Screendaily confirms Ted as having the biggest opening for an R-rated comedy ever in Japan ($4.3 million, though this figure is likely the 3-day total instead of the opening weekend). I think you can take it further and include all imported comedies though in USD.

As anyone who reads my threads knows, Hollywood had a terrible year at the box office in 2012. In fact, when Eiren releases the statistics for the year in about a week I fully expect 2012 to be Hollywood's worst year since the late 1990s.

2013 is already looking to be very different so far, however:

-Ted lands the biggest opening ever for an R-rated comedy and will probably become the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all-time, too.

-Les Miserables is locked to become the highest grossing musical of all-time, and perhaps the highest grossing film overall to never rank #1 on a weekend. Best case is it ends up grossing more than any Hollywood film from 2012 as well.

-Skyfall became the highest grossing Bond film of all-time.

I think it's important to note that these films are exclusive 2D releases, too. Nearly every 3D release bombed or disappointed last year (including The Hobbit for this year) while 2D releases performed quite well. Let's see if they can continue this impressive streak for the remainder of the year.

The Top 5 films below earned the best multipliers for a wide release without ever expanding since 2009 (besides adding a couple screens here and there). These 5 films also all had multipliers above 11.5x.

Right now, Les Miserables is having the second best run almost keeping pace with Avatar since Week 3. Total Percentage-wise, its actually a bit stronger than Avatar.


Weekend Gross (% change) / Total Gross (% change) / Multiplier

1. Avatar (2010)
First Weekend: ¥597.3 million / ¥1.31 billion
Second Weekend: ¥678.8 million (+12%) / ¥3.24 billion (+247%) / 5.42x
Third Weekend: ¥636.8 million (-6%) / ¥4.67 billion (+44%) / 7.82x
Fourth Weekend: ¥510.1 million (-20%) / ¥5.93 billion (+27%) / 9.93x
Fifth Weekend: ¥518.4 million (+2%) / ¥7.00 billion (+18%) / 11.73x

2. Les Miserables (2013)
First Weekend: ¥295.4 million / ¥379.1 million
Second Weekend: ¥256.8 million (-13%) / ¥1.13 billion (+298%) / 3.83x
Third Weekend: ¥287.1 million (+11%) / ¥2.11 billion (+87%) / 7.15x
Fourth Weekend: ¥286.3 million (0%) / ¥2.75 billion (+30%) / 9.32x
Fifth Weekend: ¥227.6 million (-20%) / ¥3.40 billion (+24%) / 11.53x ESTIMATE

3. Confessions (2010)
First Weekend: ¥269.8 million
Second Weekend: ¥282.7 million (+4%) / ¥895 million (+332%) / 3.31x
Third Weekend: ¥286.9 million (+2%) / ¥1.55 billion (+73%) / 5.74x
Fourth Weekend: ¥289.4 million (+1%) / ¥2.16 billion (+39%) / 8.00x
Fifth Weekend: ¥217.3 million (-24%) / ¥2.71 billion (+26%) / 10.03x

4. Thermae Romae (2012)
First Weekend: ¥432.5 million
Second Weekend: ¥547.5 million (+21%) / ¥2.22 billion (+513%) / 5.13x
Third Weekend: ¥363.7 million (-34%) / ¥2.96 billion (+33%) / 6.84x
Fourth Weekend: ¥330.0 million (-9%) / ¥3.66 billion (+24%) / 8.45x
Fifth Weekend: ¥251.5 million (-24%) / ¥4.19 billion (+15%) / 9.68x

5. The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki (2012)
First Weekend: ¥365.2 million
Second Weekend: ¥279.4 million (-23%) / ¥1.02 billion (+279%) / 2.79x
Third Weekend: ¥213.4 million (-24%) / ¥1.62 billion (+59%) / 4.44x
Fourth Weekend: ¥226.2 million (+6%) / ¥2.20 billion (+36%) / 6.03x
Fifth Weekend: ¥202.1 million (-11%) / ¥3.00 billion (+36%) / 8.21x

Official Ted numbers:

Opening Weekend: ¥326,151,000 ($3.8 million) with 229,581 admissions. 3-Day Total: ¥403,949,700 ($4.6 million) with 287,250 admissions. [134 Theaters / 253 Screens]

I'm going to predict a ¥2.3 billion ($26 million) finish. Legs in January/February are typically some of the weakest of the year (no Holiday support), but I think Ted will manage a slightly higher than avg. multiplier.

01/19-20
Weekend Ranking

[Admissions]
1 (-) Ted (Toho-Towa) NEW!
2 (-) Tokyo Family (Shochiku) NEW!
3 (2) Les Miserables (Toho-Towa) Week 5
4 (-) Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters vs. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: The Movie (Toei) NEW!
5 (3) One Piece Film Z (Toei) Week 6
6 (1) Hunter X Hunter: The Phantom Rouge (Toho) Week 2
7 (5) Looper (Gaga) Week 2
8 (4) Taken 2 (20th Century Fox) Week 2
9 (7) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Warner Bros.) Week 6
10 (6) 007: Skyfall (Sony) Week 8
11 (10) Blue Exorcist: The Movie (Toho) Week 4

[Revenue]
1 (-) Ted (Toho-Towa) NEW!
2 (2) Les Miserables (Toho-Towa) Week 5
3 (-) Tokyo Family (Shochiku) NEW!
4 (3) One Piece Film Z (Toei) Week 6
5 (1) Hunter X Hunter: The Phantom Rouge (Toho) Week 2

Ted's numbers were reported earlier but here they are again: Opening Weekend: ¥326,151,000 ($3.8 million) with 229,581 admissions. 3-Day Total: ¥403,949,700 ($4.6 million) with 287,250 admissions. [134 Theaters / 253 Screens]

In addition to the numbers, it was reported that females in their 20s and males in their 30s were the two biggest demographics.

Tokyo Family debuted in second place in admissions, but third in revenue due to skewing really old (senior discounts). Opening Weekend: ¥209,616,000 ($2.4 million) with 194,902 admissions. [317 Theaters / 317 Screens]

Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters vs. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: The Movie managed an impressive fourth place finish in admissions for the weekend but didn't crack the Top 5 in revenue. This is unusual, and the first film to actually accomplished something I've never seen before since tracking the box office (since 2009): It's avg. ticket price was below ¥1,000 at ¥991. The only explanation behind this is that nearly all of it's ticket sold this weekend were bought in advance (often discounted). Opening Weekend: ¥137,074,400 ($1.6 million) with 138,287 admissions. [275 Theaters / 275 Screens]

Les Miserables reportedly dropped only 12% in it's fifth weekend. This is much better than the 20% estimate yesterday and means the film's second weekend drop of 13% remains it's biggest to date.

One Piece Film Z remains in the Top 5 after six weeks and has exceeded ¥6.3 billion ($73 million).

Ted's a hit everywhere

36th Japan Academy Prize
[Nominations]

BEST PICTURE
Dearest
A Chorus of Angels
The Kirashima Thing
The Floating Castle
Chronicle of My Mother

BEST ANIMATED PICTURE
Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo
The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki
A Letter to Momo
Friends: Naki on Monster Island
One Piece Film Z

BEST DIRECTOR
Shinji Higuchi (The Floating Castle)
Junji Sakamoto (A Chorus of Angels)
M. Harda (Chronicle of My Mother)
Yasuo Furihata (Dearest)
Daihachi Yoshida (The Kirashima Thing)

BEST LEADING ACTOR
Hiroshi Abe (Thermae Romae)
Masato Sakai (Key of Life)
Mansai Momura (The Floating Castle)
Mirai Moriyama (Drudgery Train)
Koji Yakusho (Fleet Admiral, Isoroku Yamamoto)
Koji Yakusho (Chronicle of My Mother)

BEST LEADING ACTRESS
Kiki Kirin (Chronicle of My Mother)
Tamiyo Kusakari (The Terminal Trust)
Erika Sawajiri (Heruta Skelter)
Matsu Takako (Dreams For Sale)
Sayuri Yoshinaga (A Chorus of Angels)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Shuji Otaki (Dearest)
Koichi Sato (Dearest)
Koichi Sato (The Floating Castle)
Teruyuki Kagawa (Key of Life)
Kengo Kora (Drudgery Train)
Mirai Moriyama (A Chorus of Angels)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Shinobu Terajim (Heruta Skelter)
Ryoko Hirosue (Key of Life)
Akira Mitsushima (A Chorus of Angels)
Aoi Miyazaki (Chronicle of My Mother)
Kimiko Yo (Dearest)

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Saki Takei (Rurouni Kenshin, Today, I Started Loving You)
Fumi Nikaido (Holy Scripture of Evil)
Shota Someya (The Kirashima Thing, Another, Holy Scripture of Evil)
Masahiro Higashide (The Kirashima Thing)
Changmin (Fly With The Gold)
Matsuzaka Tori (Shizanmono, Today, I Started Loving You)

BEST FOREIGN FILM
Argo
The Intouchables
The Dark Knight Rises
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
007: Skyfall

Note: Any film published between Dec. 11, 2011 to Dec. 15, 2012 was eligible.

Last Year's Best Foreign Film Category:

The King’s Speech (WINNER!)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
The Social Network
Black Swan
Moneyball

2013 Box Office Charts
Updated as of Sunday, 01/20

Revenue :: Film :: Admissions :: Days in Release :: Distributor

¥10 billion ↨ Uber-Blockbuster Status (US ≈$500 million film)

¥8 billion ↨ (US ≈$400 million film)

>¥6.31 billion ($72.91 million) :: One Piece Film Z :: 5.23 million :: 38 :: Toei
¥6 billion ↨ (US ≈$300 million film)

>¥5.09 billion ($62.79 million) :: Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo :: 3.68 million :: 65 :: T-Joy
¥5 billion ↨ Blockbuster Milestone (US ≈ $250 million film)

¥4 billion ↨ (US ≈$200 million film)

>¥3.36 billion ($38.84 million) :: Les Miserables :: 2.55 million :: 31 :: Toho-Towa
¥3 billion ↨ Box Office Hit (US ≈$150 million film)
>¥2.64 billion ($31.85 million) :: 007: Skyfall :: 2.10 million :: 51 :: Sony
¥2 billion ↨ (US ≈$100 million film)
>¥1.69 billion ($19.52 million) :: Today, I Started Loving You :: 1.42 million :: 44 :: Toho
>¥1.58 billion ($18.26 million) :: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey :: 1.11 million :: 38 :: Warner Bros.
>¥1.14 billion ($13.25 million) :: Kamen Rider X Kamen Rider Fourze & Wizard :: 1.03 million :: Tracking Ended :: Toei
>¥1.09 billion ($12.60 million) :: Humanoid Monster, Bem :: 0.92 million :: 37 :: Toho
¥1 billion ↑ Commercial Success (US ≈$50 million film)

One Piece Film Z keeps chugging along nicely and will challenge ¥7 billion.
Les Miserables continues to hit the right notes and easily exceeds ¥3 billion.
Kamen Rider X Kamen Rider tracking ended pretty early, so expect it's total to increase a fair amount later in the year.

Below the Commercial Success mark is Hunter X Hunter: The Phantom Rouge which will reach it this weekend after 3 weeks.

Argo, I'm beginning to loath that blasted film.

A long awaited, and much needed update, on a certain imported film:

As of January 24th, The Intouchables, currently in it's 21st week in release, has amassed ¥1,601,141,948 ($18.8 million) with 1,311,452 admissions. It became the most attended French film of all-time surpassing Amelie several months ago, but now it can claim the title for highest grossing French film of all-time, too (previously held by Amelie also).

Also of note, the film never played on more than 139 screens and has achieved a multiplier of 20.3 so far.

The film is nominated for Best Foreign Film at this year's Japan Academy Prize.

01/26-27
Weekend Forecast



1 (-) Strawberry Night (Toho) ¥320 million ($3.6 million) NEW!
2 (1) Ted (Toho-Towa) ¥305 million ($3.5 million) Week 2
3 (-) Life of Pi (20th Century Fox) ¥220 million ($2.5 million) NEW!
4 (2) Les Miserables (Toho-Towa) ¥170 million ($1.9 million) Week 6
5 (3) Tokyo Family (Shochiku) ¥160 million ($1.8 million) Week 2
6 (4) One Piece Film Z (Toei) ¥95 million ($1.1 million) Week 7
7 (6) Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters vs. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: The Movie (Toei) ¥70 million ($795,000) Week 2
8 (5) Hunter X Hunter: The Phantom Rouge (Toho) ¥60 million ($680,000) Week 3
9 (-) Tsuya's Night (Toei) ¥45 million ($515,000) NEW!
10 (7) Looper (Gaga) ¥40 million ($455,000) Week 3

Strawberry Night is the latest FujiTV drama to see a movie and probably has the edge to debut in 1st ahead of Ted's second weekend, but Ted will give it serious competition as buzz is still high and it's adding some showtimes (and probably screens, too) this weekend. The drop, if it drops, will be minimal. Both are aiming for the ¥300-350 million ($3.5-4 million) range.

Life of Pi is tracking behind Strawberry Night and Ted at key locations and should debut in a distant 3rd place. However, if the 3D share is high enough, there's potential to sneak into the Top 2. I realize 3D is really unpopular right now, but if any film is to ever get over a 70% share again, it should be this one.

Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo is getting a second run this weekend, adding I believe 90 or so screens. There is a slight possibility of it re-appearing at the bottom of the Top 10 again. This will be it's eleventh week in release.

Projected Totals (¥1 billion+) After Sunday:
-One Piece Film Z: ¥6.55 billion ($76 million) after 7 weeks.
-Les Miserables: ¥3.8 billion ($44 million) after 6 weeks.
-Hunter X Hunter: ¥1.0 billion ($12 million) after 3 weeks.

Outside the Top 10,
-Evangelion 3.0: ¥5.15 billion ($63 million) after 11 weeks.
-Skyfall: ¥2.8 billion ($33 million) after 9 weeks.
-Today, I Started Loving You: ¥1.75 billion ($20 million) after 8 weeks.
-The Hobbit: ¥1.65 billion ($19 million) after 7 weeks.

Nice...

01/26
Saturday Estimates

Rank / Film / Sat. Est. / Sat. % Change / Week in Release
1 Strawberry Night (Toho) ¥196 million ($2.3 million), 0, NEW!
2 Ted (Toho-Towa) ¥165 million ($1.9 million), +/-0%, Week 2
3 Life of Pi (20th Century Fox) ¥153 million ($1.7 million), 0, NEW!
4 Les Miserables (Toho-Towa) ¥87 million ($1.0 million), -19%, Week 6
5 Tokyo Family (Shochiku) ¥66 million ($750,000), -37%, Week 2
6 One Piece Film Z (Toei) ¥53 million ($600,000), -32%, Week 7
7 Hunter X Hunter: The Phantom Rouge (Toho) ¥36 million ($410,000), -50%, Week 2
8 Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters vs. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: The Movie (Toei) ¥35 million ($400,000), -50%, Week 2
9 Looper (Gaga) ¥18 million ($205,000), -49%, Week 3
10 Tsuna's Night (Toei) ¥16 million ($180,000), 0, NEW!

Very good for Strawberry Night. It should have #1 locked up for the weekend, and may have a shot at a ¥400 million ($4.5 million+) debut.

Ted... well, it dropped 0.3% compared to last Saturday. I know it added a number of extra showtimes this weekend, but the ridiculousness is still ongoing.

Life of Pi did quite well selling about 40% more tickets than The Hobbit did opening day last month. It still looks like it'll debut in third, but will do so with a very solid ¥275-305 million ($3-3.5 million) start.

Les Mis is still posting excellent holds and I can't see it slowing down until post-Oscars. In terms of daily gross, it will soon catch up to the US if it hasn't already.

I see Les Mis is estimated at $1 million in the US for it's fifth Friday which Les Mis has matched on it's sixth Saturday in Japan.

Wow good news for hollywood flicks with Les Mis and ted doing great. Pi will also have great legs for sure. This locks up 600M WW for Pi.

Yep. There were only a couple notable performances last year from Hollywood films in Japan, and Hollywood thus far this year they're are outdoing themselves easily.

Sure, The Hobbit bombed, but Les Mis is having the best run for a Hollywood film since Avatar, Ted is destroying every Hollywood comedy in decades, and Life of Pi off to a good start more than makes up for that.

Isn't Life of Pi like half made from Chinese money?

I don't know. Instead of labeling it as a Hollywood release, I could just say Imported instead,

I'm putting the weekend estimates together now and there are some surprises.

It's got to be Skyfall for the win.

01/26-27
Weekend Estimates

1 (1) Ted (Toho-Towa) ¥325 million ($3.7 million), +/-0%, Week 2
2 (-) Life of Pi (20th Century Fox) ¥324 million ($3.7 million), 0, NEW!
3 (-) Strawberry Night (Toho) ¥314 million ($3.6 million), 0, NEW!
4 (2) Les Miserables (Toho-Towa) ¥163 million ($1.9 million), -25%, Week 6
5 (3) Tokyo Family (Shochiku) ¥134 million ($1.5 million), -36%, Week 2
6 (4) One Piece Film Z (Toei) ¥105 million ($1.2 million), -34%, Week 7
7 (6) Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters vs. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: The Movie (Toei) ¥80 million ($920,000), -42%, Week 2
8 (5) Hunter X Hunter: The Phantom Rouge (Toho) ¥77 million ($880,000), -47%, Week 3
9 (7) Looper (Gaga) ¥33 million ($380,000), -52%, Week 3
10 (-) Tsuna's Night (Toei) ¥28 million ($320,000), 0, NEW!

Strawberry Night wasn't able to maintain it's Saturday lead and dropped a pretty harsh 20% on Sunday, allowing both Ted and Life of Pi to beat it in the estimates. The numbers are so close, though, that I wouldn't call any of their ranking positions just yet.

Ted remained flat in it's second weekend, dropping a whopping 0.1% at the usual locations.

Life of Pi did much better than expected and may debut in first if it's 3D share is high enough. The film ended up selling nearly 50% more tickets than The Hobbit did opening weekend.

Yes! Great for Life of Pi. So happy.

I'm so glad Life of Pi is doing this great OS. Completely deserving.

First numbers reported:

Strawberry Night debuted on 311 screens to ¥317,935,400 ($3.6 million) with 241,095 admissions. The TV Special for the drama also scored an impressive 15.4% rating during the weekend.

Thats slightly higher than estimates and makes the battle for #1 between it, Ted and Life of Pi even closer.

I think it's quite likely that Strawberry Night will come out on top in admissions (Ted did 229,500 last weekend and is estimated to have done practically the same this weekend), but could place third in revenue due to Ted and Pi's higher ticket prices. Ted because of it's rating and main audience being 20/30 year olds, which results in very few discounts. And Pi because of it being in 3D.

01/26-27
Weekend Cinema Chain Ranking

[TOHO]
1 Ted (Toho-Towa) Week 2
2 Strawberry Night (Toho) NEW
3 Life of Pi (20th Century Fox) NEW
4 Les Miserables (Toho-Towa) Week 6
5 Tokyo Family (Shochiku) Week 2
6 One Piece Film Z (Toei) Week 7
7 Hunter X Hunter (Toho) Week 3
8 Sentai Go-Busters vs. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (Toei) Week 2
9 Looper (Gaga) Week 3
10 Taken 2 (20th Century Fox) Week 3

[WARNER MYCAL]
1 Strawberry Night (Toho) NEW
2 Life of Pi (20th Century Fox) NEW
3 Tokyo Family (Shochiku) Week 2
4 Ted (Toho-Towa) Week 2
5 Sentai Go-Busters vs. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (Toei) Week 2

[SHIKOKU]
1 Strawberry Night (Toho) NEW
2 Life of Pi (20th Century Fox) NEW
3 Tokyo Family (Shochiku) Week 2
4 Ted (Toho-Towa) Week 2
5 Sentai Go-Busters vs. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (Toei) Week 2
6 One Piece Film Z (Toei) Week 7
7 Les Miserables (Toho-Towa) Week 6
8 Hunter X Hunter (Toho) Week 3
9 009: RE: Cyborg (Aniplex) NEW*
10 Looper (Gaga) Week 3

*This one was released at other chains last year, so it's only new at Shikoku locations.

[SUNSHINE]
1 Strawberry Night (Toho) NEW
2 Life of Pi (20th Century Fox) NEW
3 Les Miserables (Toho-Towa) Week 6
4 Tokyo Family (Shochiku) Week 2
5 One Piece Film Z (Toei) Week 7


I believe the Cinema Chain rankings confirms that Strawberry Night wins the weekend in admissions, but doesn't really help in determining which film won in revenue.

It is also important to note that Ted isn't playing at Sunshine locations and has few screens at every other chain except Toho which is providing the majority of it's screens.

When does Hansel & Gretel open in Japan?

It isn't listed on any movie sites meaning not anytime soon (not before Summer). Since Paramount is the distributor, it should eventually see a release though. Maybe in the Fall or Winter.