When the box office numbers for the first day of the New Year holiday season were released, Japan's film industry split neatly between those who celebrated and those who could barely hide the bitter taste in their mouths.
Even though the staff of Yume Animation were all on holiday, they had never stopped keeping an eye on the box office updates for Your Name. After all, they were the people who had made the film. They understood its quality better than anyone, and they knew very well that with Sora's popularity, the strength of the work itself, and the emotional appeal of its style, its performance during this release window would never be poor.
Even so, surpassing six billion yen on the very first day was simply too exaggerated.
If even the people inside Yume Animation felt that way, there was no need to imagine how the rest of the industry reacted.
Ever since his debut at eighteen, every work Sora had produced in Japan's animation industry had been stronger than the last. Not a single one had collapsed at the ending. Not a single one had truly failed. In the hearts of anime fans, the idol filter surrounding him had already reached an almost absurd level.
On top of that, Your Name had enormous advantages. Its release timing was perfect, and its romantic subject matter was naturally suited to drawing audiences in.
After all, barely more than a month had passed since AD, that romance anime many considered a divine masterpiece, had ended. Millions of fans still had not recovered from the emotional aftertaste of the series, and then Your Name arrived, as if naturally stepping in to inherit that lingering wave of feeling.
Sora had money. He had promotional channels. He knew how to market a work. The film itself was of extremely high quality. The public already recognized his creative ability, and his own immense popularity brought a massive current of viewers into theaters.
The final result was that almost unreal box office figure.
Many people in Japan's film industry were instantly red-eyed with envy.
There were professionals who had worked hard in the industry for decades and might never produce a film with a total box office of six billion yen. Yet the second movie produced by a young man like Sora had surpassed that amount in a single day.
It was, indeed, hard for many people to accept.
For a while, the internet filled with so-called industry experts from the film world, all suddenly appearing to criticize Your Name. But almost without exception, every one of them was blasted back by Sora's anime fans.
Although Your Name had not achieved the highest box office on the first day of the New Year holiday season, it was unquestionably the film with the greatest topic heat and online traffic.
The next day, the screening share for both Your Name and Wooden Man rose to 23%. Crazy Horse Racing 2 also increased to 19%, while the other films released in the same period saw varying degrees of decline compared to their first-day box office results.
In the end, on the second day of the New Year holiday box office, Wooden Man earned 6.26 billion yen, while Your Name reached 6.3 billion yen.
In practice, Your Name had overtaken it and reclaimed the daily lead.
That situation left Japanese moviegoers unable to sit still.
"Is this animated film really that good?"
"Are they inflating the box office? How can an anime film earn more than movies starring so many award-winning actors and actresses?"
"Your Name has a rating of 9.6, while Wooden Man has 9.1. Isn't that way too exaggerated? I watched Wooden Man, and it was already really good. Can Your Name really be rated that much higher?"
"Whether it's good or not, you casual viewers will know once you watch it. I've seen it three times in two days, and today I came out of the theater crying again."
"Kantoku Sora, seriously… I cried so hard. This time was different from Five Centimeters per Second. He actually gave us a good ending."
"I don't know if you've watched Five Centimeters per Second, but personally, I think this is better."
"I've seen Your Name, Wooden Man, and Crazy Horse Racing 2. In terms of story, Your Name is without a doubt the best film released during the New Year holiday season. But if you only like live-action movies, then pretend I didn't say anything."
"If you haven't watched this romance masterpiece yet, hurry up and go."
The biggest difference between fans of 2D animation and fans of live-action films lay in loyalty. The fans of Wooden Man and Crazy Horse Racing 2, including the fans of the actors involved, certainly supported their own movies.
But when it came to actively recommending those films online, they were nowhere near as direct or intense as the fans of Your Name.
Not only did those fans create cosplay-related cinema news that climbed onto trending lists, they also spared no effort online, explaining again and again to ordinary moviegoers why this animated film was so outstanding.
No matter how much money the investors behind a film spent on marketing, how could that possibly compare to the effect of fans voluntarily promoting something they genuinely loved?
On the third day of the New Year holiday season, Japan's overall daily box office declined compared with the first two days.
Even so, Your Name still overwhelmed Wooden Man, earning 5.24 billion yen against its rival's 4.68 billion yen and taking the daily box office crown.
Aside from the first day, when it lost to Wooden Man by a narrow margin due to an insufficient number of screenings, Your Name surpassed Wooden Man on both following days once the two films had similar screening shares.
Before the New Year holiday film season began, not a single critic had predicted such a development. Even Sora's own fans were greatly surprised.
"That old bastard Sora is seriously amazing. First place at the New Year box office… he actually did it. Haha."
"We Sora fans really have face today. The old bastard isn't just number one in animation, now he's number one in film too."
"This feels a little unreal. Since when did Kantoku Sora become this powerful?"
"You have to keep up with the times, brother. The current Kantoku Sora is not on the same level of fame as the Kantoku Sora from two years ago. From Re:Zero to Steins;Gate, and then to AD, his influence has risen by another level every six months. When he first said his goal was to take first place at the New Year box office, the entire industry laughed at him. But I knew he really did have that kind of influence."
"Exactly. Kantoku Sora managed to create three animated works with ratings above 6% in just two years. What is a mere New Year box office championship compared to that? The film industry has a New Year box office champion every year, but in television, a genius capable of breaking 6% ratings only appears once in a decade. Don't underestimate the power of us TV viewers. It's not like we can't afford a movie ticket that costs a little over a thousand yen."
"The film companies must be fainting this New Year season. They all came in excited and ready to fight hard, and before release, they thought Your Name entering the top four would already count as success. Now, after just three days of box office results, the entire film industry has been stunned speechless."
"For some reason, I'm a little moved. I've followed Kantoku Sora since Voices of a Distant Star five years ago. Watching him rise from obscurity to become famous throughout Japan really makes me emotional."
"What I admire most about Kantoku Sora is that he got here step by step. There was no luck involved. It was all ability."
"If Kantoku Sora really takes first place in this year's New Year holiday market, then Japan's film and television industry will probably enter a new era. Last year, Liar Game took first place in annual drama ratings, while AD took first place in annual TV anime ratings. If Your Name wins the New Year holiday box office, then it will basically be locked in as the highest-grossing film of the year. A result like that has never happened before, and probably won't ever happen again."
"There's no need to even mention last year's results. As long as Your Name takes first place at the New Year box office, then this year, the number one results in film, anime, and television drama will inevitably all belong to Kantoku Sora. Didn't you notice? During the holiday, Southern Alliance TV announced explosive news: the live-action drama adaptation of AD will premiere in April. And in the same month, the Attack on Titan anime will also begin airing. Hehe. Based on past experience, there's a high probability that these two works will take first place in annual drama ratings and anime ratings."
"The live-action drama adaptation of AD is real?"
"Of course it's real. Otherwise, why do you think Southern Alliance TV has developed so well these past two years? Its overall influence has already surpassed Shirakawa TV and HaiOn TV, placing it below only Seiun TV and Aobane TV. The leadership over there understands one simple thing: cling tightly to Kantoku Sora and know when to share profits."
"Exactly. Just look at Kantoku Sora's animated works. He owns all the copyrights himself. Which of the four major networks would have that kind of boldness? And for the drama adaptation of AD, Kantoku Sora doesn't need to invest a single yen. Just by licensing the rights, he takes 30% of the drama's total profits. Even so, Southern Alliance TV agreed."
"The executives at Southern Alliance TV understand one thing now: with the production strength of their drama department, there's no way they can compete head-on with Seiun TV and Aobane TV. So they might as well directly adapt Kantoku Sora's works. First, they harvest traffic when the anime premieres, and then they harvest another wave with the live-action drama adaptation. That way, both the animation and drama divisions of the station are brought back to life."
"I bet the four major networks are feeling extremely disgusted by Southern Alliance TV right now."
"If AD can be adapted into a drama, then can Steins;Gate be far behind?"
"Doesn't that mean Re:Zero is probably also in the plans?"
"So maybe even Natsume Yuujinchou will have a live-action version one day."
"I feel like if Kantoku Sora's Yume Animation keeps developing, then even if Southern Alliance TV doesn't have that idea, he himself won't let the opportunity slip by. So many of his earlier works are still extremely popular, and some of their stories haven't even been fully adapted yet. Developing IPs across multiple formats is an inevitable path."
The box office explosion of Your Name during the New Year holiday season completely solidified Sora's status, popularity, and influence across the entire industry.
Someone who could achieve such enormous results in animation, television drama, and film simply had no equal in Japan's entire audiovisual industry.
The seven days of the New Year holiday season passed in the blink of an eye.
In the New Year film market, Your Name finished its first week with a total box office of 28.46 billion yen, ranking first on the holiday box office chart.
Wooden Man, which had been highly anticipated by the industry before the holiday season, ranked second with 24.9 billion yen.
Crazy Horse Racing 2 ended its first week with a total box office of 18.9 billion yen, ranking third.
As for the fourth-place film, Darkness Before Dawn, its first-week box office was 11.94 billion yen.
Throughout the New Year holiday, Sora basically spent his time watching films with Sumire, enjoying the break, and cooperating with Southern Alliance TV and Qin Animation on a certain amount of promotional work for his projects.
Looking at the first-week box office report for Your Name, Sora still let out a faint sigh.
In truth, he was already very satisfied with the film's current performance. Even so, deep down, it was inevitable that he would still have certain fantasies.
But after thinking about it calmly, this Japan, after all, was not the same island nation from his previous life.
He could not expect Your Name to explode here at the same level as it had in that other Japan.
The human atmosphere, territorial culture, and collective sensibilities of the two worlds were still deeply different.
If everything could truly be identical to his previous life, then considering this Japan's population, Your Name would probably have to break 140 or even 160 billion yen at the total box office.
But something like that was obviously unrealistic. If money were that easy to earn, Sora would not have needed five years of development in Japan just to build his current fortune of several tens of billions of yen.
It was similar to how certain wildly popular films from the country of his previous life performed miserably when taken overseas. When cultures were different, the degree to which people resonated with a work would naturally differ as well.
For a work that had crossed an entire world, Your Name had already achieved an excellent result.
However…
Sora looked at the industry media's predictions for the total box office of Your Name.
Most believed the film would end somewhere between 48 and 54 billion yen.
As he read those reports, a faint trace of disdain appeared on his face.
Although this world's Japanese version of Your Name had not achieved the same terrifying momentum as the film from his previous life, it had already broken 28 billion yen in its first week.
And yet the media was still making such conservative predictions?
Who exactly were they looking down on?
They did not even dare to predict 60 billion yen?
patre0n ImmortalEmperor