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24th Detective Conan Film Tops Japanese, Chinese Box Offices
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet (Meitantei Conan: Hiiro no Dangan film topped both the Japanese and Chinese box offices last weekend. The film sold 1,533,054 tickets in Japan in its first three days to earn 2,218,130,800 yen (about US$20.5 million).
The film earned the equivalent of US$16.8 million in China in its first three days, and its global earnings total US$37 million.
Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet is the 24th film in the franchise. The film was slated to open on April 17 last year, but was delayed from its original date due to concerns about the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The film opened in Japan on Friday. The film also had a simultaneous release in 22 countries and territories outside of Japan: Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and France.
Tomoka Nagaoka (Detective Conan: Fist of Blue Sapphire) directed the film, and Takeharu Sakurai (Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer) wrote the script. Katsuo Ono returned to compose the music. Rock band Tokyo Jihen performed the theme song "Eien no Fuzaishōmei" (The Eternal Alibi).
Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet centers on the FBI agent Shuichi Akai, his younger brother and professional shōgi player Shukichi Haneda, his younger sister and high school detective Masumi Sera, his mother Mary Sera, and Conan Edogawa himself.
In the story, Japan is celebrating the upcoming World Sports Games (WSG), the world's largest sporting event, in Tokyo. The "Japanese Bullet," the world's first vacuum-tube super-conducting linear train, is built with the latest Japanese technology and timed to coincide with the WSG opening ceremonies. The train is set to run from Shin Nagoya Station to Tokyo Station at up to 1,000 kilometers per hour (about 600 miles per hour). However, a bizarre incident occurs during a party held by famous major sponsors, leading to a string of kidnappings of top executives. Conan deduces a possible link to serial abductions in the WSG 15 years earlier in Boston.
Sources: Cinema Today (梅山富美子), Kōgyō Tsūshin, Variety (Rebecca Davis), Deadline (Nancy Tartaglione)
