Doraemon: Nobita's Little Star Wars 2021 Film Opens at #1

The Doraemon: Nobita's Little "Star Wars" 2021 anime film sold 350,000 tickets for 440 million yen (about US$3.81 million) in its first three days. It sold 322,000 tickets for 394 million yen (about US$3.41 million) on Saturday and Sunday to rank #1 in its opening weekend.

The film will opened last Friday after a delay due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The film was originally slated to open in March 2021.

Doraemon: Nobita's Little "Star Wars" 2021 is the 41st film in the Doraemon franchise. The film is a remake of the 1985 Doraemon film of the same title.

Susumu Yamaguchi — a key animator on many previous Doraemon movies, unit director of Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration, and the director of Mobile Suit Gundam AGE — is directing the new film. Dai Sato (Eureka Seven, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Listeners) is penning the script. Official HiGE DANdism created the theme song "Universe" specifically for the film. Sibling folk duo Billy BanBan is performing the insert song "Kokoro Arigatō" (Thank You for the Heart) for the film. Shirogumi, the 3D CG studio behind the production of the Stand By Me Doraemon films, is handling the CG for the spaceships in the film.

The Gekijō-ban Jujutsu Kaisen 0 anime film dropped from #1 to #3 in its 11th weekend. The film sold 87,000 tickets to earn 133 million yen (about US$1.15 million) over the weekend.

The film has sold a total of 8.85 million tickets for over 12.3 billion yen (about US$107 million) since it opened on December 24, and is currently the 23rd highest-grossing film in Japan of all time.

The film is now the #1 highest-earning film at the Japanese box office from the 2021 calendar year, after surpassing Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time, according to the Mainichi Shimbun paper's Mantan Web.

The film earned 2,694,128,150 yen (about US$23.5 million) in its first three days, and topped the box office chart for its opening weekend. The film also has IMAX, 4D, and Dolby Cinema screenings. The film will open with English subtitles and with an English dub in the U.S. and Canada on March 18.

The film is based on Gege Akutami's Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Tokyo Toritsu Jujutsu Kōtō Senmon Gakkō (Jujutsu Kaisen 0: Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School) manga prequel story, with MAPPA animating again and TOHO distributing. Viz Media released the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 manga in January 2021, and it describes the story:

Yuta Okkotsu is a nervous high school student who is suffering from a serious problem—his childhood friend Rika has turned into a Curse and won't leave him alone. Since Rika is no ordinary Curse, his plight is noticed by Satoru Gojo, a teacher at Jujutsu High, a school where fledgling exorcists learn how to combat Curses. Gojo convinces Yuta to enroll, but can he learn enough in time to confront the Curse that haunts him?

Megumi Ogata voiced the main character Yuta Okkotsu, and Kana Hanazawa voiced the character Rika Orimoto.

The Ensemble Stars!! Road to Show!! theatrical anime ranked at #6 in its opening weekend.

The film opened in theaters in Japan last Friday. The anime takes place in New York and features the characters visiting New York to attend an Idol Film Festival.

Masakazu Hishida returned to direct the film at david production, and Asami Nakatani was the chief director. Seitarō Kino from Happy Elements wrote the screenplay, and Happy Elements is again credited with the original character design. Haruko Iizuka was the animation character designer and the chief animation director. Tatsuya Katō again composed the music.

The "idol-training produce game" takes place at a private boys' idol-training school with a history of turning out many great talents in show business. The protagonist is the school's lone female student who transfers to the school because of a special situation, and enters the school's producer department. The game features 14 different idol units and has a cast of more than 50 male voice actors.

The television anime adaptation of the game premiered in July 2019. The cast from the game returned for the anime. The franchise also includes a manga, novels, stage musical adaptations, and CDs.

The Fruits Basket -prelude- compilation film dropped off the mini-theater ranking in its third weekend.

Sources: Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2, link 3), Eiga.com