Japan box office dominated by local features in 2024

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Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram

‘Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram’

Domestic features led the Japan box office in 2024 with no live-action titles from outside the country making the top 10.

In the year since December 2023, eight of the Japan’s top 10 highest-grossing films were produced domestically, with only two US features – Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4 – making the list.

Significantly, no live-action features from outside the country made the top 10, a sign that Hollywood tentpoles are having difficulty penetrating Japan’s cinematic market.

Recent years have seen titles such as Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Fast & Furious 9 (2021) and Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2020) perform strongly in Japan. But only Wonka and Deadpool & Wolverine came close to cracking the top 10 over the past year, taking $15.4m (¥2.37bn) and $13m (¥2bn) respectively – around half of the takings of the 10^th ranked title.

Japan’s top film of 2024 was animation Detective Conan: The Million-dollar Pentagram, which earned $102m (¥15.7bn). The 27th entry in an annual film franchise based on a popular detective manga, it is also that franchise’s highest-earning entry to date, and Japan’s 14th-highest-grossing film of all time.

In second place was Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle, an animated sequel to a long-running manga and anime about high school volleyball teams. The film earned $74.9m (¥11.5bn), making it the only other film to cross the ¥10bn mark this year. By comparison, three films topped ¥10bn in 2023 while four hit the milestone in 2022.

The highest-earning live-action film of the year was Kingdom 4: Return Of The Great General, the latest in the China-set epic directed by Shinsuke Sato. Kingdom is an adaptation of a long-running manga of the same name by Yasuhisa Hara, which has run for 73 volumes to date. Kingdom 4 earned $52m (¥7.98bn), a record for the franchise. The fifth entry is understood to be in production.

In fourth was Spy × Family Code: White, an animated feature based on a manga and anime series about a family of undercover spies. Released on December 22, 2023, the film earned $41.2m (¥6.32bn).

Live-action crime thriller Last Mile ranked fifth with takings of $38.3m (¥5.89bn). The film featured characters from two TV dramas, Unnatural and MIU404, which aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS).

A breakdown of the year in cinema, including overall admissions and box office figures for the year, is set to be released by Japan’s Motion Picture Producers Association (Eiren) in late January.