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Live-Action Don't Call It Mystery Film Returns at #1 in Box Office
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The manga follows mystery-solving college student Totonō Kunō. At the beginning of the story, the police bring him in for questioning on suspicion of the murder of his classmate. The film centers on the manga's "Hiroshima Arc," which appears in the manga's second to fourth volumes. The "Hiroshima Arc" begins when Kunō travels to Hiroshima, and gets involved in a fight for the Kariatsumari family's inheritance.
The film opened on September 15, and sold 609,600 tickets to earn 850,483,760 yen (about US$5.71 million) in its first three days, ranking #1 in its opening weekend. Masaki Suda reprised his role as protagonist Totonō Kunō from the manga's live-action series.
Hiroaki Matsuyama, Tomoko Aizawa, and Ken Arai all return from the series as director, scriptwriter, and music composer, respectively.
The encore screening opened on October 20.
The movie has become the franchise's highest-selling and highest-earning film installment, in terms of both the number of tickets sold and yen earned at the box office. The film is also the #8 highest-earning film of all time in Japan and topped Japan's box office for 2022 in terms of yen earned and tickets sold.
The film's story is set in February 2012, a little after the stories in the Digimon Adventure tri anime and the Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna anime. The film will feature main lead Daisuke Motomiya (Davis Motomiya in English) and other main characters at 20 years old.
Director Tomohisa Taguchi (four-part Persona 3 the Movie film series, Kino's Journey - The Beautiful World, Twin Star Exorcists) and scriptwriter Akatsuki Yamatoya (Digimon Adventure, Digimon Frontier, Digimon: Data Squad), the anime studio Yumeta Company, and the production company Toei Animation returned from Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna.
The encore screening opened in Japan on October 20. The film originally opened in Japan in September 2022.
The film — described as part of a "new theatrical film series" — is entirely composed of concert footage of the ST☆RISH idol group. Noriyasu Agematsu was once again credited as the original creator with Broccoli. Elements Garden composed the music, and A-1 Pictures produced the film. Shochiku is distributing the film.
The film has both the highest-ever ticket sales for the franchise, as well as being the highest-earning film in the franchise.
Eiga Precure All Stars F opened on September 15, and features all 77 Precure magical girls, from the franchise's first installment in Futari wa Pretty Cure, to the latest ongoing installment Soaring Sky! Precure (Hirogaru Sky! Precure).
The film sold about 357,000 tickets to earn 437,456,060 yen (about US$2.93 million) at the Japanese box office in its opening three-day weekend. This is the highest opening weekend box office for the Precure franchise.
The first film in the anime based on Bandai Namco Entertainment's The Idolm@ster Shiny Colors browser game opened outside of the top 10, but it earned 40,284,350 yen (about US$268,100) from Friday to Sunday. The film is running in Japan from October 27 through November 16.
The live-action film of Kaiji Kawaguchi's The Silent Service manga is still off the top 10 in its fifth weekend, but it still earned 35,610,990 yen (about US$238,200) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 1,247,473,660 yen (about US$8.34 million).
Sources: Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2), comScore via KOFIC
