Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s live-action adaptation of The Samurai and the Prisoner continues its theatrical run in Japan, landing at #5 during its fourth weekend. The historical mystery, based on the award-winning novel by Honobu Yonezawa, brought in approximately 56.2 million yen, pushing its total cumulative earnings to roughly 945.8 million yen (approx. $5.83 million).
The box office landscape saw several notable movements, including the return of major franchises to the top 10. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie surged back into the rankings at #9 during its 12th weekend, bringing its impressive total to over 7.8 billion yen. Meanwhile, the 29th entry in the long-running mystery franchise, Detective Conan: Highway no Datenshi, re-entered the charts at #10. This film remains a massive success for the studio, marking the fourth consecutive entry in the series to surpass the 10 billion yen milestone.
In other theatrical news, the 37th Anpanman feature, Soreike! Anpanman: Pantan to Yakusoku no Hoshi, slipped to #6 in its third weekend. Additionally, the limited two-week engagement for the anime film SHIBOYUGI: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table 44: CLOUDY BEACH debuted at #11. While the film saw a limited theatrical release starting July 10, international audiences gained access to the title shortly after via Netflix on July 13.
Rounding out the notable performances, the 4K restoration of Studio Ghibli’s classic Kiki's Delivery Service continues to perform well with domestic audiences. The re-release climbed to the #7 spot in its fourth weekend, proving the enduring appeal of the legendary studio's catalog as it approaches 558 million yen in total earnings for this current run.
