Godzilla vs. Kong at #3, Honey Lemon Soda at #4
Mamoru Hosoda and Studio Chizu‘s new Belle (Ryū to Sobakasu no Hime, literally “The Dragon and the Freckled Princess”) anime film opened at #1 at the Japanese box office. The film sold more than 600,000 tickets for more than 891,663,200 yen (about US$8.14 million) in its first three days. It sold more than 459,000 tickets for 679,995,700 yen (about US$6.20 million) on Saturday and Sunday alone. Its opening was bigger than that of Hosoda’s highest-earning film, The Boy and The Beast which eventually ended its run with 5.85 billion yen (about US$53 million).
Belle opened in Japan last Friday. The film has IMAX screenings in 38 theaters throughout Japan. This makes Belle the first of Hosoda’s films to have IMAX screenings. France’s Cannes Film Festival first screened the film in the festival’s Cannes Premiere section last Thursday….
