The world may be gripped by Star Wars fever at the moment but in Japan, the most-seen movie didn't feature lightsabers or X-Wings, but mischievous ghosts and magical timepieces. More tickets were sold for Yo-Kai Watch the Movie 2: King Enma and the 5 Stories, Nyan! than Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but due to the higher ticket value for JJ Abrams' Sci-Fi epic, it actually pulled in the most money.
975,000 tickets were sold for the second Yo-Kai Watch animated movie between December 19th and 20th. That placed it top at the Japanese box office, where ticket sales are used to determine popularity, and not revenue - as is the case in the west.
The Force Awakens opened in Japan on December 18th. In three days it earned $13.3 million from 1.04 million admissions, but over the same period that Yo-Kai Watch 2 was available - Saturday and Sunday - it clocked up 800,000 admissions, placing it behind Yo-Kai's 975,000 sales, which were worth $10.3 million.
Last year's Yo-Kai Watch movie managed to earn $64 million. The sequel is expected to top that.
Thanks to Spoony_Tech for the tip!
[source variety.com]
Comments 46
Hah! Not even surprised.
I was going to go see star wars... then i read that it is coming to the Canadian netflix in 2016.
Now if only I could see Yo-kai Watch movie 2 without having to wait for bluray, unlike Star Wars...
On another note I enjoyed the 1st movie, but I think splitting the 2nd movie into 5 stories like this could be interesting too.
Yo Kai Watch The Movie 2?
...Just how big is this franchise that we're just now getting again?
Yet reviews put west say Yo-Kai is alright. Lol
I'm still not able get into it as I prefer Pokemon but, whatever.
Good choice. The Japanese show once again that they have good taste.
Loved Star Wars. The Yo-Kai stuff just looks...very weird to me. Especially that hideous oldman-dog hybrid. Seeing commercials for the show, trying the demo for a bit, actually seeing the show on (for about 2 minutes to be fair), has proved to me that it's just not my cup of tea.
@SmaMan Huge would be an understatement. 1st movie was last December, they already confirmed a 3rd movie for December 2016.
Of course, different cultures, different tastes.
Not surprised.
I'm in the USA.
The Force Awakens SUCKED!
@Gold_Ranger
Sorry but no, It was PERFECT!
After seeing Star Wars during the weekend, I would say they've probably watched the better movie of the two.
Well, Yokai Watch is extremely popular in Japan (though I'm not sure if extremely is enough to describe it...), so this doesn't surprise me much.
Not surprising, since cultural tastes come into play here. Some of the reason may be the fact that The Force Awakens is PG-13, while the Yo-Kai Watch movie is likely PG, if not a plain G rating; I'm unsure of how the rating system in Japan is set up, but the audience for that movie would be less restricted.
Really Japan? Then again, Japan likes their kid's shows plus the audience restriction is lower so this makes sense.
Plus, while Japan really does make really amazine stuff, their taste in shows/movies/etc. can sometimes be considered questionable considering they love Gundam SEED so much.
@Trinexx >>'Not surprising'
Looks at your avatar
Okay.
Good choice, considering how bad Star Wars was?
@Pres_Shinra Were you watching the same film?!
It's not surprising, Japan seems to like quite different things to the West. I'm still more hyped to watch Star Wars than to play Yo-Kai Watch, but I'm looking forward to Yo-Kai being released in Europe.
Would have seen Star Wars by now if not for my parent's hectic schedule, and lack of having access to anyone else with a license. :/
@SmaMan It doesnt have the nickname of "Pokemon Killer" for nothing ya know. (Even though its still breathing, Yo-Kai Watch is still doing bigger business...)
Don't like either of them.
Eh, not really surprised. Star Wars was still really good though.
I have tried getting into Yo-Kai Watch, but I just don't enjoy it how I do with Pokémon.
Star Wars, on the other hand... Battlefront and the LEGO games for days!
The movie was great, if not a little dark compared to the other Star Wars films
I'm still waiting for the Japan only Famicom release of Star Wars and SFC release of Super Back to the Future games to be released in the West.
Ep. 7 was the best! In my opinion anyways. I like how they managed to keep so much secret in a world of leaks, spoilers and over revealing movie trailers! Loved the plot! J.J. Abrams makes another amazing film!
Way to go Yokai, hope these movies make it to the west. I'm probably going to wait until Star Wars goes digital to watch it. This from someone who went to Episode III 3 times in theaters.
My wife and I went to see Star Wars in the theater on the 19th, and there were a billion kids sitting on the floor eating popcorn in the lobby. They've been going nuts with Star Wars on TV recently, but we kept thinking there was no way Star Wars could be THAT popular. Then I realized that they had Star Wars playing on like 4 screens, and Yokai Watch playing on 3 screens, and we figured out the mystery of the billions of kids. Well, not entirely... I still don't get why you'd want to hang out in the lobby eating popcorn while you're waiting when there are a billion other interesting things to do in the general vicinity of the movie theater.
@DekuOnion I don't see why they wouldn't bring the movies unless the series didn't do well here. Even if it doesn't get a theater release they'd probably air it on TV or something like they do with the new pokemon movies.
Loved the movie!
>Japan
No shit, really?
@Kylo_Ren Define bad. It's on the same ground as the first 3 movies. Unless they're all bad, then I totally understand.
Haven't seen new Star Wars yet, but the consensus seems to be that it's better than the prequels, and not as good as the original trilogy. I was expecting the latter, but I'm pleasantly surprised by the former. So it's not bad, but not legendary. Comparing it to the originals is harsh, at least they improved over the prequels and perhaps can improve further.
I also find it interesting that Star Wars never caught on in Japan, what with the Bushido references going on in the swordplay and master/student interactions. I guess all of the biblical and mythological references in the original trilogy just didn't resonate with the Japanese.
@Gold_Ranger Oh please...
It may have taken a lot from the original trilogy, but I saw it more as a love letter than anything else. It was a great movie. One thing is for sure. It made all 4 prequels look like absolute garbage!!!
I loved the new Star Wars; it had its flaws but was overall a job well done, a MASSIVE step up from those prequels, and was a fitting continuation to the series (not as good as IV, V, and VI, mind you, but still very good).
Eh, Star Wars is already over $500,000,000 so I doubt they are too worried.
@rushiosan I actually like the prequels, but episode 7 was too repetitive, and just couldn't enjoy it.
@Pres_Shinra Can you not be that rude. I chose this as a name, because I thought these movies would be great, but I will still keep this name as I have high hopes for ep 8. Also, please don't be so rude, I find that highly offensive "u got yur ass" I will hope this comment is dealt with the proper way, as s/he did that as an insult just because I voiced my opinions.
This is actually sorta surprising...because Japan LOVES Star Wars.
@Kylo_Ren
Really? Are you really serious? I hope i not getting the joke, or u are really good hahaha. If not then: Welcome to 2015 where everybody is ofended by everything lol Cant u take a joke? Are u really the fictional character called Kylo Ren and did I hurt yur feelings? (that sounds even worse considering u are supposed to be a badass villain[ups i said badass which contains the word "ass" im insulting again]). You got your ass kicked by the resistance wow what an insult plz
Just saw Star Wars today. Loved it!
I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
I'd see the Yo-Kai Watch movie before I see Star Wars.
I'd see the Yo-Kai Watch movie before I see Star Wars.
@Pres_Shinra
Took me a while to figure out what you were talking about, due to your spelling and punctuation.
I was joking so calm down.
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