The Japan box office rankings saw major movement during the July 31 to August 2 weekend, with Spider-Man: Brand New Day taking the top position after its simultaneous global release. The superhero film pushed Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of the Mermaid Island down to second place in its second weekend, though the anime adaptation continues to perform strongly.
Based on Nagano’s popular web manga, Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of the Mermaid Island remains one of Japan’s biggest animated releases of 2026. Meanwhile, the latest Crayon Shin-chan movie also made a major impact, recording the strongest opening weekend in the long-running anime film franchise’s history.
Chiikawa anime movie remains a major Japanese box office success
After opening at No. 1 the previous weekend, Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of the Mermaid Island earned 1.072 billion yen ($6.8 million) during its second weekend, attracting around 766,000 moviegoers. While ticket sales declined by 52% compared to its debut frame, the film has already reached an impressive milestone.
The movie’s ten-day cumulative total has reached 4.4 billion yen ($28 million) from approximately 3.05 million admissions. This performance makes it the second-highest-grossing Japanese animated movie released in Japan this year, surpassing Doraemon: Nobita and the New Castle of the Undersea Devil.
The top-performing Japanese animated film of 2026 remains Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway, which has earned 13.68 billion yen and entered Japan’s all-time box office rankings.
The latest entry in the long-running series, Crayon Shin-chan the Movie: Very Bizarre! My Yokai Vacation, debuted in third place with 539 million yen ($3.42 million) from 441,000 admissions across 371 theaters.
The film achieved the biggest opening weekend in the history of the Crayon Shin-chan movie franchise, which began in 1993. Its debut was 118% higher than the opening performance of 2024’s Crayon Shin-chan: Our Dinosaur Diary, which previously held the series record.
The movie also received positive early audience reactions, ranking fourth in Filmarks’ first-day satisfaction rankings with an average score of 3.67 out of 5 based on 768 reviews.
Elsewhere on the chart, Kingdom: Tamashii no Kessen dropped to fifth place in its third weekend. The live-action adaptation has earned 4.3 billion yen ($27.3 million) after 17 days, slightly behind the previous installment’s pace.
Other titles in Japan’s top 10 included Toy Story 5, Moana, Michael, and PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie, showing a mix of Hollywood blockbusters and Japanese animated releases competing for audiences.