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Live-Action Golden Kamuy Film Opens at #1 With 533.8 Million Yen

The live-action film of Satoru Noda's Golden Kamuy manga topped the Japanese box office in its opening weekend of January 19-21. The film sold 356,000 tickets and earned 533,848,690 yen (about US$3.62 million) in its first three days.

The film opened in Japan last Friday.

Shigeaki Kubo directed the film at production company CREDEUS. Tsutomu Kuroiwa wrote the script. Yutaka Yamada composed the music. Hiroshi Nakagawa and Debo Akibe are credited for Ainu supervision. Japanese rock group ACIDMAN performed the theme song "Kagayakerumono" (Those Who Shine).

Satoru Noda launched the manga in Shueisha's Young Jump magazine in 2014, and ended it in April 2022. The manga has inspired four anime seasons, and production of the anime's final arc has been green-lit.

The SPY×FAMILY Code: White anime film dropped from #1 to #2 in its fifth weekend, after four weeks at #1. The film sold 189,900 tickets for 261,352,510 yen yen (about US$1.77 million) from Friday to Sunday. The film has sold 3.89 million tickets for a cumulative total of 5,238,789,840 yen yen (about US$35.49 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 live-action film of Yama Wayama's Let's Go Karaoke! (Karaoke Iko!) manga rose from #8 to #7 in its second weekend. The film earned 77,177,550 yen (about US$522,800) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a total of 223,806,970 yen (about US$1.52 million).

The film opened in Japan on January 12. 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.

Godzilla Minus One, Takashi Yamazaki's new film in TOHO's Godzilla franchise, dropped from #7 to #8 in its 12th weekend. The film earned 73,143,340 yen (about US$495,500) from Friday to Sunday. The film has earned a cumulative total of 5,454,610,580 yen (about US$37.0 million).

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 Kitarō Tanjō: Gegege no Nazo (Kitarō Birth: The Mystery of Gegege) anime film dropped from #6 to #9 in its 10th weekend. The film earned 64,775,820 yen (about US$438,800) from Friday to Sunday. The film has earned a cumulative total of 2,344,966,920 yen (about US$15.89 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.

Detective Conan vs. Kid the Phantom Thief, the compilation film for the Detective Conan franchise, dropped from #9 to #10 in its third weekend.

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 Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete 4K Remaster film ranked at #1 in the mini-theater ranking in its first weekend.

Sources: Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2, link 3), comScore via KOFIC