Lee Sang-il’s kabuki epic Kokuho has turn into Japan’s highest-grossing native live-action movie of all time, after reaching $111.5m (¥17.38bn) over the nation’s current vacation weekend (November 22-24).
The movie broke the report beforehand set by 2003’s Bayside Shakedown 2 and is now Japan’s Eleventh-highest-grossing function of all time.
Kokuho opened in Japan on June 6, starting a future through which it initially outperformed its earlier weekend takings for a number of weeks.
The movie, which premiered at Cannes in Administrators’ Fortnight, has drawn a complete of 12.3 million admissions in Japan and is the nation’s submission to the upcoming Oscars. It’s distributed within the US by Toho-owned Gkids, the place it has been taking part in in Los Angeles and New York forward of increasing nationwide in 2026.
The story centres on the son of a yakuza boss, performed by Ryo Yoshizawa, who’s taken underneath the wing of a famend kabuki actor, performed by Ken Watanabe, following the dying of his father. The younger man dedicates his life to the artwork of kabuki – a classical type of Japanese theatre identified for its costumes and elaborate make-up – alongside the organic son (Ryusei Yokohama) of the veteran actor.
The story is customized from Shuichi Yoshida’s 2017 novel of the identical identify with a screenplay written by Satoko Okudera, identified for her work on Mamoru Hosoda’s animated hits Summer season Wars, The Woman Who Leapt By way of Time and Wolf Kids.
In July, Kokuho producer Chieko Murata advised Display screen: “We all know that Cannes movies are likely to have issue in reaching business field workplace success however Kokuho has good stability of high quality and leisure, so we’re thrilled the movie has been accepted by a large viewers.”
At primary throughout Japan’s lengthy vacation weekend was Tokyo Taxi (Shochiku), the most recent function from 94-year-old director Yoji Yamada, who shared the stage with Kokuho director Lee at a chat session at this 12 months’s Tokyo Worldwide Movie Competition. The movie, which stars Takuya Kimura (La Grande Maison Paris) and Chieko Baisho (Plan 75), earned $1.88m (¥293m) on 214,000 admissions over its first three days, and $2.56m (¥400m) on 290,000 admissions together with the Monday vacation. It marks Yamada’s 91st function movie.
In second place was Suzuki=Bakudan (Warner Bros), a home crime thriller in its fourth week, which has to date earned a complete of $12.2m (¥1.9bn), whereas at third was new entry Scarlet, the most recent animated movie from Oscar-nominated Mamoru Hosoda (Mirai).
Scarlet, which is distributed by Toho and Sony, earned $1.35m (¥210m) on 136,000 admissions Friday to Sunday and $1.7m (¥270m) on 170,000 admissions together with Monday’s vacation. It is going to have an awards-qualifying run by way of Sony Photos Classics within the US this December adopted by an Imax-exclusive launch on February 6 and a large launch on February 13.