Biggest December Opening Weekends (1998-):

01. ¥1.629 billion ($14.0 million) / 1,484,916 - Yo-Kai Watch: It's the Secret of Birth, Nyan! (2014)
02. ¥1.550 billion ($12.2 million) / 1,279,120 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
03. ¥1.372 billion ($16.7 million) / 1,140,081 - One Piece Film Z (2012)
04. ¥1.245 billion ($10.3 million) / 800,258 - Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
05. ¥1.126 billion ($9.9 million) / 737,467 - Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
06. ¥1.058 billion ($8.7 million) / 974,557 - Yo-Kai Watch: Great King Enma and the 5 Stories, Nyan! (2015)
07. ¥1.038 billion ($11.9 million) / 819,738 - One Piece Film Strong World (2009)
08. ¥1.037 billion ($9.5 million) / 671,000 - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
09. ¥902.3 million ($8.4 million) / 622,000 - The Last Samurai (2003)
10. ¥898.0 million ($8.4 million) / 724,000 - Finding Nemo (2003)
11. ¥812.7 million ($7.2 million) / 639,000 - Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018)
12. ¥751.8 million ($7.3 million) / 604,355 - The Incredibles (2004)
13. ¥653.4 million ($5.7 million) / 413,604 - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
14. ¥649.8 million ($6.4 million) / 539,132 - Lupin III vs. Detective Conan (2013)
15. ¥608.0 million ($5.3 million) / 545,211 - Yo-Kai Watch: Great Adventure of the Flying Whale and the Double Worlds, Nyan! (2016)
16. ¥600.4 million ($5.2 million) / 463,556 - Big Hero 6 (2014)
17. ¥597.3 million ($6.6 million) / 398,795 - Avatar (2009)
18. ¥593.0 million ($5.7 million) / 423,000 - New Interpretation Record of the Three Kingdoms (2020)
19. ¥578.3 million ($5.2 million) / 438,771 - I Am Legend (2007)
20. ¥572.8 million ($7.3 million) / 437,750 - Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
21. ¥542.3 million ($5.3 million) / 429,918 - The Eternal Zero (2013)
22. ¥528.2 million ($6.4 million) / 412,129 - Space Battleship Yamato (2010)
23. ¥515.3 million ($4.4 million) / 396,280 - The Last: Naruto the Movie (2014)

The Matrix Resurrections is pretty unlikely to make this chart at all after its lackluster Friday, but it's looking like not only will we see a top-tier level debut on the chart next weekend, but we could potentially see a real challenge for a new #1 on the chart with Jujutsu Kaisen 0.

Toho Namba also hasn't sold out the show it added for midnight (only has 3 there), though it should get there soon.

Also, JJK 0 does have a primetime broadcast next week (though from my understanding the Kanto region is not included for it, which seems quite bizarre to me). It's on wednesday, so it's worth keeping in mind presales might get a (sizable?) boost the day before release off that.

My knowledge of japanese tv is pretty limited, so I wouldn't be able to tell how big any of these channels it's airing on are, but here you go if you want to take a look.
https://jujutsukaisen-movie.jp/news/2021_1119.html

I'll check it out when I get back home. Thanks.

We should have an educated guess on how high it'll be aiming (e.g. ¥1 billion potential vs. ¥1.5 billion potential) after the first day of public reservations on Monday. If they explode out of the gate like the midnights did (have), resulting in numerous sellouts (or just a ton of marked showings) at some of the less busy locations too, we're looking at something special.

Regarding marked showings, sometimes having a huge batch of them everywhere is better than numerous sellouts that are isolated. It can suggest a more broad appeal over a fanbase-driven appeal. (Of course, having a mix of them everywhere is ideal.) We'll see soon-ish.

So from what I'm seeing...

On Monday, there is a special program airing to commemorate the release of the upcoming movie. Various celebrities/musical guests will be hosting it. It's being advertised as a special that fans and non-fans alike can watch and enjoy ahead of the movie's release.

Then on Wednesday, the first 7 episodes of the anime will be airing as part of a 3-hour special program across 28 TV stations nationwide in primetime (7pm-10pm). This might be intended to expose it to more rural prefectures.

There is also a TV special scheduled for January 10th (a national holiday) called "The Origin of Blind Observatory" that will also be airing across the same 28 TV stations from 9pm-11pm. I'm assuming this will feature plot points or characters seen in the movie that could be considered spoilers, so it's airing 3 weeks after the movie debuts.

Since the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 movie is the prequel to the anime (and doesn't focus on the main trio in season one of the anime), it probably doesn't make sense to have similar TV specials (that recapped the different arcs of season one) that Demon Slayer had which lead up to its movie release since it acted as a sequel to season one of the anime.

But like you, I don't have a lot of knowledge about specific TV stations and such in the market. Perhaps somekindofthing or Kanroji can elaborate a bit more.

Also just realized that Dolby Cinema locations gave their screen to Matrix this weekend... I get it, fancy new big movie, but poor decision anyway. Arashi has been selling them out (or nearly so) almost every day since November 3rd, including this past week. Reminds me of almost this time last year when Demon Slayer lost its IMAX screens to Stand By Me, Doraemon 2 only to take them back the following week.

And just so Matrix isn't getting all the negative comments this weekend, Boss Baby 2 is underperforming a lot too. The first one easily outgrossed Shrek 2 to become Dreamworks Animation's highest grossing film in the market, but I guess it was a moment of catching lightning in a bottle for them because the second one, while not bombing like almost all their films have in Japan, is in store for a pretty substantial decline (even then it'll probably outgross many Dreamworks Animation films).

So both of the widest releases are disappointing, meaning more seats for Jujutsu Kaisen next week.

The shows that were added yesterday at namba/umeda are filling up quite slowly (only 3 screens total, although umeda did give it its biggest screen, and along with the screen 2 being soldout it should still be ard 1.4k admissions), makes me wonder if shinjuku is just extra popular as a location for JJK due to its setting with how many screens it sold out almost instantly in comparison.

Though it is midnight shows and those are quite uncommon for jp if im not mistaken, so not really sure. Probably going to exceed conan with how good those presales look early on though, also thinking 2b+ 3-days may happen now.

Midnights are very rare. It's not too unusual for a couple theaters in Shinjuku to have midnights, but it's typically just a one or two theaters and mostly goes unnoticed. Shinjuku Wald 9 (T-Joy theater) is a common location to hold midnights. Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is receiving midnights there as well, and they have it on 6 screens. The original 2 midnights sold out (on their biggest screens), while the 4 recently added showings are over half full.

Shinjuku is the busiest location (ward) in the country, and Toho Cinemas Shinjuku there is the busiest theater in the country. I'd put Toho Shinjuku up against any theater in the world as a contender for busiest theater. Regular hours are around 8am-2:50am, but it can be operate from 6am-4am (~22 hours), and while the very early AM showings (6am-9am, and midnight-4am) may not sellout (sometimes they still do), they'll still have a decent amount of people attend them. And all the others showings from around 9am-11pm are incredibly packed. The smallest of films that bomb at the box-office often still perform well at this theater.

Kyoto (the second location where the attack in the film occurs) and Shibuya (an upcoming location in the anime for a pretty crazy arc) will likely be very popular locations to watch the movie too.

And on the topic of general presales, midnights or otherwise: If you're one to follow sellouts and just reservations/presales, you'll notice that the largest screens are typically the first to sellout (or reach like 95%+ status). If a smaller/medium-sized screen of say 200/250 is available versus two 400/500+ screens, those two bigger screens will likely fill up/sellout before the smaller one reaches half-capacity.

Matrix 4 more or less performed as expected on Saturday. Modest Saturday bump given its genre/demographics, so still likely aiming for around ¥400 million (OW)/¥550 million-ish (3-Day) for the weekend. Certainly not as high as I'm sure all invested were hoping, but it's not "awful." It's very similar to the level of decline that Terminator 4 experienced from Terminator 3. And comparable to other "long-awaited" sequels typically declining.

Boss Baby 2, while not coming near the OW of its predecessor (the original apparently being a miracle case for Dreamworks in the market), is in a close race with the new Kamen Rider for third place. It'll come down to Sunday, but advantage Boss Baby 2 assuming it increases a bit on Sunday. (It's also playing slightly wider, so tiny advantage there too.) Boss Baby 2 will likely open higher than Encanto still, and will easily outgross it, despite underperforming. Dreamworks besting Disney is... not how Japan works, but they are here.

Kamen Rider basically doing its usual business it does three times every year.

I see! So on top of it getting a boost off its setting at shinjuku, shinjuku is also just naturally incredibly busy. The highest 3-day opener (non-DS) is held by an HP movie, right? Should be looking to challenge that here I guess if its friday/weekend PS remain impressive.

Awesome, thank you! Yeah it seems like the movie is just about locked for an Oscar nom now, and with the passionate critical reception fit might even be the frontrunner for the win? It's very good btw, definitely worth checking out if it comes to any art house near you.

I'll certainly watch it, eventually. I'll also post any future updates here regarding its box-office.

Sharing this here since the thread gets a ton of traffic. Bleach returns next October to adapt the final arc of the manga, 10 years(!!!) after its original run went off the air! A lot of people, especially Western audiences, recognize Bleach as it was one of the breakthrough series in the early/mid-00s that really helped anime/manga to take off outside of Japan.

I'm not a *huge* Bleach fan (though was really into it in the mid/late-00s), as it does drop-off pretty much the longer it went on, but I do consider the first three seasons (up through the 20-ish volume) to be some of the best WSJ material to this day.

And the trailer is super-hype. I doubt the anime will look as good the animation in the trailer throughout, but it looks great and playing "Number One" over it couldn't be more perfect. It never seemed like the anime series was ever going to get a proper finish after being cancelled back in 2012. So this is really cool and certainly deserving for one of the most successful (120 million+ books in circulation) and influential series back in the day.



How many of you read/watched Bleach?

I have watched it and have been waiting for this announcement. Thanks Corpse, very excited to finally finish the series. Damn that animation looks really good, I wonder if the series can maintain this level!

New PV (presumably final before release) for Jujutsu Kaisen 0 just revealed during its Stage Event at Jump Festa!



MAPPA's camera work looks insane.

Much better pv for jjk than first one, these are so spoilery though. Feels like I've seen half the final battle off trailers already.

Also bleach was great early on imho, soul society was awesome. But can't say I'm excited for the final arc outside of a few scenes.

The Matrix Resurrections had a very rough Sunday, dropping over 20% (~21/22%). Its Sunday even dipped below its Friday, which is definitely not a good sign. It actually almost lost the day in admissions to Your Turn to Kill (in its second weekend). I'm estimating it grossed about ¥325 million ($2.9 million) / 210,000 admissions over the weekend, and ¥480 million ($4.2 million) / 310,000 admissions over the 3-day. Not good. It'll only be aiming for ¥2.5 billion ($22/23 million) / 1.6 million admissions or so with this debut even with good legs (which I'm going to assume it can manage given the release date). So, that's going to be a 60-65% decline from the third film.

The Boss Baby 2, on the other hand, experienced a great Sunday, increasing over 40%! It's been awhile since we've had a young, family-skewing film like this, so it's nice to see this sort of increase on Sunday that is fairly common among the genre. As a result, it won't have quite as disappointing of an opening as Saturday was suggesting. Still not great, for sure, but it moved more into that "acceptable" territory. I imagine it'll be very leggy too, as the sole family/young-skewing film this holiday, so wouldn't be surprised if it grosses up to ¥1.5 billion or a little higher (~$15 million). This is, of course, a substantial decline from the original (DWA's highest grossing film, easily), but it's above average for Dreamworks Animation in Japan and higher than any Disney film since 2019.

These two ultimately underwhelming, especially The Matrix 4 since it had a significant amount of seating/showtimes, isn't good for the upcoming holiday season at the box-office, however, it does let Jujutsu Kaisen 0 as mentioned yesterday to demand/acquire even more seating/screens than it already would. So that's good news for it of course, and probably also for the box-office/theaters in general as it'll have near max potential to do its thing. You don't want a film with such high potential to have any issues with seating/showings, etc.

I wouldn't even be surprised if matrix failed to hit 2 billion. 3 back to back significant drops is a very bad sign for its legs especially as it gets overshadowed by jjk next week imho.

Also, when are reservations expected to go up for JJK? I checked at midnight but they weren't there.

If you're checking Toho Cinemas, they tend to go public with their showings/schedule for the upcoming week (12/24-12/31) on Tuesday, and public reservations begin usually on Wednesday. They put all their locations up at the same time, and since they have so many, I think that's why it takes them a day or so longer than other locations.

There are some scattered locations that will have them up either right now, or at 6am in the morning. (Online reservations are generally offline between 2am-6am). I'm actually going to check on this soon, but I have a meeting this afternoon so don't expect that in like an hour or something. I'll have some updates in 3/4 hours.

It is one of the OG's! Definitely very hyped to see this in 2022. The trailer looks great as well and it looks there won't be any censorship unlike the previous anime.

It looks like Kubo is supervising it aswell and is looking to extend/add stuff.Novels add a ton of information so i hope they get adapted.

Nostalgia is hitting

Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (12/24)
Midnight Locations and Current Sales (As of 12/20, ~6am)

Toho Shinjuku (8 shows) - 1,954/1,954 (100%)
Toho Umeda (3 shows) - 1,490/1,688 (88.3%)
Toho Hibiya (5 shows) - 1,379/1,379 (100%)
T-Joy Shinjuku (6 shows) - 1,285/1,596 (80.5%)
T-Joy Hakata (6 shows) - 1,097/1,120 (97.9%)
Toho Sendai (4 shows) - 1,073/1,073 (100%)
Toho Namba (3 shows) - 1,057/1,057 (100%)
Toho Ikebukuro (4 shows) - 1,022/1,022 (100%)
Toho Shibuya (4 shows) - 861/861 (100%)
Midland Square (5 shows) - 778/813 (95.7%)
T-Joy Kyoto (3 shows) - 756/950 (79.6%)
United Sapporo (2 shows) - 596/596 (100%)
Toho Nijo (2 shows) - 550/604 (91.1%)
Movix Kyoto (3 shows) - 528/674 (78.3%)
________________________________
Current Total: 14 Theaters (58 Midnight Shows) - 14,426/15,387 (93.8%)

Hmm I see, figured I'd check at midnight since I remembered they went live on monday midnight for DS but I guess things have changed?

Wow!!! That's amazing. Hopefully it maximizes is potential and delivers records

Just checked to be sure. Toho Cinemas is going live at midnight tonight online, and in-theater Tuesday morning whenever each location opens.

Cinecitta, one of the busiest theaters in the country located across from the Kawasaki train station (very busy location, consisting of 6 tracks and built through a shopping center), is also going live with reservations at midnight tonight (in theaters on Tuesday). It has an average of almost 250,000 passengers a day, I believe. Not the busiest station in the country*, but it's in the top 10 I think. This is usually an important theater to watch.

*Shinjuku, the popular ward we've been discussing this week, has almost 800,000 daily passengers on its line for comparison! (Tokyo itself averages 8 million daily passengers, while Greater Tokyo shoots up to 40 million daily passengers. Pretty ridiculous figures.)

Seen at Shinjuku Station!

Not only is the movie coming out this weekend, but the new manga volume and new novel are also being released. As well as the physical copy of the movie's theme song on the 29th.