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Studio Ghibli reopened Earwig and the Witch in limited theaters this week ahead of an October 23 nationwide IMAX run pairing Whisper of the Heart and The Secret World of Arrietty in 4K remasters.
The Pokémon Horizons feature opened at Shinjuku Piccadilly with a midnight queue stretching into Kabukicho side streets, giving Toho Cinemas a holiday-weekend hit driven by schoolchildren on Sports Day break.
Separate festival floats overturned in Izumisano and Izumiotsu on Saturday, crushing participants who were balancing the four-ton wooden towers during yarimawashi turns.
Toho Cinemas said advance sales for a nationwide Studio Ghibli re-release led weekend box-office presales ahead of Sports Day, outpacing new domestic live-action openings in suburban multiplexes.
NHK’s new taiga drama premiere drew a 19.2 household share on Sports Day eve, beating variety counterprogramming as viewers stayed home ahead of holiday travel, according to Video Research preliminary ratings.
Chiikawa’s feature crossed 17.1 billion yen in receipts while a cancer-diary biopic opened atop the weekend chart with 441 million yen.
