'Skyfall' Opens in Top Box Office Spot in Japan

TOKYO – Skyfall leapt into the number one spot on its opening weekend in Japan, with nearly 400,000 moviegoers dropping into theaters to give the latest Bond a two-day total of 455 million yen ($5.5 million)

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Opening on 584 screens - 355 showing the subtitled version against 229 for dubbed - Saturday saw 252,000 admissions, falling to 147,000 on Sunday. 

Although Skyfall opened 69 percent bigger in Japan than Casino Royale, and 49 percent ahead of Quantum of Solace, it may not be the stellar bow that Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) would have been hoping for given the heavy promotion the film has received. Casino Royale finished with 2.21 billion yen ($27 million), while Quantum of Solace racked up 2 billion, according to SPE.

Evangelion : 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, the anime film that had been in the No.1 spot since its record opening on Nov. 17, pulled in $13.9 million over its first weekend.

Third spot on the weekend charts went to another big screen version of a TV anime, Inazuma Eleven, while Takashi Miike’s Aku no Kyoten (Lesson of the Evil) was in fourth. Period action drama Nobo no Shiro (The Floating Castle) rounded out the top five.

Twitter@GavinJBlair