Japanese films dominated the domestic box office in 2023, accounting for eight of the year’s highest-earning films as of Dec. 13, according to the Pick Scene entertainment news site.
In the top spot was “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” an animated feature based on the iconic Nintendo game. The film made ¥14 billion ($95 million) following its April 2023 release. Given that the film was a worldwide smash, raking in a total of $1.362 billion, its enthusiastic reception in Japan, where the Super Mario franchise was born, shouldn’t have been a surprise.
All three of the top box-office hits were animated films, the latest indication of the genre’s enduring strength in the Japanese market. At No. 2, with ¥13.8 billion, was “Detective Conan: Black Iron Submarine,” the 26th entry in the “Detective Conan” film series about the adventures of a genius teenage detective trapped in his childhood body. This total set a series record, beating the ¥9.78 recorded by 2022’s “Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween.”