Film beats Japanese debut of Terminator Genisys for 2-day weekend sales, tickets

Mamoru Hosoda's The Boy and the Beast film debut at #1 during the July 11-12 weekend, topping the Japanese debut of Terminator Genisys . The Boy and the Beast opened on 457 screens, and earned 667,035,100 yen (about US$5.4 million) in its first two days. The film sold 494,170 tickets over the weekend.

According to Box Office Mojo, Hosoda's Wolf Children film earned 360,372,690 yen (about US$4.592 million at the time) when it opened at #2 in July 2012. The film went on to earn 4.22 billion yen total. Box Office Mojo also lists that Summer Wars earned 126,827,227 yen (about US$1.3 million at the time) when it first opened at #7 in August 2009, and the film went on to earn 1.65 billion yen total.

Hosoda's The Girl Who Leapt Through Time film earned 260 million yen total at the Japanese box office in 2006.

Terminator Genisys opened in Japan on July 10, but counting only the July 11-12 weekend, the film sold 352,748 tickets and earned 515,720,300 yen (about US$4.18 million).

The story of The Boy and the Beast is set in the human realm (Tokyo's Shibuya ward) and the bakemono realm ("Jūtengai"). In these two worlds that must not intersect, there lives a lonely boy and a lonely bakemono. One day, the boy gets lost in the bakemono world, becomes the disciple of the bakemono Kumatetsu, and is renamed Kyūta.

Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children) created and scripted the movie. The film is Hosoda's first film since 2012, when his relatively new animation movie company Studio Chizu released Wolf Children as its first project. Masakatsu Takagi (Wolf Children) is scoring the soundtrack. The film stars:

Kōji Yakusho as Kumatetsu, a bear-like being who acts as a teacher to the human Kyūta

Aoi Miyazaki as child Kyūta

Shōta Sometani as adolescent Kyūta

Suzu Hirose in her debut voice-acting role as Kaede, a high school student Kyūta meets



Renji Asai (Sentō Jōsai Masurawo) launched the manga in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Shōnen Ace on April 25.

Funimation licensed the American rights to the film, and plans to release the film in select theaters later this year and nationwide in early 2016. Theatrical screenings have also been set for France, and the major French movie studio Gaumont will handle international sales outside Asia. Funimation is working with Gaumont International to release the film.

Source: Oricon