News

Shirobako Sequel Film Opens at #3 With 115 Million Yen

The film sold 84,000 tickets and earned 115 million yen ($1.05 million) to rank at #3 in its opening weekend. The film opened in 158 theaters in Japan last Saturday. Despite selling less tickets that the #2 film, Stolen Identity 2 (SmaPho o Otoshita Dake Nanoni: Toraware no Satsujinki), Shirobako actually earned 3 million yen more ($30,000) due to its higher ticket prices.

The film's opening weekend gross is 89.5% that of the 2015 Tsutomu Mizushima's previous feature-length anime film. The Eiga.com website projects that the film will earn 1 billion yen ($9.23 million) or higher.

Pia's exit poll of filmgoers on opening day reported a satisfaction rating of 93.6,, the highest among this past week's new films, from a survey sample of 73 people.

The film's story is set four years after the events of the original Shirobako anime. Aoi Miyamori keeps busy dealing with the ordinary troubles in her daily work at Musashino Animation. After a morning meeting, Watanabe talks to Aoi and puts her in charge of a new theatrical anime project for the studio. The project has unexpected problems, and Aoi is unsure if the company can proceed with a theatrical anime with its current state of affairs. While dealing with that anxiety, Aoi meets a new colleague named Kaede Miyai (Ayane Sakura). She and the MusAni team work together to complete the project.

The returning staff includes director Tsutomu Mizushima, animation studio Infinite.

The live-action Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku (Otaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii) manga dropped from #4 to #7 in its fourth weekend. The film earned 48,682,750 yen ($449,600) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 1,123,119,600 yen ($10.37 million).

The film Yūichi Fukuda.

The Eiga.com website is projecting that the film will eventually earn more than 1.5 billion yen ($13.66 million). Pia's exit poll of filmgoers on opening day reported a satisfaction rating of 83.9 from a survey sample of 85 people.

The manga inspired an 11-episode television anime that premiered in April 2018. The anime streamed on Amazon Prime Video inside and outside of Japan.

The film dropped from #6 to #9 in its second weekend. The film earned 32,197,700 yen ($297,400) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 196,270,300 yen ($1.81 million).

The film opened at #6 in its opening weekend. The film opened on February 21 in 48 theaters.

screen the film with English subtitles in select theaters in the United States on March 25.

Blue Spring Ride) was the chief animation director. Toei Animation is credited for production.

Kenji Watanabe designed the Digimon monsters for the new project, as he did for the previous Digimon projects.

Kamen Rider Zi-O Next Time: Geiz, Majesty opened at #1 on the mini-theater chart.

Reconguista in G the Movie II Bellri's Fierce Charge (Gekijōban opened in Japan on February 21.

The first film, Gekijōban ranked at #1 in the mini-theater rankings for its two weekends.

opened in Japan on February 21.

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