Japan Box Office: ‘Jurassic World’ Dominates as Hollywood Claims Top 3 Spots

Jurassic World brought in $7.6 million (?941 million) from 611,000 admissions in Japan on Saturday and Sunday, up 9 percent from its $6.98 million debut weekend, to stay on top of the country’s box office and log a total of $35 million from nearly 3 million tickets sold.

The Obon holidays, when people honor their ancestors’ spirits, helped boost cinema-going in Japan this weekend.

Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation held on to number two with $4.6 million (?941 million) to take its total in Tom Cruise-loving Japan to nearly $20 million (?2.46 billion) from 1.89 million admissions.

Minions was one of five films to rebound on the charts this weekend, rising one spot to third and grossing $3.3 million for the weekend (?410 million) to take its total to $25 million (?3.15 billion) for Universal from 2.58 million admissions. That left Hollywood films in control of the top three spots on the box-office chart.

Mamoru Hosoda‘s anime film The Boy and the Beast (Bakemono no Koi) jumped from seventh to fourth during its sixth weekend in theaters.

Live-action manga adaptation Attack on Titan, which kept Minions from the top spot when it bowed three weekends ago, dropped one spot to sixth and has taken $17.8 million (?1.4 billion) from 1.66 million tickets despite a mixed critical reception.

Hero, the big-screen spinoff of Fuji TV’s hit drama series, both of which star Takuya Kimura as a public prosecutor, rose one spot to seventh.

This weekend marked the 70th memorial of the end of the Pacific War, and heavy media coverage of related events seems to have boosted interest in Masato Harada‘s The Emperor in August. The star-studded film about the 24 hours leading up to Japan’s surrender in WWII brought in $1.45 million (?180 million) over the weekend to propel it two places up the charts to number eight, outdoing its $1.2 million bow last weekend. It has brought in $4.87 million (?606 million) from 489,000 admissions so far.  

Pixar’s Inside Out, released in Japan under the title Inside Head, held on to the ninth spot in its fifth weekend in theaters and has now grossed $25.65 million (?3.19 billion) for Disney in Japan.

Pokemon the Movie: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages, the 18th installment in the evergreen anime franchise, crept back into the top 10 on its fifth weekend of theatrical release and has now grossed $16 million (?1.99 billion) in Japan.

Next weekend sees the Japan release of Dan Gilroy‘s Nightcrawler, starring Jake Gyllenhaal.  

Twitter: @GavinJBlair