Japan Box Office Top 10: BLUE GIANT Anime Makes Its 8th Place Debut

The anime film adaptation of Shinichi Ishizuka's jazz-themed manga BLUE GIANT finally released in 200 theaters across Japan on February 17, 2023, then ranked a little disappointing eighth in its opening weekend. The film earned an estimated 25 million yen (194,400 USD) on its first day of release.

Contrary to the slightly lackluster first-week results, audiences gave the film a very high rating. It ranked No.1 on Filmarks' first-day satisfaction ranking with an average rating of 4.3/5.0 based on 1,667 reviews, which was higher than Makoto Shinkai's latest feature Suzume, which got 4.00/5.0 based on 6,585 reviews last November.

After dominating the Japanese box office for two weeks in a row, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -To the Swordsmith Village- ranked second with 340 million yen (2.64 million USD) on 246,000 admissions, giving first place to the latest MCU film, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The 110-minute feature film edition's cumulative total gross has reached 2.637 billion yen (20.5 million USD) on 1.874 million admissions.

In its 12th weekend, THE FIRST SLAM DUNK ranked fourth, two positions down from the previous weekend. Meanwhile, Makoto Shinkai's Suzume dropped to ninth in its 15th weekend, four places down from last weekend.

Sasaki and Miyano: Graduation Arc, a feature film sequel to the 12-episode TV anime adaptation of Sho Harusono's boys love manga in 2022, was released in 45 theaters on February 17, and didn't appear in the overall weekend box office top 10 ranking.

Weekend box office Top 10 in Japan (February 17-19, 2023)

(ticket sales basis)

1 (new). "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" - 411 million yen

2 (1). "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -To the Swordsmith Village-" - 2.637 billion yen

3 (new). "Shylock no Kodomo-tachi" - 226 million yen

4 (2). "THE FIRST SLAM DUNK"

5 (5). "Titanic 25th Anniversary 3D Remaster Edition"

6 (3). "LEGEND & BUTTERFLY"

7 (7). "BTS: Yet To Come in Cinemas" - 670 million yen

8 (new). "BLUE GIANT"

9 (4). "Suzume"

10 (6). "Babylon"