A new picture of How Do You Live? was revealed just a moment ago.

Has a Disney movie ever opened in early August, before Obon, before? Or is Elemental the first one?

This makes it seem like it'll be more fantasy based and possibly family friendly than most of Ghibli's last films. That's a good sign, IMO.

Yeah, it's a prime spot. Most of the time July is more common, but early August is popular too.

The most recent and first that comes to mind is The Lion King (2019) that opened the weekend before Obon. Well, Onward (2020) also opened the first weekend of August I believe, but that was the early stage of theaters reopening and having restrictions (50% capacity), and the COVID was impacting family films the most and it might have even been boycotted since, I think, Disney had put it on Disney+ by this point? I seem to recall it was the first of many Disney boycotts in Japan over Disney+.

And usually Pixar movies open in early/mid July right before summer vacation begins. The majority have, as that gives them the full 6 weeks of summer vacation and Obon in the middle of that.

Early August is still just as good of a spot though. It'll have 2/3 less weeks of summer vacation, but its first two weeks are being given the optimal dates to make as much as it can. It's just "as much as it can" remains to be seen.

I think the lack of marketing is harming it's OW potential, could have taken a record here.

I'm not sure it's even theoretically possible to beat Demon Slayer's OW?
The stars aligned perfectly for it in a way that may never happen again

Is this the first time Ghibli use male musician to sing a theme song?

Hearing How do you live? will only be able to release on a limited number of screens in each multiplex. Any truth to that?

A record opening wasn't in the cards here. It wouldn't be able to get enough seats needed since there's enough holdovers still doing enough business to hold onto a decent number. It could sell 100% of its seats over the weekend and it'd still fall pretty far short.

That's the biggest obstacle for anything to challenge Demon Slayer's OW. Demon Slayer opened in 2020 when a bunch of stuff got delayed and the market was weak, so it received up to half of all the screens at most theaters that gave it a record number of seats and showings that can't be matched. It's not possible for that to happen under normal circumstances.

And not just that, it managed to sell out of 75% or so of all its record showings over the weekend too, which is more tickets than almost every film ever released has been given seats.

A vast majority of films could literally sell every single seat they're given over the weekend, and it wouldn't be enough to beat Demon Slayer's OW because Demon Slayer sold more tickets than they can receive seats. There have been a handful of films that have received enough seats where it could be possible, but they'd have to sell an unrealistic / nigh impossible number of them to do it. The 7/8am mornings showings don't sell out, nor do the 11pm-2am showings at night, which would be required in addition to selling out pretty much every show all weekend too.

So, mathematically, Demon Slayer's OW is nearly unreachable. (Technically, since Japan is on 3-day weekends now, it'll be more doable for a film to beat Demon Slayer's 2-day OW that way since they'll have an extra day, but its 3-day won't be any easier.)

It's received the typical number of screens/seats that a blockbuster release receives. It's on the biggest screen at every theater, and the busiest locations have given it a second/third screen too. Were people expecting theaters to dump everything else playing to put it on more screens? There are still holdovers doing fair business, and there are other films opening this weekend too.

Also, we may need to consider Ghibli's status in Japan in 2023. It's been nearly ten years since they released a film. (I'm not counting The Red Turtle or Earwig.)

That's a fair big of time to have passed, and box office trends are much different now vs 2013/2014. Another generation of children have grown up, and they weren't replaced by nearly as many new children as the population is in big decline. And a large number of adults have hit retirement age since then too as the population is also aging rapidly. Not only have the trends changed, but the demographics have also shifted too.

This isn't to say How Do You Live? isn't looking to do well. Looking around, I don't see a huge opening but it's still doing pretty well. This is also a 4-day holiday weekend and business will be spread out. Not to mention we don't know yet what the impact of not marketing the film will have. Will it deflate the opening, but go on to produce abnormally strong legs as WOM spreads (assuming it's good)? Will it help the opening by making moviegoers more curious to check it out sooner rather than later to see what this mystery film is before others?

Lots of unknowns at this point.

I mean, realistically speaking I don't think it's even a matter of seats with HDYL, its presales are solid and some locations are really strong but this is a far cry from what DS was putting up. No matter what they did I just don't think the potential to even challenge DS was there even assuming it was physically possible.

I'm expecting something in the 1.2-1.5b range for the 3days myself, though things could get wonky. That'd still be very good and I'm definitely more interested in seeing how things play out past the weekend.

I think Mimorin is reporting the equivalent of 950,000 cinema seats a day available for How Do You Live?

It's not possible to break the Demon Slayer record even if it sold every single ticket.

Correct. Demon Slayer is the only film in history to sell over 1 million ticket in a single day, and it did it FIVE times. And it had two other days at/above 900,000, too, which no other film has ever done either. And another one close at 887k. It has the Top 8 Biggest Single Days on record.

There have only been six films (Frozen II, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, the last 3 Detective Conan films, and probably One Piece Film Red (but not having Aeon's data on this one can't confirm it)) that have even been given over 1 million seats nationwide.

To even break into the Top 8 Biggest Single Days that Demon Slayer claims, those films above would have needed to sell at least 75% of ALL their seats over the weekend, and to manage 1 million tickets, they'd needed to sell 80/85%+ of all their seats.

So, it's not impossible for Demon Slayer to be beaten... but it's almost as impossible as it can get because it's very, very hard to sell out the early morning showings (7am-9am) and the late-night showings (10pm-1am) that is almost required to do it.

Therefore, Demon Slayer really shouldn't be in these sorts of discussions. The situation surrounding its opening, and first month in release really, is unlike anything ever seen and can't be replicated.

Here is the list of biggest single days. NOT posting this to expect How Do You Live? to make it (although Sat, Sun, and/or Mon this long holiday weekend could do it), but to just show that the single day/opening weekend records held by Demon Slayer are just... truly bonkers and almost mathematically impossible to be reached since it sold more tickets than available seats available for nearly everything else.

Also note that the top 10 biggest single days are all from 2020-2023, and 14 of the top 15 biggest single days are from 2019-2023. All animated. The overall list is also largely dominated by films released in the last 5 years by animated films. There hasn't been a single live-action film on the list since 2008(!), Rookies, and just barely based on an estimate.

Biggest All-Time Single-Days (Admissions) [1998-]

1,270,234 - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (First Saturday)
1,239,752 - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (First Sunday)
1,157,654 - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (Second Sunday)
1,140,390 - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (Third Sunday, Discount Day)
1,115,182 - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (Second Saturday)
910,507 - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (First Friday, Opening Day)
~900,000 - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (Third Tuesday, Holiday)
887,893 - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (Third Saturday)
869,407 - One Piece Film Red (First Saturday, Opening Day)
823,358 - Detective Conan: The Black Iron Submarine (First Saturday)
~800,000 - Yo-Kai Watch: It's the Secret of Birth, Nyan! (First Saturday, Opening Day)
~790,000 - Frozen II (Second Sunday, Discount Day)
772,224 - Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (First Friday, Opening Day)
770,723 - Detective Conan: The Black Iron Submarine (First Sunday)
710,145 - One Piece Film Red (First Sunday)
~690,000 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (First Saturday, Opening Day, Discount Day)
~685,000 - Yo-Kai Watch: It's the Secret of Birth, Nyan! (First Sunday)
667,179 - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (Fourth Sunday)
628,614 - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (Fourth Saturday)
626,110 - Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (First Saturday)
~625,000 - Frozen II (First Saturday)
~625,000 - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (First Saturday)
~620,000 - Toy Story 4 (First Sunday)
611,418 - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (Fifth Saturday)
~605,000 - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (Third Monday, Pseudo-Holiday)
600,000 - One Piece Film Z (First Saturday, Opening Day)
~600,000 - Toy Story 4 (First Monday, Holiday)
~590,000 - The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Second Sunday)
~590,000 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (First Sunday)
~585,000 - Frozen II (First Sunday)
~585,000 - The Super Mario Bros. Movie (First Thursday, Holiday)
582,776 - Detective Conan: The Black Iron Submarine (First Friday, Opening Day)
~580,000 - The Super Mario Bros. Movie (First Wednesday, Holiday)
~580,000 - Howl's Moving Castle (First Saturday, Opening Day)
~580,000 - Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire (First Sunday)
~575,000 - The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Second Saturday)
573,195 - One Piece Film Red (Second Saturday)
571,109 - Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet (First Sunday)
~565,000 - The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Second Friday, Holiday)
~560,000 - Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire (First Saturday)
~560,000 - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (First Saturday)
~555,000 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (First Saturday)
550,891 - Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet (First Saturday)
~550,000 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Second Sunday)
~545,000 - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (First Monday)
540,000 - One Piece Film Z (First Sunday)
~540,000 - Frozen (Eighth Monday, Holiday)
535,986 - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (Fifth Saturday)
~535,000 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Second Saturday)
~525,000 - Howl's Moving Castle (First Sunday)
~525,000 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Second Sunday)
520,000 - Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time (First Monday, Opening Day)
~515,000 - The Super Mario Bros. Movie (First Sunday)
~515,000 - The Super Mario Bros. Movie (First Saturday)
~515,000 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (First Sunday)
~510,000 - Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer (First Sunday)
~510,000 - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (Second Friday)
509,719 - Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (First Sunday)
~505,000 - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (First Wednesday)
502,578 - Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween (First Saturday)
~500,000 - Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer (First Saturday)
~500,000 - Rookies (First Saturday, Opening Day)

~ Estimate.

Review of "How Do You Live?" at Anime News Network, click here.

It's great that How Do You Live? gets grade A from ANN but remember that ANN can be disconnected from mainstream taste sometimes, like giving the First Slam Dunk only B- despite the film's massive success in Asian countries.

Don't worry, I also search a lot of How Do You Live? impression in twitter and luckily the mainstream seems to like it too, and more people are buying seats for night screening/reserving seats for tomorrow.

Off-topic but Japan-related; whenever I see pookpooi's name it always reminds me of Arnold's catchphrase from his series of Japanese commercials:



He says something that resembles "pooie pooie".

My impression is that this movie is going to perform like The Wind Rises in Japan.

Is the latest Transformers movie expected to be successful in Japan?

I notice it's also releasing on August 4th.

Potentially 3 major new releases that day. Elemental, Crayon Shin-Chan and Transformers.

Red Carpet, Stage Greetings &Press Interview has been cancelled for Tom Cruise 's "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One"

Highly disappointed

Only IMAX Premiere will be taking place as scheduled.

Probably due to the actor/writer strike, but don't be disappointed.

good first day. I expect atp to be pretty high since some locations like shinjuku (almost) only have it on premiums. maybe ~450M od?

Will try. Thanks

"Evangelion 3.0+1.01: Thrice Upon A Time"

Budget is revealed - ¥3.265B

Source: "Project Shin Evangelion" (プロジェクト・シン・エヴァンゲリオン) p.21