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SPY×FAMILY Code: White Stays at #1, Kitarō Tanjō: Gegege no Nazo Rises to #6

The SPY×FAMILY Code: White anime film stayed at #1 in its fourth weekend at the Japanese box office. The film sold 227,000 tickets for 317,050,130 yen (about US$2.17 million) from Friday to Sunday. The film has sold 3.61 million tickets for a cumulative total of 4,859,398,450 yen (about US$33.31 million).

The film opened in Japan on December 22. The film is an all-new work with an original story. The film sold 866,000 tickets and earned 1.224 billion yen (about US$8.61 million) in its first three days.

Crunchyroll will screen the film in North America in 2024.

Original manga creator Tatsuya Endō is credited with the original work and original character designs for the film, and he also supervised the film. WIT STUDIO and CloverWorks again animated the film.

New cast members for the film include Tomoya Nakamura as Dmitri, Kento Kaku as Luka, Banjō Ginga as Snijder, and Shunsuke Takeuchi as Type F.

The Kitarō Tanjō: Gegege no Nazo (Kitarō Birth: The Mystery of Gegege) anime film rose from #9 to #6 in its ninth weekend. The film earned 138,941,320 yen (about US$952,600) from Friday to Sunday. The film has sold a total of 1,569,000 tickets, and has earned a cumulative total of 2,237,386,180 yen (about US$15.34 million).

The film opened in Japan on November 17 and sold 111,500 tickets and earned 160,106,620 yen (about US$1.07 million) in its first three days.

Gō Koga (Gegege no Kitarō: Nippon Bakuretsu!!, One Piece Episode of Sabo) directed the film at Toei Animation, and Hiroyuki Yoshino (Macross Frontier, World Trigger, 13 episodes in 2018 GeGeGe no Kitarō) wrote the screenplay. Tōko Yatabe (2018 GeGeGe no Kitarō's third ending sequence unit director, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time assistant director) designed the characters. The main cast includes Toshihiko Seki as Kitarō's father, who would eventually become Medama Oyaji, and Hidenobu Kikuchi as Mizuki, a salaryman who heads to a cursed village under secret orders.

Godzilla Minus One, Takashi Yamazaki's new film in TOHO's Godzilla franchise, stayed at #7 in its 11th weekend. The film earned 113,843,850 yen (about US$780,500) from Friday to Sunday. The film has sold a total of 3.464 million tickets, and has earned a cumulative total of 5,325,455,830 yen (about US$36.51 million). As of last Friday, the film began screening on MX4D and 4DX in Japan.

Godzilla Minus One opened in Japan on November 3, 2023 ("Godzilla Day"), which was the anniversary of the first Godzilla film's November 3, 1954 release. The new film screened at The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) as the closing film of this year's event on November 1.

The film sold 648,600 tickets for 1,041,193,460 yen (about US$6.93 million) in its first three days in the Japanese box office. The film sold 14.7% more tickets and earned 22.8% more in its first three days than the last live-action Japanese Godzilla film, Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi's Shin Godzilla, did in its first three days in 2016.

Ryunosuke Kamiki plays protagonist Kōichi Shikishima, and Minami Hamabe plays heroine Noriko Ōishi. (The two also lead the cast of NHK's ongoing weekday morning series Ranman.) Other cast members include Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Andō, and Kuranosuke Sasaki.

The live-action film of Yama Wayama's Let's Go Karaoke! (Karaoke Iko!) manga ranked at #8 in its opening weekend. The film earned 83,089,290 yen (about US$569,700) in its first three days.

The film had its world premiere at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival in Taiwan on November 15. Director Nobuhiro Yamashita was in attendance.

The film was previously slated to open last year, but was delayed to January 2024.

Yamashita (Linda Linda Linda, live-action Cream Lemon film) directed the film, with a script by Akiko Nogi (INU-OH, Library Wars, live-action I am a Hero film).

Wayama released the manga as a dōjin publication in 2019, and Kadokawa published it in September 2020. The manga came in third place for the 14th Manga Taisho awards in 2021. The manga has 500,000 copies in circulation.

Detective Conan vs. Kid the Phantom Thief, the compilation film for the Detective Conan franchise, dropped from #4 to #9. The film earned 81,662,600 yen (about US$559,800) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 371,514,200 yen (about US$2.54 million).

The film opened in Japan on January 5, prior to the release of the upcoming Detective Conan: Hyakuman Doru no Michishirube film on April 12. The film earned 189,438,900 yen (about US$1.30 million) in its first three days.

The compilation combines and re-edits television episodes including the debut of Kid the Phantom Thief, and adds new footage to the story in episode 76, when Conan and Kid had their first confrontation. The special also features exclusive new footage of "cherished interactions" between the two characters.

The live-action sequel film Tonde Saitama ~Biwako Yori Ai o Komete~ (Fly Me to Saitama: From Lake Biwa With Love) dropped off the top 10 in its seventh weekend, but still earned 63,404,530 yen (about US$437,600) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 2,184,948,550 yen (about US$15.08 million).

Shinei Animation's anime film of Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window (Madoigwa no Totto-chan) autobiographical memoir is still off the top 10 in its fifth weekend, but it earned 50,935,040 yen (about US$351,600) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 762,516,630 yen (about US$5.26 million).

Sources: Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2), comScore via KOFIC