Animated Movies Dominate 2023 Japan Box Office

The Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, composed of the country’s four main film production companies, reported that box office revenues in Japan increased by 3.9% in 2023 to ¥221.4 billion, buoyed by strong performance by animated films.

The overall top three were all animated, each generating more than ¥10 billion in box office revenue. Japan’s The First Slam Dunk (¥15.9 billion) was the top earner ahead of the US film The Super Mario Bros. Movie (¥14.0 billion) and Detective Conan: Black Iron Submarine (¥13.9 billion), also from Japan.

For the Japanese movies ranking, six out of the top ten were anime. MMPAJ Deputy Director Kobayashi Keishi said that “readers enjoyed the stories in the original Japanese manga, which led to appreciation of the movie versions.”

Top 10 Movies in Japan by Box Office Revenue in 2023

1. The First Slam Dunk * ¥15.9 billion
2. Detective Conan: Black Iron Submarine * ¥13.9 billion
3. The Boy and the Heron * ¥8.8 billion
4. Kingdom III: Flame of Destiny ¥5.6 billion
5. Godzilla Minus One ¥5.6 billion
6. Don’t Call It Mystery ¥4.8 billion
7. Tokyo MER: Mobile Emergency Room ¥4.5 billion
8. Doraemon: Nobita’s Sky Utopia * ¥4.3 billion
9. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – To the Swordsmith Village * ¥4.2 billion
10. Idolish7: Live 4bit – Beyond the Period * ¥2.9 billion

Created by Nippon.com based on data from the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan. Asterisks indicate anime movies.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo: A fan poses in front of a poster for the First Slam Dunk in Shanghai, China, on April 23, 2023. Japanese anime has many international fans. © Reuters.)