Box Office Rundown

With several otaku-related films in Japanese theaters right now, here’s a rundown of how they’re doing.

Rurouni Kenshin, a live-action adaptation of the manga/anime series of the same name (sometimes known as Samurai X in the States) debuted the weekend of August 25th at number one, pushing The Avengers, released the previous week, to the number two spot. It held on at number one for two weeks, finally falling to the new Bayside Shakedown film this past weekend. As of September 2nd, Rurouni Kenshin had earned a very respectable 1.4 billion yen ($18 million).

Meanwhile, The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki held the number ten spot, impressive for a film that debuted almost two months ago. It’s earned 3.8 billion yen ($48 million) to date,  good news for director Mamoru Hosoda, whose previous film, Summer Wars, earned a total of $17.4 million (for a review of Wolf Children, look no further than the previous issue of this newsletter!).

Finally, this summer saw the release of the 15th (!) Pokemon film, the snappily-named Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! The Movie: Kyurem vs. the Sacred Swordsman: Keldeo. Hovering around 11th place as of September 2nd, this iteration of the colossal Pokemon franchise has earned a total of $43.5 million, or about $1 million for every syllable in its title.