Weekend Japan Box Office Top Ten - 2007/12/8 ~ 2007/12/9

1 Mari To Koinu No Monogatari (A Tale of Mari and Her Three Puppies, Toho)
2 Koizora (Toho)
3 Always Zoku: San Cho Me No Yuhi (Always - Series: Setting Sun on 3rd Avenue; Toho)
4 Beowulf (WB)
5 Tsubaki Sanjuro (Toho)
6 Biohazard III (Resident Evil: Extinction; Screen Gems; Jp Distributor - Sony)
7 The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal Pictures; Jp Distributor Toho-Towa)
8 Midnight Eagle (Shochiku)
9 Crows Zero (Toho)
10 Eiga Yes! Puricure 5 -Kagami No Kuni No Miracle Dai Boken (Movie- Yes! PreCure 5 - Big Miracle Adventure in the Land of Mirrors, Toei)

Inomata Yuiichi's kid friendly drama "Mari To Koinu Monogatari" makes an impressive debut at number one this past weekend in Japan. Yamazaki Takashi's "Always Zoku: San Cho Me No Yuhi" drops to the number three spot after two weeks at number one while Imai Natsuki's "seishun" (youth) romance drama "Koizora" (Twitch review here) continues to hold strong in second place.

Movies making their road-show debut in Japan in the coming weeks include actor Okuda Eiji's directorial debut "Kaze No Sotogawa" (On The Edge of The Wind; Limited Release 12/22 - General release in 2008) with Natsuki Mari and Katase Rino and Josh Gordon's "Blades of Glory" (in Japan - "Oretachi Figure Skater", 12/11).

Here are the box office receipts for the weekend.

Film Title---------------Earnings this week/Total thus far (USD)----Weeks in play----No. of Screens
1 Mari To Koinu (Toho)-------------$2,575,037/$2,575,037------------------------1-----------333
2 Koizora (Toho)----------------$1,286,181/$29,210,113--------------------------6-----------288
3 Always (Toho)--------------------$1,182,721/$32,817,535-----------------------6-----------329
4 Beowulf (WB)------------------$1,026,144/$4,129,101---------------------------2------------268
5 Tsubaki Sanjuro (Toho)--------$884,499/$3,713,204------------------------2------------325
6 Biohazard III (Sony)-------------$631,438/$23,700,863-------------------------6------------316
7 The Bourne Ultimatum (Toho-Towa)-$521,151/$13,401,928--------------5------------310
8 Midnight Eagle (Shochiku)--------$475,195/$4,754,900----------------------3------------314
9 Crows Zero (Toho)----------------$379,353/$21,400,071------------------------7------------252
10 Puricure 5 (Toei)----------------$320,314/$6,399,768---------------------------5-----------134