Japanese prodco Toei announced on Wednesday that its total box office earning for 2022 (from January 1 to December 31) is adding up to JP¥32,563,660,570 (~US$246 million) from 23,646,555 tickets sold — surpassing its previous record high of JP¥17.98 billion in 2009 (~S$136.2 million at the current exchange rate). This success was supported by new releases for two major franchises: One Piece and Slam Dunk.
One Piece Film Red, the 15th movie based on Eiichiro Oda’s smash-hit pirate manga, was released in Japan on August 6 to the franchises’ (and Toei’s) biggest-ever opening (JP¥1.23B/US$9.3M) and the third film to make over a billion yen on opening day in the nation’s cinema history. Just in Japan, the film has sold 13.79M tickets and made over JP¥19B (~US$143M).
Outside Japan, One Piece Film Red has a ballpark international gross of US$35.5M, with the biggest returns from North America, France and Germany. Crunchyroll released the pic in NorAm and scored a No. 2 opening (behind DC superhero pic Black Adam) with US$9.3M.
Read more about One Piece Film Red in our feature story here.
The First Slam Dunk, written and directed by original Slam Dunk manga creator Takehiko Inoue about a high school basketball team, opened in Japan on December 3 at No. 1 with JP¥6.7B (US$50.7M) and has held onto the top spot for six consecutive weeks. The franchise’s blockbuster return to screens after some 27 years has sold 5.27M tickets in 38 days.
Japan has had one of the swiftest post-COVID box-office recoveries in Asia, reaching about 90% of pre-pandemic levels of business last year with the help of hot anime titles (which also included Jujutsu Kaisen 0, Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween and Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume).
Toei’s previous record in 2009 was bolstered by another Monkey D. Luffy adventure, One Piece Film Strong World, as well as the tokusatsu double feature Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker / Samurai Sentai Shinkenger the Movie: The Fateful War and the multi-award-winning live-action historical drama Mt. Tsurugidake.
[Sources: Deadline, Mantan Web via Anime News Network, BoxOfficeMojo]
