Japan Box Office: 'Doraemon' Anime Still All-Conquering

The latest installment of the 'cat-type robot' - Japan's most-watched cinematic franchise - has racked up $28.5 million.

Hit anime Doraemon Nobita's Space Heroes took $2.1 million (?255 million) on the last weekend of school spring break to take its total to $28.5 million (?3.4 billion) in its fifth frame in theaters.

Doraemon overtook Godzilla two years ago to become the most-watched franchise in Japanese cinematic history, with more than 100 million admissions; the latest film is the 37th in the series and has sold more than 3 million tickets.

After knocking American Sniper off the number one spot on its bow, Doraemon Nobita's Space Heroes then kept Into the Woods off the top despite a record opening for the Disney musical, which dropped to sixth spot this weekend.

Assassination Classroom, the classroom sci-fi manga adaptation, held on to second place on the box office charts and took its total to $17 million (?2 billion).

Local comedy April Fools took $1.35 million (?160 million) on Saturday and Sunday from 215 screens, after opening on the day of its title. About a sex-addict doctor who gets a woman pregnant after a one-night stand, it was written and directed by Junichi Ishikawa and Ryota Kosawa, the team behind the hit TV drama Legal High from Fuji TV, which also produced the movie.

Night at the Museum 3: Secret of the Tomb dropped one spot to fourth place on its third weekend of release, scoring another $1.2 million (?143 million) on Saturday and Sunday to take its local total past the $10 million mark.

Further down the chart, Jupiter Ascending dropped to ninth spot after bowing in sixth place last weekend, taking its total to $3 million.

Next weekend will see releases for Birdman, Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight and Jimi Hendrix biopic All Is by My Side.

Twitter: @GavinJBlair