Japan Box Office: Lonely Castle in the Mirror Makes Its 6th Place Debut

The anime film adaptation of Mizuki Tsujimura's fantasy novel Kagami no Kojou (English edition title: Lonely Castle in the Mirror) was released in 307 theaters across Japan on December 23, then earned 40 million yen (301,045 USD) on its first day and ranked sixth in its first weekend. The film is directed by Keiichi Hara (Crayon Shin-chan films, Birthday Wonderland) and A-1 Pictures (Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, Sword Art Online) works on anime production.

Contrary to its modest box-office performance, the film was very well received by audiences. It ranked No.1 on Filmarks' first day satisfaction ranking with an average rating of 3.94/5.0 based on 455 reviews.

The live-action film adaptation of Hikaru Nakamura's (Arakawa Under the Bridge, Saint Young Men) Black Night Parade manga also opened in Japan in the same weekend. The Yuichi Fukuda (Hentai Kamen, Gintama, Kyo Kara Ore Wa! live-ation film series)-directed film made 210 million yen (1.58 million USD) on 164,000 admissions from its first three-day weekend, making its fourth place debut. The response from the audience was less than positive, ranking only fifth on Filmarks' first day satisfaction ranking with an average rating of 3.25/5.0 based on 329 reviews.

The weekend's top-grossing film was still THE FIRST SLAM DUNK. In its fourth weekend, the new anime feature film adaptation of Takehiko Inoue's basket ball-themed sports manga in the 1990s earned 462 million yen (3.48 million USD) on 302,000 admissions, staying on the top place for four consecutive weekends. Its cumulative total gross has finally surpassed 5 billion yen (30.5 million USD) on 2.81 million admissions.

Coming in second was, once again, Makoto Shinkai's latest feature Suzume, which had kept the same position for four weekends. The film earned 398 million yen (2.99 million USD) on 299,000 admissions, bringing its total to 10.01 billion yen (75.25 million USD) on 7.45 million admissions. It has become the third film that has surpassed the 10 billion yen mark in Japan, following One Piece Film Red and Top Gun Maverick.

In its fifth weekend, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime The Movie: Scarlet Bond, a new anime feature film sequel based on Fuse's Japanese fantasy light novel series, ranked tenth, four positions down from the previous weekend. Its cumulative total domestic gross has reached 1.13 billion yen (8.5 million USD). Crunchyroll will release the film in all major global territories (excluding Asia) in early 2023.

One Piece Film Red finally disappeared from the top 10 in its 21st weekend. Its total domestic gross has now reached 18.72 billion yen (140.8 million USD), making it the sixth highest-grossing Japanese film of all-time. After making its eighth place debut last weekend, Kaguya-sama: Love is War -The First Kiss That Never Ends-, an all-new feature anime film based on Aka Akasaka's romantic comedy manga, also disappeared from the top 10 in its second weekend.

Weekend box office Top 10 in Japan (December 24-25, 2022)

(ticket sales basis)

1 (1). "THE FIRST SLAM DUNK" - 5.06 billion yen

2 (1). "Suzume" - 10.01 billion yen

3 (3). "Avatar: The Way of Water" - 1.44 billion yen

4 (new). "Black Night Parade" - 210 million yen

5 (4). "Dr. Koto Shinryojo" - 1.01 billion yen

6 (new). "Lonely Castle in the Mirror" - 140 million yen

7 (new). "Kamen Rider Geats × Revice: Movie Battle Royale"

8 (5). "Lager yori Ai wo Komete" - 1.11 billion yen

9 (7). "Tsuki no Michikake" - 1 billion yen

10 (6). "That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime The Movie: Scarlet Bond" - 1.13 billion yen