Thanks to the dynamic promotional activities by the main cast and the original manga's "anything-goes" nature, the live-action film adaptation of Hideaki Sorachi's action comedy manga Gintama earned an impressive 541,032,900 yen on 392,789 admissions in its first Saturday and Sunday, this year's largest opening weekend record for a Japanese live-action film. As the manga author wished, it easily topped the last week's top-grossing film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

The Shun Oguri (Lupin The Third, Nobunaga Concerto)-starring film was released on 335 screens across Japan on July 14, then made a huge 982,291,500 yen from the 742,254 ticket sales from its first four days. Since it is a similar result to the first four-day gross of Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (985,360,800 yen) in August 2014, if this momentum continues through the summer, Gintama is expected to achieve the same level of box office success, around 5 billion yen.

"Gintama" first four-day box office result:

July 14 (Fri) 176,025,800 yen/141,257 tickets

July 15 (Sat) 237,978,900 yen/173,689

July 16 (Sun) 303,054,000 yen/219,100

July 17 (Mon/National Holiday) 265,232,800 yen/208,208

Four-day total: 982,291,500 yen/742,254 tickets

Meanwhile, the film that sold the most tickets in the weekend of July 15-16 was Gekijyouban: Pocket

Monster: Kimi ni Kimeta!/Pokémon the Movie 20: I Choose You! that made 516 million yen from the 436,000

ticket sale. The 20th Pokémon film earned less than Gintama because the film's main audience were kids

whose ticket prices were cheaper. Still, its opening weekend gross was a very good 159.3% of the last year's

Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel that made 2.15 billion yen from its total domestic run.

Ex-Studio Ghibli director Hiromasa Yonebayashi (The Secret World of Arrietty, When Marnie Was There)'s

new anime feature film Mary to Mahou no Hana/Mary and The Witch's Flower dropped to 5th from the debut

weekend's 2nd. It has already made 1.2 billion yen, but is expected to end its domestic run with a bit disappointing

2-2.5 billion yen.

Weekend box office in Japan (July 15-16, 2017)

- ticket sales basis

1 (new). "Pokémon the Movie 20: I Choose You!"

2 (new). "Gintama"

3 (1). "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales"

4 (new). "Cars 3"

5 (2). "Mary and The Witch's Flower"

6 (3). "Shinobi no Kuni"

7 (new). "Noe Game No Life Zero"

8 (4). "Ani ni Aisaresugite Komattemasu"

9 (new). "Power Rangers"

10 (5). "Nijyuninenme no Kokuhaku - Watashi ga Satsujinhandesu"

"Pokémon the Movie 20: I Choose You!" trailer

"Gintama" trailer

Souce: Eiga.com, Animate Times