Japan Box Office: 'Spotlight' Does Strong Business in Limited Debut

Local anime take the No. 1 and 2 spots in their debuts, while 'Batman v. Superman' spends its fourth weekend in the top five.

Academy Award-winner Spotlight opened at No. 7 in its limited release in Japan, grossing a strong ¥88 million ($813,000) over three days and $628,000 on Saturday and Sunday from 109 screens. This is a solid if unexceptional start for the film, which despite its Oscars, deals with a story largely unfamiliar to Japanese audiences.

Local analysts predict a final cume of around $4.6 million.

Rachel McAdams was in Japan last week to promote the film, released locally as Spotlight Seki no Scoop (Scoop of the Century) about journalists who exposed the cover-up of sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests. McAdams, who plays Sacha Pfeiffer, a member of The Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Spotlight investigative team, spoke at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, where she described journalists as "unsung heroes" and described reporting as "a dying art and not for the faint of heart."

International Weekend 4/17/16

Comscore for Weekend of 4/17/16 Weekend Cume 1. The Jungle Book $136.1M $187.4M 2. The Huntsman: Winter's War $17.6M $43.0M 3. Batman v. Superman $15.1M $516.0M 4. Zootopia $10.8M $574.8M 5. London Has Fallen $9.0M $120.0M 6. Kung Fu Panda 3 $7.5M $355.4M 7. 10 Cloverfield Lane $4.0M $31.7M 8. Visiteurs: La Revolution $3.5M $54.0M 9. The Divergent Series: Allegiant $3.0M $87.0M 10. The Boss $2.5M $3.9M

Crayon Shin-chan Fast Asleep! Dreaming World Big Assault!, the 20th big-screen installment in the children's anime franchise, pulled in $11.2 million from 934,000 admissions at 348 screens to bow atop the weekend box-office rankings.

At No. 2 was Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare, the 24th theatrical release in the manga and anime franchise about a high school detective, which took $3.7 million from 337,000 admissions at 334 screens in its debut.

Live-action manga adaptation Assassination Classroom: Graduation fell from the top spot to No. 3 on its fourth weekend in theaters, while the latest Doraemon anime dipped two spots to No. 4 after its seventh weekend.

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice dropped two spots to No. 4 after its fourth weekend and has a cume of $13 million.

Alejandro Inarritu's The Revenant is set to open Friday in Japan.