A silver giant from the Land of Light felled the detective boy. The Shinji Higuchi (The attack of the Titans live action movies, shin godzilla)-directed brand new live action movie ShinUltramanone of the most anticipated Japanese films of the year, was finally released in 362 theaters across Japan on May 13, 2022, then raked in an impressive 730 million yen (5.65 million USD) from 450,000 entries on its first Saturday and Sunday, easily becoming the No. 1 film of the weekend.
RELATED: Anno and Higuchi’s Shin Ultraman Crushes Shin Godzilla in First 3 Days at Box Office JP
The reboot film based on the first from Tsuburaya Productions Ultraman The 1966 television series was originally scheduled for release in early summer 2021, but was delayed a year to May 13, 2022, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the first three days of its release, the 113-minute film attracted 640,000 viewers and grossed over 993 million yen (7.68 million USD). Compared to Higuchi’s previous film’s three-day gross total shin godzilla in 2016, it drew 113.5% of moviegoers and 117.2% of box office gross.
Only in the first three days, ShinUltraman has already become the most successful film in the 56-year-old Ultraman franchise, surpassing the 2008 film Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers‘ gross total of 838 million yen (6.48 million USD). To Tsuburaya Fields Holdings 2020 Financial Results MeetingTsuburaya expected a box office gross of 8–10 billion yen.
Meanwhile, the film based on a screenplay by Hideaki Anno received mixed reviews. He placed fourth in Filmarks Day One Satisfaction Ranking with an average rating of 3.81/5.0 based on 11,244 reviews.
Coming second is Detective Conan: Halloween’s Bride, which raked in 300 million yen (2.32 million USD) from 207,000 admissions in its fifth weekend and eventually lost its No. 1 spot after dominating four consecutive weekends. Its gross total at the box office reached 7.5 billion yen (58 million USD) for 5.41 million admissions. It needs 150 million yen to become the third highest-grossing film in the Detective Conan anime franchise by surpassing the previous 24th film, The Scarlet Bullet (2021 / 7.65 billion yen).
After streaming globally on Netflix on April 28, Tetsuro Araki (The attack of the Titanslisten)) original animated feature Bubble was also released in 338 Japanese theaters on May 13 and debuted at number nine with around 55 million yen (US$425,610). It ranked seventh in Filmarks Day One Satisfaction Ranking with an average rating of 3.07/5.0 based on 1,044 reviews.
Japan Weekend Box Office Top 10 (May 14-15, 2022)
(based on ticket sales)
1 (new). “Shin Ultraman” – 993 million yen
2 (1). “Detective Conan: Halloween’s Bride” – 7.5 billion yen
3 (2). “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” – 1.6 billion yen
4 (3). “Crayon Shin-chan the Movie: Mononoke Ninja Chinpuden” – 1.47 billion yen
5 (new). “Rurou no Tsuki” – 132 million yen
6 (5). “Shi ni Itaru Yamai”
7 (4) “Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets” – 4.23 billion yen
8 (6). “Radiation House the Movie”
9 (new). “Bubble” – 55 million yen
10 (8). “Free! The Second Volume of Final Stroke”
“ShinUltraman” trailer:
“Bubble” trailer:
RELATED: Japanese box office: Detective Conan beats Doctor Strange even in its 4th weekend
Sources: Eiga.com, pixiin, Filmmarks
©Tsuburaya Productions ©2021 “Shin Ultraman” Production Committee
©2022 “Bubble” Production Committee
