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Live-Action The Samurai and the Prisoner Film Drops to #5, SHIBOYUGI: Cloudy Beach Debuts at #11 in Japan

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's live-action film adaptation of Honobu Yonezawa's The Samurai and the Prisoner (Kokurōjō) samurai historical mystery novel dropped from #4 to #5 in its fourth weekend. The film earned 56,289,900 yen (about US$347,200) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 945,850,980 yen (about US$5.83 million).

The film opened in Japan on June 19, and ranked at #2 in its opening weekend. The film sold 196,000 tickets and earned 274,140,380 yen (about US$1.68 million) in its first three days.

Yen Press released the novel in English, and it describes the story:

The winter of 1578, four years prior to the Honnnoji Incident. Araki Murashige has betrayed his ally Oda Nobunaga and holed up in Arioka Castle—but a string of strange incidents within the castle walls has him at his wits' end. The desperate warlord's only hope in solving these mysteries is imprisoned in the castle's dungeon: a man named Kuroda Kanbei, one of Oda's most gifted strategists. When all the conflict and intrigue reach their end, what will Murashige and Kuroda have up their sleeves? 

Yonezawa (Hyōka, SHOSHIMIN: How to become Ordinary) and Kadokawa published the novel in June 2021. The novel won the Naoki Prize (a biannual Japanese literary award for new and rising authors), and won Kadokawa's 2021 Fūtarō Yamada award. It also ranked #1 in the Mystery ga Yomitai!, Shūkan Bunshun Mystery Best 10, Kono Mystery ga Sugoi!, and Honkaku Mystery Best 10 guidebooks for 2022, and is the first to place at #1 in all four rankings. It ranked at #1 in Rekishi/Jidai Shōsetsu Best 3 (Historical/Period Novels Best 3) award from Asahi Shimbun's Weekly Asahi magazine in 2021.

Soreike! Anpanman: Pantan to Yakusoku no Hoshi (Pantan and the Promised Star), the 37th film in the franchise, dropped from #5 to #6 in its third weekend. The film earned 45,764,360 yen (about US$282,200) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 277,535,870 yen (about US$1.71 million).

The film opened in Japan on June 26, and ranked at #5 in its opening weekend, earning 123,462,050 yen (about US$759,600) in its first three days.

The story centers on a new character named Pantan, played by guest star Tao Tsuchiya. Pantan is a red panda who seeks to find the treasure thought to be in a rainbow star in the night sky, in order to keep a promise made to an adventurer long ago. When Pantan and Anpanman encounter each other, Anpanman lends his abilities to help out Pantan.

Hiroyuki Yano, who has directed numerous previous films in the franchise, returned to direct the new film. Shoji Yonemura, a similar veteran of the franchise, penned the film's script. Franchise composers Taku Izumi and Hiroaki Kondō composed the music.

The 4K restoration of Studio Ghibli's Kiki's Delivery Service film rose from #8 to #7 in its fourth weekend, and earned 50,914,600 yen (about US$314,000) from Friday to Sunday. The film's restoration screening has earned a cumulative total of 558,598,300 yen (about US$3.44 million). 

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie — Nintendo, Illumination, and Universal Pictures' sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie —  rejoined the top 10 list in its 12th weekend at #9. The film earned 29,170,750 yen (about US$179,900) from Friday to Sunday. The film has sold a total of 5.71 million tickets, and has earned a cumulative total of 7,848,465,940 yen (about US$48.41 million).

The film opened at #1 at the Japanese box office. The film sold 1.121 million tickets and earned 1,601,093,600 yen (about US$9.96 million) in its first three days.

The film opened in the United States and the United Kingdom on April 1, in other select territories on April 3, and in Japan on April 24.

Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri and Nintendo representative director and fellow Shigeru Miyamoto again produced Illumination and Universal Pictures' new film. Directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and screenwriter Matthew Fogel returned from the previous film for the new project. Brian Tyler returned to compose the soundtrack.

Detective Conan: Highway no Datenshi (Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway), the Detective Conan franchise's 29th film, re-entered the list at #10 in its 14th weekend. The film earned 31,736,500 yen (about US$195,700) from Friday to Sunday. The film has sold a total of 9.19 million tickets, and has earned a cumulative total of 13,566,408,100 yen (about US$83.68 million).

The film is now the fourth consecutive film in the franchise to earn more than 10 billion yen, beginning with 2023's Detective Conan: Black Iron Submarine film.

The film sold 2,318,009 tickets and earned 3,502,137,800 yen (about US$21.9 million) in its first three days, making a new opening-weekend record for the franchise, and debuting at #1 at the Japanese box office. 

The new film centers on the character Chihaya Hagiwara, member of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police and the leader of its motorcycle division. Miyuki Sawashiro now voices the character, replacing the late Atsuko Tanaka. The movie also features Kanagawa inspector Jugo Yokomizo, teenage detective Masumi Sera, Chihaya's late younger brother Kenji Hagiwara, and Kenji's Police Academy classmate Jinpei Matsuda.

The limited two-week screening run for the SHIBOYUGI: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table 44: CLOUDY BEACH anime film ranked at #11 in its opening weekend.

The film opened in Japan on July 10. Netflix began streaming the anime worldwide on July 13. The film features a returning staff.

The film's story continues from the series, after Yuuki overcomes the "thirty-game-jinx," the arbitrary (yet nevertheless real) number of games where long-time survivors of the games begin to have drastically reduced rates of survival. Yuuki continues playing games, this time on a remote island in the middle of the ocean with seven other players, and among them is someone Yuuki knows. The game they are about to play is called "Cloudy Beach."

SHIBOYUGI: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table, the television anime of writer Yūshi Ukai and artist Nekometal's Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table (Shibō Yūgi de Meshi o Kuu) light novel series, debuted on January 7, and the first episode was 60 minutes long.

Shin Gekijōban ☆ Keroro Gunsō Fukkatsu Shite Sokkō Chikyū Metsubō no Kiki de Arimasu! (New Sgt. Frog the Movie: The Earth Is in Mortal Peril as Soon as We Come Back!), the new 20th anniversary anime film project for the Sgt. Frog franchise, dropped off the list in its third weekend.

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