Detective Conan is one of the most successful anime franchises in Japan with the latest film in the long-running series leading this year’s local box office with takings of nearly $100m. But it is only on its 27th instalment that the character will be seen in cinemas across the UK and Ireland for the first time this weekend.
“We saw an opportunity in the UK, because it had not been exploited before,” says Cedric Behrel, managing director of Trinity CineAsia, which is venturing into Japanese animation market for the first time with the release.
The UK-based distributor will open Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram on 106 screens from September 27.
“It wouldn’t qualify as a wide release in studio terms, but we’re not in the days of limited release as it was understood in the past, especially with the willingness of cinemas to try out new content and find new audiences,” says Behrel.
“The challenge is to keep the film playing. A lot of anime films have had event releases that capitalise on the first weekend. We’d like for the film to stay on a little bit longer in cinemas to hold these screens.”
The film remained in cinemas for 14 weeks in Japan, where the franchise has an established fanbase, leading the box office for six weeks following its release on April 12. It earned $97.5m from more than 10.8 million admissions, comfortably positioning it as the biggest film in Japan this year and ranking as the ninth highest grossing Japanese feature locally of all time. It reportedly took a further $35m in China, $5.3m in South Korea and $4.8m in Vietnam.
The series, known as Case Closed in North America and several other territories, follows a pint-sized detective on his wild adventures. Detective Conan: The Million Dollar Pentagram is billed as a mystery adventure that promises to uncover the truth behind Kid the Phantom Thief, a fan-favourite rival of the detective.
Directed by Chika Nagaoka, it is written by Takahiro Okura with a voice cast led by Minami Takayama as Conan, Wakana Yamazaki as Ran Mori, Rikiya Koyama as Kogoro Mori, Kappei Yamaguchi as Kid the Phantom Thief and Ryo Horikawa as Heiji Hattori.
The films, released annually since 1997, are animated by TMS Entertainment and distributed by Toho. The franchise was launched by manga artist Gosho Aoyama in 1994 with an ongoing manga that now has over 270 million copies in print. There is also a TV anime series that has surpassed 1,100 episodes in over 40 countries.
The film series has been especially successful in recent years. Since 2018, every film except one (2021’s The Scarlet Bullet, whose release was impacted by Covid restrictions) has earned more than $62m (¥9bn) in Japan. Last year’s Black Iron Submarine earned $96m locally and $106.77m internationally.
Part of that success comes from simultaneously “respecting the spirit of the original manga while employing the forms of creation and presentation only animation can offer, from CG to vocal performances to music,” a spokesperson from TMS Entertainment told Screen.
“Because the series has been around for so long, we feel that it needs to be updated to keep up with the times. We feel we have been planting the seeds for the strong performance of the past few years for a long time.”
UK-Ireland debut
Despite decades of success for the franchise in Japan and throughout Asia, a Detective Conan film has never been released theatrically in the UK or Ireland.
Behrel puts this down to a number of factors. “The exhibition landscape has changed a lot,” he says. “Up to 15 years ago, the cost of a release would have been prohibitive on 35mm or VPF (virtual print fee). This is no longer the case.
“The way cinema programmers think has also changed a lot as they can now screen many more films than they used to and can find space in multiplexes. Offering a wider array of films creates opportunities for previously overlooked franchises like Conan to get a share of the silver screen.”
Behrel also points to a growing appetite for Japanese anime with titles such as One Piece, Your Name, Suzume, Belle and The First Slam Dunk opening the door for audiences and generating increasing interest from cinemagoers.
In the case of Detective Conan, he also suggests some distributors might have felt they missed the boat of a franchise that has been running since 1997 and that a challenge posed by releasing the 27th film in a series is introducing cinemagoers beyond the hardcore fanbase to long-standing characters and tangled subplots.
Ventris Ma, sales and distribution manager at Trinity CineAsia, says the latest instalment is more approachable for Conan first-timers than previous titles in the franchise.
“I have no doubt that fans would love last year’s film, Black Iron Submarine, but we want to bring the IP to the whole UK audience, not just the fans. Black Iron Submarine requires more knowledge of the franchise to enjoy,” says Ma. “The Million-Dollar Pentagram revolves around a treasure hunt and swordplay, which we think will be easier for the UK audience.”
In order to take advantage of Conan’s popularity among Chinese speakers, Trinity CineAsia has decided to release the film with both English and Chinese subtitles.
“We have a large Chinese-speaking audience here, who make up a big portion of our CineAsia label audience,” says Ma. “We think adding these subtitles can help draw more of this audience to the cinema.”
The distributor hosted a pop-up event in London’s Chinatown last weekend to promote the upcoming release, with fans and newcomers alike in attendance.
Introducing cinemagoers to the franchise, Trinity CineAsia is also looking to lean into its similarities and references to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. That ties into another decision faced by Trinity CineAsia in distributing the film: what to title it.
The franchise has long been labelled Case Closed in some English-speaking territories, a title chosen by the original North American licensor of the series to avoid potential legal issues associated with using the name “Conan”. On Sony-owned platform Crunchyroll, where the TV series streams in the UK, it is titled Case Closed (Detective Conan).
“We have decided to go with Detective Conan,” says Ma. “We think that when the general audience sees the name, they will link it with Arthur Conan Doyle. That is a discussion we had with TMS, and they are happy with our choice.”
“Case Closed is mostly used in the US, and because the American release will be after ours, there’s no benefit from cross-Atlantic promotion,” adds Behrel.
Looking ahead, Behrel says that Conan heralds the possibility of more anime releases from Trinity CineAsia.
“We’re very open to that as there’s a lot of animation being made and shown in the market right now,” says Behrel. “It’s a genre that has a lot of potential, specifically Asian animation, because there’s already a familiarity with it. I think there is some very strong talents and a hunger for it in Asia as well as here in the UK.”
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