Japan Box-Office Revenues Up 3.9％ in 2023

Jiji Press

13:08 JST, January 31, 2024

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Japan’s box-office revenues in 2023 rose 3.9 pct from the previous year to ¥221,482 million, up for the third consecutive year, led by the popularity of anime films, an industry group has said.

The number of movie theater goers climbed 2.3 pct to 155,535,000, according to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan.

The country’s box-office revenues “have almost recovered to levels before the novel coronavirus crisis,” said Yoshishige Shimatani, head of the association.

The Top Three Japanese movies were all anime films.

“The First Slam Dunk” ranked first with ¥15.87 billion in revenue. “Detective Conan: Black Iron Submarine” came second with ¥13.88 billion, followed by “The Boy and the Heron” with ¥8.84 billion.

The highest-grossing foreign film was “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” earning ¥14.02 billion, followed by “Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One” with ¥5.43 billion and “Avatar: The Way of Water” with ¥4.31 billion.

It is the first time for films that earned over ¥10 billion annually in Japan were all anime films.