I just saw some news that the Japanese yen falls to 140 per dollar for first time since 1998. Why is it dropping so much?

In short, the strength of the dollar from very high inflation and interest rate increases in the U.S. in the past year.

Japan has been a largely stagnant market since the early 1990s. Inflation has been almost non-existent, and as such, wages have been largely the same since the early 1990s as well. And despite many countries seeing huge inflation rates since 2020, especially over the past year, Japan continues to have one of the lowest rates in the world (maybe the lowest for a major country) in the past year at 2.4%, one of their highest increases ever. LOL. They rarely see an annual rate above 1%, and when they do, it just gets erased with deflation rates again.

As a result, the Yen has mostly carried the same value for nearly 30 years, and prices on almost everything has remained the same or seen very small increases in all that time. For example, movie ticket prices saw their first increase in more than 20 years back in 2014 (5.5%) and haven't gone up since.

And Japanese consumers are very adamant against companies increasing prices on them. (They're old, literally, and stubborn, if you will.) They won't "settle" and willingly eat the cost of higher products and will take their business elsewhere without a second thought. So, companies and businesses very rarely do anything, like raising costs, that could anger their consumer base.

I don't think Japan's government / banks really have the power to increase the value of the Yen vs the Dollar on their own, at least not in any sort of timely manner. It's likely going to take the U.S. dollar to decrease in value from a recession or some other event that hits the U.S. hard.

There was a bug gathering admissions at the usual locations on Thursday, so... can't provide any daily estimate for One Piece today. Hope it's fixed tomorrow.

However, during the stage greeting yesterday, it was announced the film broke ¥12 billion and 8.6 million admissions on Wednesday (as estimated):

Also announced was the next giveaway event beginning on Sept. 17th (the start of Silver Week). It's another big one, yet another manga, this one with a 2 million copy limited quantity for moviegoers:

120億1514万3970円、動員861万8377人

Worth noting that this is the one that was already given when the movie first released (Volume 4 Billion), but with a new cover.

I'm guessing these manga giveaways are not counted as "sales" by Oricon? Because I don't see them on the lists.

Any update on the Sep/Oct schedule?

Of course they aren't. Giveaways aren't really sales, and even if they were, theaters obviously aren't exactly book retailers, so they would never be tracked.

Repost

I still remember when Corpse told me to compare TGM with MI series when I was comparing with Last Samurai, Avatar &BR.

Truly honoured that may be I was one of the first to see ¥10B happening now this gonna perform closer to ¥13B or more....

Thanks for the 26-dy actual, Kanroji! And yeah, excellent call on TGM.

I can post an estimate for One Piece on Thursday now as it was corrected, but Friday ended up bugging out too, so that estimate will have to wait.

Algren, I'll have the Sept./Oct. release schedule up later today (Sept. at least). Busy week.

One Piece Film Red - Daily Tracker

Sat. (08/06): ¥1,232,095,230 ($9.1 million) / 869,407
Sun. (08/07): ¥1,022,141,800 ($7.6 million) / 710,145
Mon. (08/08): ¥591,000,000 ($4.4 million) / 430,000
Tues. (08/09): ¥466,000,000 ($3.5 million) / 340,000
Wed. (08/10): ¥525,000,000 ($3.9 million) / 415,000
Thur. (08/11): ¥593,000,000 ($4.4 million) / 430,000 *Holiday* / *Start of Obon Festival*
Fri. (08/12): ¥548,000,000 ($4.1 million) / 395,000
Sat. (08/13): ¥833,137,000 ($6.2 million) / 573,195
Sun. (08/14): ¥663,963,000 ($5.0 million) / 456,805
Mon. (08/15): ¥586,000,000 ($4.4 million) / 428,000
Tues. (08/16): ¥443,000,000 ($3.3 million) / 322,000
Wed. (08/17): ¥408,000,000 ($3.1 million) / 297,000 *End of Obon Festival*
Thur. (08/18): ¥278,000,000 ($2.1 million) / 197,000
Fri. (08/19): ¥274,000,000 ($2.1 million) / 192,000
Sat. (08/20): ¥380,598,600 ($2.8 million) / 260,000
Sun. (08/21): ¥437,715,000 ($3.2 million) / 299,000
Mon. (08/22): ¥210,000,000 ($1.6 million) / 155,000
Tues. (08/23): ¥190,000,000 ($1.4 million) / 130,000
Wed. (08/24): ¥235,000,000 ($1.8 million) / 175,000
Thur. (08/25): ¥160,000,000 ($1.2 million) / 115,000
Fri. (08/26): ¥175,000,000 ($1.3 million) / 125,000
Sat. (08/27): ¥679,454,820 ($4.9 million) / 467,500
Sun. (08/28): ¥529,733,200 ($3.8 million) / 364,500
Mon. (08/29): ~¥205,000,000 ($1.4 million) / ~150,000
Tues. (08/30): ~¥165,000,000 ($1.2 million) / ~115,000
Wed. (08/31): ~¥195,000,000 ($1.4 million) / ~150,000
Thur. (09/01): ~¥125,000,000 ($0.9 million) / ~95,000 *Discount Day* / *End of Summer Vacation*

Cumulative Total (27-Days): ~¥12,140,143,970 ($90.1 million) / ~8,713,377

**********

Friday bugged out, so when/if we get a correct admissions figure, I'll provide an estimate.

Thanks for noting this. The first one was gone from most theaters after seven days, and then gone gone on the eighth day, so giving fans another opportunity to get their hands on it (with a new cover) could have a lot of appeal. Of course, the biggest fans that got a copy of it the first time with the original cover will be out in force to get this one, too, so the rush to get it could be twice as strong.

And it begins on a holiday weekend, just adding to the impact it could have on the box office.

Doesn't it make more sense to keep monday the same and lower wednesday instead? Wed had slightly lower admissions at usuals, but while both monday and wed have discounts (mon from AEON and wed from toho), usuals don't have AEON atm, so all the tickets on monday at usuals should be regular priced while the ones on wed have a discount from toho.

Also blogger went back and fixed thur. I think thur is like 110-120M instead of 190M? -18% at usuals and a little bit less atp from national discounts. Seems everything took pretty hefty hits from end of summer break.

I think I used Wednesday for Thursday. ^_^ I also switched Monday back and lowered Wednesday since you make a good point.

Is 50,150 the full tally for Thursday, then? And I don't see anything for Friday, just the 30,099 that was last updated before 8pm. And the blogger's post was at 7:20PM.

Yeah it seems thursday is correct, or atleast blogger says it is. I thought friday had been fixed too at first but then I realised it broke again after 7 so I edited that out , blogger probably will update the full day later I guess.

It's so frustrating when the system encounters a bug!

I'll go back and edit the Thursday estimate I had (which turned out to be based on Wed.) using the 50,150 number instead. Friday, well, just hope we get a corrected number for it. The Friday night admissions (~8-9:30pm) after the bug occurred are usually pretty big, so we're missing a good chunk of the day's overall tally.

And most of all... I hope it's all fixed before Saturday begins, but since Friday bugged out after the blogger's post, I have a feeling it won't be.

And yeah, if the numbers we have for Thurs. is accurate, and the numbers for Friday as of 7:47pm, the start of school / end of summer vacation has already taken effect. Minions isn't even in the Top 10 for Friday, and it'd be one of the hardest hit.

Hopefully it is, but yeah, mimorin being so buggy overall during such a great run is quite the bummer.

Went with ~¥125m / 95,000 (~¥1,300 atp) for Thursday using the 50,150 figure.

Could be slightly less in revenue, but I think with school back in session (fewer kid/teens in theaters) and the strength of the premium formats, the atp shouldn't be much greater than 10% lower or around there.

You're right, I totally overlooked that with schools being back on the amount of students/kids in theaters would go down as well, so atp shouldn't be too down. Good call.

September Release Schedule:

09/01:
[353] - Bullet Train (Sony)
[282] - The Fish Tale (Tokyo Theaters, Co.)
[127] - The Good Father (Happinet Phantom Studio)
[x89] - Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru Setsugetsuka - Flower Story (Toho Video Division) *3-Weeks-Only*

9/02:
[128] - Uta no Prince Sama Maji Love Starish Tours (Shochiku)

09/09:
[340] - High & Low: The Worst X (Shochiku)
[256] - A Hundred Flowers (Toho)
[218] - Goodbye Cruel World (Happinet Phantom Studio)
[144] - Beast (Toho-Towa)
[101] - The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes (Pony Canyon)
[x88] - Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro (Filmarks) *Re-release* / *2-Weeks-Only*

09/16:
[362] - Silent Parade (Toho)
[359] - Hell Dogs (Toei, Sony)
[144] - Drifting Home (Twin Engine, Giggly Box)
[129] - Riverside Mukolitta (Kadokawa)

09/17-25 - Silver Week (Holiday Period)
09/19 - Respect for the Aged Day (National Holiday)
09/23 - Autumnal Equinox Day (National Holday)

09/23:
[269] - Delicious Party Precure: Yume Miru ♡ Okosama Lunch! (Toei)
[207] - Inu Charlie (Kino Films)
[200] - Avatar: James Cameron 3D Remastered (Disney) *Re-release* / *2-Weeks-Only*
[x93] - Panda! Go, Panda! (Filmarks) *2-Weeks-Only*
[x74] - The Dry (Aeon Entertainment)

09/30:
[350] - Forest With "It" (Shochiku)
[338] - I Am Makimoto (Sony)
[112] - My Broken Mariko (Kadokawa, Happinet Phantom Studio)
[x78] - Downton Abbey: A New Era (Toho-Towa)
[x71] - Yojouhan Time Machine Blues (Kadokawa, Asmik Ace)

**********

Note: Preliminary theater counts in [brackets] are subject-to-change but rarely change much.
Note (2): Counts exclude premium theaters.
Note (3): Release schedule posting excludes most very limited releases (<50 locations) unless from a notable distributor or notable release.

General (Standard) Theater Count Key:
<100: Limited / 101-149: Wide / 150-199: Below Average / 200-274: Average / 275-324: Above Average / 325-369: Very Wide / >370: Optimal.

I'm always cautious but hopeful about Hollywood films one would expect to do well in Japan. Case in point: Bullet Train. With its Japanese connection, I really hope it can do well, and I would imagine Brad Pitt is somewhat of a draw in the market being an older star.

Bullet Train did fairly well on Thursday (second behind One Piece). I'd estimate... ~¥100-110 million ($0.7-0.8 million) with ~75,000 admissions or so. Avg. ticket price lower than usual since Thursday was a discount day (the reason it, and most of the openers, were released on the 1st).

No idea on Friday, really, since the system bugged out. And it doesn't look like we'll be able to see how it (or anything else) is doing on Saturday, either, unless it's fixed suddenly.