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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.

The live-action film adaptation of Akane Shimizu's manga series Cells at Work! opened across Japan on December 13. The movie directed by Hideki Takeuchi ( Thermae Romae live-action film series) earned 844 million yen (5.48 million Usd) on 611,000 admissions between Friday and Sunday, making a first-place debut in the weekend box office ranking, according to the film's official website . The opening box office performance ranks third among live-action Japanese films released in 2024, behind Kingdom: Return of the Great General in July ( 1.629 billion yen ) and Last Mile in August ( 978 million yen ). Till We Meet Again on the Lily Hill , the most successful live-action Japanese film released last December, ultimately earned 4.5 billion yen from its total domestic run. The movie also ranked third in Filmarks' first-day satisfaction ranking with an average rating of 3.88/5.0 based on 2,213 reviews. Following the TV anime series and a short anime film produced by Toei Animation, a live-action film adaptation of...

Kowloon Generic Romance , a mystery romance manga series by Jun Mayuzuki ( After the Rain ), will be adapted into a TV anime and live-action movie in 2025. The official website for the adaptation project is also open today, with a trailer introducing the main cast members of both the anime and live-action. The manga has been serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump since November 2019, releasing nine tankoboon volumes to date. Yen Press, which has published the manga's English edition since August 2022, describes the synopsis: Struck by a reality they didn’t wish for, some ask, “Do I not exist in this world?” They can confirm their own presence, and Kowloon’s, and they can even smell and taste...In this town filled with secrets, Kujirai doubts her own existence. Each day is painful, but will it be different if Kudou is by her side? In the TV anime, Haruka Shiraishi (Asirpa...

Local animated features led Japanese box office in the first half of 2024 as just two Hollywood titles broke the top 10.

Of the 20 highest-grossing films released so far this year, 15 were produced in Japan. Six out of the top 10 titles are anime features.

Dominating the first half of 2024 was Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram, the 27th annual entry in a series of films about a high school detective who has been shrunk to child-like proportions. The film has earned $94.4m (¥15.19bn) – a record for the long-running franchise. By comparison, 2023’s top-grossing film, animation The First Slam Dunk, took $98.6m (¥15.87bn) over...