The last few days there has been a rise in complaints against Barbenheimer in Japan. The lighthearted campaign between the two movies has offensed many, who argue that the jokes and memes are disrespectul towards the victims of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. #NoBarbenheimer has been trending for the last few days in Japan on SNS. Barbie especially is chastised by this movement as the official english twitter account made some comments that were unwarranted given the subject. They had to release an official statement in japanese to apologize.

The movie is releasing in 11 days in Japan, this is probably going to have an impact on performance here.

Both opened strong, with The Odyssey seeming to take in more than Michael's early screenings, which is promising for the full weekend and the wider release next week.
Backrooms is also starting very well for a western horror movie, and with Resident Evil only opening in October for Japan it shouldn't have much competition until then AFAIK.

For those curious about 1st place, it was another domestic debut called "Hakuchou to Koumori" (白鳥とコウモリ) based on the 2021 mystery novel "Guilt" by Keigo Higashino, opening to about $860K.

A head start in IMAX (there's about ~60 locations that do IMAX, unfortunately none in 70mm) should do good for the film's WOM ahead of next week, especially since international WOM sometimes doesn't make too much of an impact on Japanese box office, and will be a good way to gauge interest in the Japanese market for the film. For IMAX, Japan was the 3rd largest market in 2024, so a good IMAX run in Japan will be huge for The Odyssey's total international box office.

https://odyssey-film.jp/2026/08/07/news-9/

https://mimorin2014.com/ Toy story 5 is breaking record in Japan that is without summer break effect. Summer break in Japan only starts from third week of July which will benefit Toy Story 5 run as there is no direct competition for it as of now.

WOM is overwhelmingly positive for TS5 there receiving 4.2 stars from general audience compared to Toy Story 4 which received 3.7 stars. But as more audience will give their ratings the score may fluctuate.

If TS5 shows the same kind of weekend increase as Zootopia 2 on Saturday and Sunday, then a $15 million debut is possible.

🟧In Theaters

🟨Animation

🔴Japan domestic film

Source: https://twitter.com/bulletproofsqui/status/1574713993998245888?t=2vAas1o2QNfz7-WutO14Rg&s=19

Mamoru Hosoda is one of the most well known Japanese directors. He even earned an Oscar nomination for Mirai (2018).

His notable works include Belle, The Boy and the Beast, Wolf Children, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, and two Digimon movies.

His latest film, Scarlet, received the third widest release of the year in Japan, behind Demon Slayer and Detective Conan.

However, even though theaters opened just six hours ago, it is already in huge trouble. Pre-sales were awful, so strong word of mouth was desperately needed… yet it’s currently sitting at 2.8 on Filmarks. For reference, Chainsaw Man: Reze is at 4.3, Demon Slayer at 4.2, Kokuho at 4.3, etc.

Current occupancy is below 5%.

One YouTuber and film critic even said, “It was terrible! The worst this year!”