TOKYO — “Partners: The Movie IV,” a crime thriller that is part of a popular TV/film franchise about the cases of a smart, unconventional middle-aged cop (Yutaka Mizutani) and his younger partner, bowed atop the Japanese box office for the weekend of Feb. 11-12.

Director Hajime Hashimoto and scriptwriter Ai Ota have both long been associated with the “Partners” films and TV series, which has been broadcast since 2002 on the TV Asahi network.

On its opening weekend the film earned $3.5 million on 317,000 admissions, with Toei distributing. A new record for the film series, this figure is more than double the first weekend score of the previous entry, which finished with $19 million in 2014. “Partners IV” is on track to end its run near the $50 million mark.

At number two was “Survival Family,” the latest film by Yaguchi Shinobu (“Waterboys”.) Released by Toho on 268 screens, this film about a Tokyo family comically caught in the chaos of a nationwide electrical breakdown recorded $1.5 million and looks likely to finish above $10 million.