Tetsuya Nakashima’s Confessions retained its top spot at the Japanese box office this past weekend for the third week in a row, holding off major Hollywood and local releases during its run.

In the 16 days since its June 5 opening, Confessions has earned $17.1m (Y1.55b) on 1,194,344 admissions.
 
Rarely seen in the territory, weekend box office returns have increased week-on-week from the same screen count. Toho opened the film on 266 screens on June 5, grossing $3.01m. Its second week take of $3.14m showed a 4% increase, with a further 1% uptick this week.
 
Confessions has held off a string of big releases during its run including The Book Of Eli, Iron Man 2, Takeshi Kitano’s Outrage, domestic drama Flowers and Sex And The City 2.
 
Based on an award-winning and best-selling novel by Kanae Minato, Confessions stars Takako Matsu as a junior high school teacher who plots an elaborate revenge on two of her students after they murder her young daughter.
 
Japanese audiences have been impressed with Confessions’ faithfulness to the original novel, heavily stylized visuals and bold use of music, including a track contributed by Radiohead.
 
Heading up the film’s development and production consortium, Confessions also continues leading distributor and exhibitor Toho’s increasing return to live-action film production.
 
Confessions will have its international premiere at the upcoming New York Asian Film Festival (June 25-July 8).
 
 

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