Chiikawa film passes ¥17.95bn to reach Japan’s all-time top 12
Chiikawa: The Secret of the Mermaid Island has overtaken Bayside Shakedown 2 to reach number 12 in Japan’s all-time box-office rankings.
The first Chiikawa film has passed ¥17.95 billion at the Japanese box office, moving into the country’s all-time top 12 after overtaking the final total for Bayside Shakedown 2: Close the Rainbow Bridge.1
Chiikawa: The Secret of the Mermaid Island reached the milestone after 81 days in cinemas. It has now sold 12.29 million tickets, according to Oricon’s report citing the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan.1
That puts the film above Bayside Shakedown 2’s ¥17.35 billion total. The result is another major marker for Nagano’s deceptively gentle-looking characters, whose feature-film adventure has continued to draw audiences well beyond its 24 July release.
A fresh weekend at number one
The film’s run is not simply coasting on its opening performance. It returned to the top of Japan’s weekend attendance chart for the first time in three weeks, selling 375,000 tickets and taking ¥563 million across the three-day period from 9 to 11 October.1
A sixth cinema giveaway began on 10 October, offering one of two collectible charm mini-figures. Oricon reports that the bonus helped bring fans back to cinemas, giving the film another boost during its already unusually long run.1
The scale of the result is easier to understand when compared with the film’s recent progress. Oricon’s related coverage recorded the film at ¥17.1 billion on 5 October, meaning the latest update represents another ¥850 million in reported box-office revenue in less than two weeks.1
Watch the official trailer
GVPictures’ distributor trailer introduces Chiikawa and friends as they accept an invitation to a mysterious island, where a resident-devouring Siren turns their holiday into a much more dangerous adventure.2
What happens next
The ¥17.95 billion total places the film at number 12 in Japan’s historical rankings, but its theatrical run is still active. With the sixth giveaway now in circulation and the film returning to number one for a weekend, the final total could move again before its cinema run winds down.
The immediate story is not just that Chiikawa has become a hit. It is that a small, character-driven anime film continues to find new momentum more than two months after release — and has now turned a familiar franchise into one of Japan’s biggest recent box-office performers.
Our opinion
This is a genuinely newsworthy box-office story because the new figure changes the film’s historical standing, rather than merely repeating that it is popular. The return to number one and the sixth giveaway also explain why the total is still moving. The useful angle for UK readers is the scale: Chiikawa is no longer just a viral character brand, but a theatrical success large enough to displace one of Japan’s best-known live-action blockbusters from the top 12.