Ni No Kuni Movie Flops at Japanese Box Office on Opening Weekend

Level 5’s Ni No Kuni movie hasn’t fared well on its opening weekend at the Japanese box office. The animated film based on the publisher’s popular video game IP recorded just 140 million yen, putting it in seventh spot on eiga.com’s rankings.

Critical reviews aren’t being kind, either. The Japan Times certainly wasn’t impressed with its animation. They said of it:

“Visually, Ni no Kuni” is far from a Ghibli masterpiece. In fact, it’s a flat, lifeless slog. Its hand-drawn action scenes limp across the screen, while its computer-generated monsters, vehicles and extras look like something out of a decade-old video game…”

The review concludes by stating that the film feels like “an attempt to capitalize on Studio Ghibli’s current absence from the movie market. “

Notably, Ni No Kuni made less than half revenue Dragon Quest: Your Story made in its first week, another recent movie based on a popular video game IP.

Check out the full top 10 weekend box office below:

Weekend box office in Japan (August 24-25, 2019) 

1. (2). “Weathering With You” – 10.73 billion yen
2. (1). “The Lion King” – 4.62 billion yen
3. (new). “Ossan’s Love The Movie: LOVE or DEAD” – 554 million yen
4. (3). “ONE PIECE STAMPEDE” – 4.13 billion yen
5. (4). “Toy Story 4” – 9.32 billion yen
6. (new). “Rocketman” – 182 million yen
7. (new). “Ni no Kuni” – 140 million yen
8. (5). “Hobbs & Shaw” – 2.71 billion yen
9. (6). “The Secret Life of Pets 2” – 1.9 billion yen
10. (8). “Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution” 2.75 billion yen

You can watch the trailer for Ni No Kuni below:

Ni No Kuni was first revealed back in April. There’s no news yet as to whether the movie will make its way west with a translated version, though if numbers don’t improve that seems unlikely.

News via Crunchyroll