TOKYO – Topping the Japanese box office for the weekend of March 21-22 was new entry “Assassination Classroom,” a live-action film based on Yusei Matsui’s hit comic.

The story features an octopus-like life-form that teaches a class of junior high school delinquents – and is determined to destroy the Earth. His students are secretly commissioned by the government to assassinate him, but he proves to be surprisingly good at his job and the kids become conflicted. Opening on 313 screens, the film earned $3.42 million on 351,000 admissions and is expected to finish near the $30 million mark.



In its third weekend on release the new installment in the long-running “Doraemon” anime series slipped from number one to number two, while running its cumulative total up to $14 million on its 16th day on release.



Bowing at number three was “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb,” with $2.7 million from 663 screens, which was bigger than the third part of “The Hobbit.” The film is projected to end its run at around $15 million.



Also new to the top ten BO chart, at number six, was “Super Hero Taisen: Kamen Rider 3-go” (aka “Super Hero Battle: Masked Rider 3”) the latest installment in the “Masked Rider” action series, which scored $1.56 million on 146,000 admissions from 307 screens.

