) Week 3
1,749 (-54%) [91/132] - Strobe Edge (Toho) Week 6
1,524 (--) [59/111] - Vampire in Love (Phantom Films) NEW

Both Dragon Ball Z: Revival of F and Detective Conan: Sunflowers of Inferno are on their way to exceeding 100,000 admissions at the usual locations for the day, which will best Doraemon: Nobita's Space Record of Space Heroes's 99,645 from last month, currently 2015's biggest opener.

In fact, both films are looking to comfortably exceed 100,000 here, perhaps aiming for 125,000+ for the day.

If they exceed 125,000 admissions at the usual locations today, their opening days could exceed 300,000 admissions and possibly break ¥400 million. And the idea that opening weekends of ¥800 million, while hopeful, is looking doable for both films is insane.

This all seems like good news for the movie so far. Is a ¥800 million opening weekend possible for DBZ?

It's possible for both films, though definitely on the optimistic side. Opening weekends above ¥700 million for both films is looking very likely.

I'll wait for actuals on Monday before doing any research, but whichever films ranks #2 may end up with the biggest opening weekend for a film in second place ever.

Are there going to be any more updates today?

Yeah, I'll do a 3PM update and maaaaybe a 4PM update. Then I'll post Saturday results at the usual locations as usual tomorrow, but I'll throw together some estimates tomorrow, too.

Usual Locations (43% of Market) - Saturday Admissions (As of 3PM)

81,616 - Dragon Ball Z: Revival of F (Toei) NEW
74,060 - Detective Conan: Sunflowers of Inferno (Toho) NEW
38,826 - Crayon Shin-chan: My Moving Story! Cactus Large Attack! (Toho) NEW
30,555 - Furious 7 (Toho-Towa) NEW
6,296 - Assassination Classroom (Toho) Week 5
5,589 - Solomon's Perjury (Part 2) (Shochiku) Week 2
4,095 - April Fools (Toho) Week 3
3,846 - Birdman (Fox) Week 2
3,595 - Whiplash (Gaga) NEW
3,540 - Doraemon: Nobita's Space Record of Space Heroes (Toho) Week 7

Next update in an hour.

So what time do these updates go up to? Like 7pm?

As of 8 pm :

*1　129,688　Dragon Ball Z: Revival of F (Toei) NEW
*2　125,711 Detective Conan: Sunflowers of Inferno (Toho) NEW

Detective Conan is closing the gap. And already over 125,000 for both films.

Is that the end of the day then? What time are the last showing usually in Japan?

End of the day for saturdays is close to 1 am for the last chains. For sundays I think it's around 11.30 pm.

So then its gonna clear 125,000 admissions by quite a bit then. Is 150,000 too much?

By the way where are you finding these figures?

I'd tend to say they'll top 150k for both films. They're already at 135k and 133k respectively (DBZ and Conan) and it's only 8.30 pm. I'll send you a pm.

Thanks for the link, I'm not sure which figure exactly I'm supposed to be looking at. I see DBZ at 144k and Conan at 135k in the top right as of 8:56.

Is that it?

Yes. That's it.

Keep in mind though that the two movies aren't the same length (the Conan movie is about 15-20 minutes longer) so you might have updates where one increases a lot and the other doesn't which doesn't always reflect the general trend.

Yeah that makes sense, so I guess this makes ¥800 million more than just optimistic now right? Maybe admissions closer or over 350,000?

I would imagine but I suggest waiting for Corpse's analysis when the final updates of the day come out in a few hours.

Yeah he'd know better than anyone but to do a bit of basic math.

It's at 147k know so full admissions could be around 342k. At an average ticket price of ¥1,275 that'd put it at around ¥436 million, not taking into account the 3D and Imax prices and the rest of the admissions for today then you'd think it'd be able to reach ¥800 million surely.

Same with Conan.

We'll see what he has to say.