Japan reminds me so much of Hong Kong. From the architecture, to the similar typography, to the little narrow streets, and the fanatic culture of games. Actually, HK-ers also love Japanese anime. Spirited Away is still showing in HK cinemas (today, in fact).

Really though, couldn't take the mask off for the photo?

Sometimes it looks like pictures are taken outside a hospital, or on a train full of surgeons, due to how many Japanese weak those masks. You'll probably see many people wearing them when/if these thousand people plus lines form outside theaters for Star Wars and Yo-Kai Watch on December 19th, too.

Sales figures for those masks jump every year, topping some absurd number like ¥25 billion (well over $200 million) last year.

A lot of Japanese are scared to become ill, since they can't afford to take any sick days (very frowned upon) or their workplace demands their presence, so you'll see many non-sick people wearing them everywhere. And it's a similar situation for people who are actually sick. They'll wear the masks so they're still able to attend work, since they are likely unable to take time-off for one reason or another.

Commute by train or bus is huge in Japan, so having to be face-to-face with someone's who is potentially ill is a regular problem for most.

Even this discussion is more interesting than this weekend's box-office, by the way. Seriously, I believe it's the weakest weekend of the decade, if not longer. November was flat-out ignored this year by studios.

It should be the other way around. HK is like Japan. HK has game centers just like Japan albeit smaller. HK people love Jap. anime, dramas, food. Look at how many Jap. restaurants there are in HK. Thousands. They love Japanese culture.

Spirited Away is having a special screening as part of Studio Ghibli Appreciation Month(s).

(C)2015 LPPTV - LITTLE PRINCE - ON ENT - ORANGE STUDIO - M6 FILMS - LUCKY RED

Weekend Actuals (11/28-29)/2015年11月28日-2015年11月29日
01 (03) ¥78,010,200 ($636,000), -27%, ¥320,475,000 ($2.6 million), The Little Prince (Warner Bros.) Week 2
02 (01) ¥64,933,050 ($529,000), -49%, ¥307,583,090 ($2.5 million), Girls und Panzer: The Movie (Showgate) Week 2
03 (04) ¥52,489,800 ($428,000), -51%, ¥1,045,043,500 ($8.6 million), Mozu (Toho) Week 4
04 (02) ¥52,070,600 ($424,000), -58%, ¥272,751,220 ($2.2 million), Raintree Country (Showgate) Week 2
05 (05) ¥51,739,700 ($421,000), -40%, ¥829,378,400 ($6.8 million), Grasshopper (Shochiku) Week 4
06 (09) ¥35,704,600 ($291,000), -35%, ¥788,025,800 ($6.5 million), My Love Story!! (Toho) Week 5
07 (06) ¥33,549,800 ($273,000), -57%, ¥443,846,100 ($3.6 million), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Warner Bros.) Week 3
08 (11) ¥33,289,300 ($271,000), -26%, ¥124,163,200 ($1.0 million), Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 1 - Reunion (Toei) Week 2
09 (08) ¥32,053,800 ($261,000), -44%, ¥152,212,600 ($1.2 million), Ghost Theatre (Shochiku) Week 2
10 (07) ¥30,449,400 ($248,000), -54%, ¥752,117,500 ($6.2 million), Everest (Toho-Towa.) Week 4

Wow. I did some past weekend research all the way back to 2000, and this weekend handily wins the crown for weakest-weekend ever*. Congrats to The Little Prince for claiming the #1 spot, I guess...

The weekend drops were also horrible, despite only one barely wide release, Woman in Gold, which didn't even make the Top 10. It opened in 11th with ¥28,153,900 ($229,000) with 22,563 admissions across 119 screens.

>Mozu became the 57th film of 2015 to exceed the ¥1 billion milestone, and if Grasshopper can crawl to the mark, too, then 2015 will have the second-highest number of ¥1 billion earners of all-time.

This marks the final weekend of the 2015 Box-Office Year. And thank God, since December is finally upon us and is shaping up to be a very big month.

>*If 007: Spectre's weekend previews had been included in the weekend, earning ¥380 million ($3.1 million) over three days (Fri. to Sun.), then the weekend wouldn't have the distinction of being the worst ever.

Spectre's weekend previews were fairly solid, by the way. They won't, however, be included in its opening weekend thanks to the previews rule change by Eiren in 2012. It's the first film with non-limited weekend previews in over 2 years.

Sony clearly decided to put it in theaters a weekend early so it doesn't have to deal with the significant December competition, most notably that on the December 19-20 weekend when Star Wars and Yo-Kai Watch seize control over the vast majority of screens and showtimes across the country (I'm betting they claim 70-80% of the country's seats).

Actually, that is how I meant it, but I've never been to Japan so I couldn't really word it as I meant it.

2015 #1 Films [FINAL]

Dec. 06-07 - The Last: Naruto the Movie - ¥515 million ($4.4 million) W1
Dec. 13-14 - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - ¥287 million ($2.5 million) W1
Dec. 20-21 - Yo-Kai Watch: It's the Secret of Birth, Nyan! - ¥1.63 billion ($14.0 million) W1 [#1 All-Time Domestic OW]
Dec. 27-28 - Yo-Kai Watch: It's the Secret of Birth, Nyan! - ¥597 million ($5.1 million) W2
Jan. 03-04 - Big Hero 6 - ¥665 million ($5.6 million) W1
Jan. 10-11 - Big Hero 6 - ¥546 million ($4.6 million) W2
Jan. 17-18 - Big Hero 6 - ¥426 million ($3.7 million) W3
Jan. 24-25 - Big Hero 6 - ¥349 million ($3.0 million) W4
Jan. 31-Feb. 01 - Big Hero 6 - ¥307 million ($2.6 million) W5
Feb. 07-08 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - ¥259 million ($2.2 million) W1
Feb. 14-15 - Terrace House: Closing Door - ¥251 million ($2.1 million) W1
Feb. 21-22 - American Sniper - ¥332 million ($2.8 million) W1
Feb. 28-Mar. 01 - American Sniper - ¥292 million ($2.5 million) W2
Mar. 07-08 - Doraemon: Nobita's Space Record of Space Heroes - ¥645 million ($5.4 million) W1
Mar. 14-15 - Doraemon: Nobita's Space Record of Space Heroes - ¥475 million ($3.9 million) W2
Mar. 21-22 - Assassination Classroom - ¥411 million ($3.4 million) W1
Mar. 28-29 - Doraemon: Nobita's Space Record of Space Heroes - ¥309 million ($2.6 million) W3
Apr. 04-05 - Doraemon: Nobita's Space Record of Space Heroes - ¥255 million ($2.1 million) W4
Apr. 11-12 - Solomon's Perjury - Part 2 - ¥162 million ($1.4 million) W1
Apr. 18-19 - Dragon Ball Z: Revival of F - ¥961 million ($8.1 million) W1
Apr. 25-26 - Cinderella - ¥556 million ($4.7 million) W1
May 02-03 - Cinderella - ¥511 million ($4.3 million) W2
May 09-10 - Cinderella - ¥331 million ($2.8 million) W3
May 16-17 - Cinderella - ¥304 million ($2.5 million) W4
May 23-24 - Cinderella - ¥246 million ($2.0 million) W5
May 30-31 - Shinjuku Swan - ¥252 million ($2.1 million) W1
June 06-07 - Tomorrowland - ¥264 million ($2.2 million) W1
June 13-14 - Love Live! The School Idol Movie - ¥400 million ($3.3 million) W1
June 20-21 - Mad Max: Fury Road - ¥265 million ($2.2 million) W1
June 27-28 - Love Live! The School Idol Movie - ¥267 million ($2.2 million) W2
July 04-05 - Avengers: Age of Ultron - ¥794 million ($6.5 million) W1
July 11-12 - The Boy and the Beast - ¥667 million ($5.5 million) W1
July 18-19 - Hero 2 - ¥733 million ($5.9 million) W1
July 25-26 - Hero 2 - ¥368 million ($3.0 million) W2
Aug. 01-02 - Attack on Titan - Part 1 - ¥604 million ($4.9 million) W1
Aug. 08-09 - Jurassic World - ¥845 million ($6.8 million) W1
Aug. 15-16 - Jurassic World - ¥941 million ($7.6 million) W2
Aug. 22-23 - Jurassic World - ¥597 million ($4.9 million) W3
Aug. 29-30 - Jurassic World - ¥471 million ($3.9 million) W4
Sept. 05-06 - Ted 2 - ¥306 million ($2.5 million) W1
Sept. 12-13 - Pixels - ¥216 million ($1.8 million) W1
Sept. 19-20 - Attack on Titan - Part 2: End of the World - ¥328 million ($2.8 million) W1
Sept. 26-27 - No Longer Heroine - ¥233 million ($1.9 million) W1
Oct. 03-04 - Bakuman - ¥252 million ($2.1 million) W1
Oct. 10-11 - Library Wars: The Last Mission - ¥329 million ($2.8 million) W1
Oct. 17-18 - Library Wars: The Last Mission - ¥174 million ($1.5 million) W2
Oct. 24-25 - Galaxy Turnpike - ¥270 million ($2.3 million) W1
Oct. 31-Nov. 01 - Galaxy Turnpike - ¥182 million ($1.5 million) W2
Nov. 07-08 - Mozu - ¥228 million ($1.9 million) W1
Nov. 14-15 - Mozu - ¥157 million ($1.3 million) W2
Nov. 21-22 - Girls und Panzer: The Movie - ¥128 million ($1.1 million) W1
Nov. 28-29 - The Little Prince - ¥78 million ($0.64 million) W1

Final Results:

28 - Japanese Films (no change from last year)
24 - Imported Films (no change from last year)
***********
34 - Live-Action Films (up 6 from last year)
18 - Animated Films (down 6 from last year)
***********
31 - Unique #1 Films (up 14 from last year)


2014 #1 Films

Many, many records fell during 2015's box-office year, and since the 2016 box-office year begins this upcoming weekend, here are the opening weekend records (revenue and admissions) that fell over the past year:

2015's Opening Weekend Records (and close calls)
December 2014 through November 2015

>The Last: Naruto the Movie sets a new franchise record on opening weekend, in both revenue and admissions.

>Yo-Kai Watch sets the all-time advance ticket record in Toho's 82-year history, selling 1.14 million tickets ahead of its release day.

>Yo-Kai Watch reaches 83% capacity over its opening weekend, breaking the record for a wide release formally held by Evangelion 3.0.

>Yo-Kai Watch breaks Howl's Moving Castle's 10-year reign as the biggest domestic opener, grossing ¥1.629 billion in its debut weekend.

>Yo-Kai Watch breaks One Piece Film Z's short-term reign (2-years) as the biggest domestic opener in admissions, selling 1,484,916 tickets in its debut weekend.

>Yo-Kai Watch becomes the second-most attended film ever on opening weekend, selling 1,484,916 tickets, trailing The Matrix Reloaded's 11-year reign by a mere 1,827 admissions.

>Yo-Kai Watch breaks Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone's 13-year reign for the biggest-opening weekend record in December, in both revenue and admissions.

>Yo-Kai Watch breaks Howl's Moving Castle's 10-year reign for the biggest-opening weekend record for any animated film, in both revenue and admissions.

>Into the Woods delivers the second-biggest opening weekend for a imported-musical, behind only Mamma Mia!.

>Dragon Ball Z: Revival of F sets a new franchise record on opening weekend, and delivers the second-biggest opening weekend in April of all-time, in both revenue and admissions.

>Detective Conan: Sunflowers of Inferno sets a new franchise record on opening weekend, and deliveres the third-biggest opening weekend in April of all-time, in both revenue and admissions.

>Detective Conan: Sunflowers of Inferno sets a new record for achieving the biggest-opening weekend to NOT debut at #1, in both revenue and admissions.

>Crayon Shin-chan: My Moving Story! sets a new franchise record on opening weekend, in both revenue and admissions.

>Furious 7 sets a new franchise record on opening weekend, in both revenue and admissions.

>Mad Max: Fury Road sets a new franchise record on opening weekend, in both revenue and admissions.

>Love Live! The School Idol Movie breaks K-On!'s record for biggest opening weekend for a late-night anime film, in both revenue and admissions.

>Minions delivers the biggest-opening weekend ever for a non-Disney/Pixar imported animated film, in both revenue and admissions.

>Pixels becomes Adam Sandler's biggest opener in Japan.

In Japan, Oricon (which tracks all music related sales, DVD and rental sales, and book/manga sales) and other trackers end their year during the last week of November. The box-office year also comes to a close at the end of November, with December releases being considered the following year's releases.

So over the course of the next month, between box-office updates, I'll be posting various charts of 2015's top selling material. And this week, it's 2015's top selling manga:

Top Selling Manga by Series: 2015
Nov. 17, 2014 - Nov. 22, 2015

TY (LY) Volumes Sold (% change), Manga Title (Publisher, Author)
01 (01) 14,102,521 (+19%), One Piece (Shueisha, Eiichiro Oda)
02 (09) 10,304,112 (+122%), The Seven Deadly Sins (Kodansha, Nakaba Suzuki)
03 (02) 8,778,048 (-25%), Attack on Titan (Kodansha, Hajime Isayama)
04 (10) 8,605,861 (+86%), Assassination Classroom (Shueisha, Yusei Matsui)
05 (21) 8,569,215 (+241%), Kingdom (Shueisha, Yasuhisa Hara)
06 (03) 6,531,508 (-21%), Haikyu!! (Shueisha, Haruichi Furudate)
07 (19) 4,321,830 (+63%), Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma (Shueisha, Story: Yūto Tsukuda / Art: Shun Saeki)
08 (12) 4,188,158 (-02%), Terra Formars (Shueisha, Story: Yū Sasuga / Art: Kenichi Tachibana)
09 (--) 4,058,119 (0), Prison School (Kodansha, Akira Hiramoto)
10 (--) 3,758,541 (0), Tokyo Ghoul:re (Shueisha, Sui Ishida)
11 (--) 3,689,013 (0), One-Punch Man (Shueisha, Story: ONE / Art: Yuusuke Murata)
12 (13) 3,638,637 (-13%), Ao Haru Ride (Shueisha, Io Sakisaka)
13 (04) 3,576,177 (-49%), Tokyo Ghoul (Shueisha, Sui Ishida)
14 (06) 3,498,177 (-36%), Naruto (Shueisha, Masashi Kishimoto) *series concluded*
15 (17) 3,472,121 (+06%), Fairy Tail (Kodansha, Hiro Mashima)
16 (14) 3,355,844 (-18%), Yowamushi Pedal (Akita Shoten, Wataru Watanabe)
17 (16) 3,199,971 (-16%), Nisekoi (Shueisha, Naoshi Komi)
18 (07) 2,940,024 (-37%), Ace of Diamond (Kodansha, Yūji Terajima)
19 (--) 2,850,718 (0), Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign (Shueisha, Story: Takaya Kagami / Art: Yamato Yamamoto)
20 (08) 2,820,526 (-39%), Magi (Shogakukan, Shinobu Ohtaka)
21 (18) 2,818,926 (-06%), Bleach (Shueisha, Tite Kubo)
22 (--) 2,735,269 (0), World Trigger (Shueisha, Daisuke Ashihara)
23 (24) 2,642,690 (+10%), Gintama (Shueisha, Hideaki Sorachi)
24 (--) 2,321,095 (0), Orange (Futabasha, Ichigo Takano)
25 (25) 2,308,421 (-03%), Detective Conan (Shogakukan, Gosho Aoyama)
Top 25 Series - 119,085,714 (+02% over 2014)



Top Selling Manga by Volume: 2015
Nov. 17, 2014 - Nov. 22, 2015

Rank - Volumes Sold, Manga Title (Publisher, Author)
01. 3,185,018, One Piece 76 (Shueisha, Eiichiro Oda)
02. 3,020,137, One Piece 77 (Shueisha, Eiichiro Oda)
03. 2,977,466, One Piece 78 (Shueisha, Eiichiro Oda)
04. 2,810,583, One Piece 79 (Shueisha, Eiichiro Oda)
05. 2,000,137, Attack on Titan 15 (Kodansha, Hajime Isayama)
06. 1,920,780, Attack on Titan 16 (Kodansha, Hajime Isayama)
07. 1,807,155, Attack on Titan 17 (Kodansha, Hajime Isayama)
08. 1,324,693, Naruto 72 (Shueisha, Masashi Kishimoto) *final volume*
09. 1,017,871, Tokyo Ghoul:re 1 (Shueisha, Sui Ishida)
10. 1,012,500, Assassination Classroom 12 (Shueisha, Yusei Matsui)
11. 1,009,550, Naruto: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring (Shueisha, Masashi Kishimoto)
12. 997,782, Assassination Classroom 13 (Shueisha, Yusei Matsui)
13. 991,094, Haikyu!! 14 (Shueisha, Haruichi Furudate)
14. 988,183, Tokyo Ghoul:re 2 (Shueisha, Sui Ishida)
15. 987,660, Assassination Classroom 14 (Shueisha, Yusei Matsui)
16. 974,184, Ao Haru Ride 13 (Shueisha, Io Sakisaka)
17. 957,215, Ao Haru Ride 12 (Shueisha, Io Sakisaka)
18. 952,338, Silver Spoon 13 (Shogakukan, Hiromu Arakawa)
19. 947,140, Assassination Classroom 15 (Shueisha, Yusei Matsui)
20. 935,354, Tokyo Ghoul:re 3 (Shueisha, Sui Ishida)
21. 926,853, Haikyu!! 16 (Shueisha, Haruichi Furudate)
22. 902,162, The Seven Deadly Sins 12 (Kodansha, Nakaba Suzuki)
23. 884,689, The Seven Deadly Sins 13 (Kodansha, Nakaba Suzuki)
24. 883,796, The Seven Deadly Sins 14 (Kodansha, Nakaba Suzuki)
25. 881,654, Haikyu!! 17 (Shueisha, Haruichi Furudate)
26. 874,324, Kimi ni Todoke 23 (Shueisha, Karuho Shiina)
27. 842,800, Assassination Classroom 16 (Shueisha, Yusei Matsui)
28. 835,157, Haikyu!! 15 (Shueisha, Haruichi Furudate)
29. 832,302, The Seven Deadly Sins 15 (Kodansha, Nakaba Suzuki)
30. 817,133, Tokyo Ghoul:re 4 (Shueisha, Sui Ishida)
31. 815,616, Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto 3 (Kadokawa, Nami Sano)
32. 812,256, Kimi ni Todoke 24 (Shueisha, Karuho Shiina)
33. 801,795, Haikyu!! 18 (Shueisha, Haruichi Furudate)
34. 792,058, The Seven Deadly Sins 16 (Kodansha, Nakaba Suzuki)
35. 778,901, Kuroko's Basketball 30 (Shueisha, Tadatoshi Fujimaki)
36. 771,009. One-Punch Man 7 (Shueisha, Story: One / Art: Yuusuke Murata)
37. 749,144, One-Punch Man 8 (Shueisha, Story: One / Art: Yuusuke Murata)
38. 717,541, Terra Formars 12 (Shueisha, Story: Yū Sasuga / Art: Kenichi Tachibana)
39. 711,902, Saint Young Men 11 (Kodansha, Hikaru Nakamura)
40. 704,725, Black Butler 20 (Square Enix, Yana Toboso)
41. 697,570, Kuroko's Basketball Extra Game Part I (Shueisha, Tadatoshi Fujimaki)
42. 684,020, Detective Conan 85 (Shogakukan, Gosho Aoyama)
43. 679,697, Blue Exorcist 14 (Shueisha, Kazue Katō)
44. 675,838, The Heroic Legend of Arslan 3 (Kodansha, Art: Hiromu Arakawa / Original Creator: Yoshiki Tanaka)
45. 674,272, One-Punch Man 9 (Shueisha, Story: One / Art: Yuusuke Murata)
46. 669,382, Terra Formars 13 (Shueisha, Story: Yū Sasuga / Art: Kenichi Tachibana)
47. 666,523, Black Butler 21 (Square Enix, Yana Toboso)
48. 663,609, The Seven Deadly Sins 17 (Kodansha, Nakaba Suzuki)
49. 631,628, Gekkan Shōjo Nozaki-kun 6 (Square Enix, Izumi Tsubaki)
50. 623,937, Blue Exorcist 15 (Shueisha, Kazue Katō)

Of note, One Piece tops the year once again, and now has more than 326,000,000 copies in print since first being published back in 1997. The series entered the Guinness World Record for 'Copies Printed for Comic by Single Author' back in June.

Upcoming, announced, films based on these top selling manga:

12/12/15 - Orange (Toho) *Live Action
Spring 2016 - Assassination Classroom 2: Graduation (Toho) *Live Action
04/16/16 - Detective Conan: Pitch Black Nightmare (Toho) [20th Anniversary release]
04/29/16 - Terra Formars (Warner Bros.) *Live Action
Summer 2016 - One Piece Film (Toei)

Usual Locations - Saturday Seating/Showtime Counts (66% of Market)

12/05 [Sat.]
#Seats [#Theaters/#Showings], Film (Dis.) Week in Release
433,200 [231/1,481], 007: Spectre (Sony) NEW
313,311 [230/1,405], I Love Snoopy: The Peanuts Movie (Fox) NEW
174,993 [207/1,018], Kainan 1890 (Toei) NEW
158,637 [95/531], High Speed! Free! Starting Days (Shochiku) NEW
143,544 [125/603], Persona Non Grata (Toho) NEW
107,503 [225/722], The Little Prince (Warner Bros.) Week 3
74,740 [221/551], Mozu (Toho) Week 5
58,023 [149/440], Raintree Country (Showgate) Week 3
57,938 [216/422], Grasshopper (Shochiku) Week 5
57,893 [188/417], Ghost Theater (Shochiku) Week 2
54,361 [183/394], The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Warner Bros.) Week 4
40,267 [218/301], Galaxy Turnpike (Toho) Week 7
36,927 [208/271], My Love Story!! (Toho) Week 6
33,662 [59/203], Girls und Panzer: The Movie (Showgate) Week 3
32,193 [217/223], Pan (Warner Bros.) Week 6
31,230 [136/200], Princess Pretty Cure The Movie: Go! Go!! Splendid Triple Feature!!! (Toei) Week 6
29,710 [117/234], The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (Kadokawa) Week 3
26,247 [192/197], Library Wars: The Last Mission (Toho) Week 9
25,652 [85/203], Woman in Gold (Gaga) Week 2
18,281 [81/116], Everest (Toho-Towa) Week 5
12,418 [8/44], Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 1 - Reunion (Toei) Week 3
12,137 [92/98], Bakuman (Toho) Week 10
8,735 [26/65], Ajin: Impulse (Toho Video Division) Week 2
7,407 [26/43], Penguins of Madagascar (Fox) Week 4

After a record low weekend last week, the beginning of 2016's box-office year is rejuvenating the box office with a wide variety of promising openers.

This first wave of December releases all look fairly promising (the bigger ones are yet to come), and should pave the way for December 2015 to be one of the strongest Decembers in a long time.

>007: Spectre posted some solid previews last weekend, and while they won't be included in its opening weekend take, they're a strong indication that Bond's latest outing should perform quite well.

>The Peanuts Movie is receiving noticeable online attention, especially for an animated film, so I believe the Peanuts gang has their fans in Japan. This one is difficult to analyze, and while I don't think it'll be a hit exactly, it's certainly one to watch this weekend.

>High Speed! Free! Starting Days is barely a wide release, playing at 120 locations (80% accounted for above), but it's been given some of the largest auditoriums (its avg. auditorium size is the highest this weekend) and has a faithful fanbase. Its avg. ticket price is also likely to be high, so I expect this one to see a strong start this weekend.

>Kainan 1890 and Persona Non Grata aren't likely to post impressive debuts this weekend. Instead, both films are probably going to skew fairly older so their weekday performances will be the key to their success.

Any presales numbers for EP7?
I saw some sell-outs at TOHO.

Is olive an actual Jap living in Japan?

It has many sell-outs, but besides a couple reports over the past couple weeks, an advance ticket sales figure hasn't been released yet.

I'll have an extended preview for it, along with the Dec. 19/20 weekend, coming up in the near future. I was going to post it a couple weeks ago, but related news for it and Yo-Kai Watch kept coming in, so I'm holding off a bit closer to release.

Weekend Forecast (12/05-06)/2015年12月06日-2015年12月06日
01 (--) ¥420,000,000 ($3.4 million), 0, ¥900,000,000 ($7.3 million), 007: Spectre (Sony) NEW
02 (--) ¥200,000,000 ($1.6 million), 0, ¥225,000,000 ($1.8 million), The Peanuts Movie (Fox) NEW
03 (--) ¥150,000,000 ($1.2 million), 0, ¥150,000,000 ($1.2 million), Persona Non Grata (Toho) NEW
04 (--) ¥110,000,000 ($895,000), 0, ¥110,000,000 ($895,000), High Speed! Free! Starting Days (Shochiku) NEW
05 (--) ¥90,000,000 ($730,000), 0, ¥90,000,000 ($730,000), Kainan 1890 (Toei) NEW
06 (01) ¥59,000,000 ($480,000), -25%, ¥435,000,000 ($3.5 million), The Little Prince (Warner Bros.) Week 3
07 (02) ¥53,000,000 ($430,000), -18%, ¥420,000,000 ($3.4 million), Girls und Panzer: The Movie (Showgate) Week 3
08 (04) ¥41,000,000 ($335,000), -22%, ¥360,000,000 ($3.0 million), Raintree Country (Showgate) Week 3
09 (05) ¥33,000,000 ($270,000), -36%, ¥910,000,000 ($7.4 million), Grasshopper (Shochiku) Week 5
10 (03) ¥31,000,000 ($250,000), -39%, ¥1,125,000,000 ($9.3 million), Mozu (Toho) Week 5

December, and the start of the 2016 box office year, is finally here and with it comes the first wave of new releases (nine more wide releases to come).

>007: Spectre will win the weekend quite handily, and in doing so, breaks an 11-week streak of Japanese films occupying the #1 position.

You'll notice that its total is much higher than its opening weekend forecast, and that's because it had 3 days of previews last weekend (earning ¥384 million) and it officially debuted yesterday taking in around ¥100 million. However, none of that will be included in the film's opening weekend gross. Any earnings prior to the opening weekend frame (strictly Sat/Sun) in the market is only included in the film's running total now.

Skyfall recorded the highest debut for a 007 film in 2012, earning ¥454 million, and went on to become the highest-grossing film in the franchise, too, with ¥2.75 billion. Spectre looks to perform quite similarly.

>The Peanuts Movie continues to be a difficult film to track. There's a lot of mixed signs. It opened yesterday, taking in just around ¥25 million. That's a poor start, however, its Saturday pre-sales look fairly decent, and in fact, they've already reached 70% of Friday's total admissions.

That should be an indication that it's skewing younger, but that contradicts the solid online presence the film had going into the weekend. Maybe it's attracting a diverse audience, making the normal tracking methods difficult to read. If it behaves like most animated films, the Saturday pre-sales indicate an upcoming weekend take around the ¥200 million mark, which is... decent.

>Persona Non Grata, the biopic based on the true story of a Japanese diplomat assisting Jewish refugees during WW2, is looking fairly good. It's bound to skew pretty old, meaning its evening/night business could be very weak, which could result in it coming in below ¥150 million. However, if that's the case, it should go on to have excellent weekdays, and could be one of the leggier films of the month, too.

>High Speed! Free! Starting Days, based on the High Speed! novels, is the prequel to the popular Free! anime which began airing in 2013. The film has good pre-sales, but that's to be expected given the series faithful fanbase. It's also barely a wide release, playing in 120 screens, so it'll be somewhat limited in its potential.

>Kainan 1890 is likely to be the weekend's disappointment. Nothing is really suggesting it's going to exceed the ¥100 million mark over the weekend right now.

No, I'm Chinese.
--------------
Thanks Corpse.

Oh, yes. That's right.

Hey Corpse, when can we expect your 2016 top 10 box-office predictions ?

I'm curious about the totals you expect for SW7, Yôkai Watch 2, One Piece Film Gold, Conan 20, BvS etc.

Soon!

December is the big movie announcement month, so I'm sure there are still a couple more major films waiting to be announced for next year.

I have a lot planned for this thread over the next three weeks, including:

>Star Wars vs. Yo-Kai Watch - Weekend Showdown "Break the Box Office".
>2016 Preview and Predictions.
>First Post/Page Overhaul.
>Daily Estimates!
>Restructured Weekly Updates.