2.7 Million Worth Tickets Sold for Live-action Gintama Film

A new height has been reached by the live-action film of Hideaki Sorachi’s Gintama manga as of Sunday. In just its fourth weekend the film has earned a total of 2.73 billion yen (about US$24.7 million). In addition to this the film has also sold 2 million tickets in its 23rd day in the box office. Out of all the live-action films that have been released this year, this film has reached the fastest in gaining such a large amount.

From its release on July 14, the film has done well in terms of profit and recognition. In its first four days the film earned a total of 980 million yen (US$8.9 million) and on July 15, a live-action net show inspired by the film was released on Docomo’s dTV streaming service.

Created by Hideaki Sorachi and released in 2003 and serialized by Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump, “Gintama” is considered as a classic by many in the anime/manga. Even now the series holds as place amongst top ranks in the top-selling manga category. Currently, the manga has more than 50 million copies in print in Japan and the English version of the first 23 volumes have been released by Viz Media. Most recently on July 4, the 69th volume of the manga was published by Shueisha and last July marked the final arc for the series.

It was in 2006 that the anime adaptation for the series makes its debut and most recently the fifth series of the franchise took to the screen on January 8. Coming in October, the anime will be making its return on Tokyo TV and going onto the “Porori Arc.”

Other than an anime series, film and net show, the franchise has also inspired two films and various OVAs and event anime.

On another note a special talk video with the film featuring voice actors Shun Oguri, Masaki Suda, Kanna Hashimoto, and director Yūichi Fukuda giving fans a special message. The video can be found at the Shinjuku Piccadilly, Osaka Station City Cinema, Midland Square Cinema, T-Joy Hakata, and Sapporo Cinema Frontier theaters.

Source: AnimeNewsNetwork