The XXXHOLiC live-action movie directed by Mika Ninagawa had its Blu-ray and DVD released on October 5th with two versions: regular and special.
The Blu-ray Special Edition debuted on the 3rd place on Oricon’s weekly Blu-ray ranking, with an estimate of 3,999 copies sold. The Regular Edition, on the other hand, did not make it to the weekly ranking.
The DVD Special Edition debuted on the 5th place, with an estimate of 1,492 copies sold. The Regular Edition debuted on the 12th place with an estimate of 669 copies sold.
Together, the Blu-ray and DVD versions of the XXXHOLiC live-action movie sold an estimate of 6,160 copies on its first week.
Source: Oricon.
It is always worth mentioning that Oricon only takes into account a certain number of shops and preorders are likely not taken into account. These numbers are only an estimate and it’s possible that the real figures are higher than these.
The Blu-ray and DVD versions of XXXHOLiC live-action movie can be purchased on CD Japan:
The XXXHOLiC live-action movie directed by Mika Ninagawa dropped to the 8th place in Japan’s box office on it’s second week, grossing a total of $295,141 (-56.5%).
The movie’s total domestic gross is now of US$2,882,403.
May 7th-9th weekend (Gross/Total Gross)
1st – Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($9,337,114 / $9,337,114) 2nd – Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween ($3,040,033 / $53,371,256) 3rd – Crayon Shin-chan: Mononoke Ninja Chinpuden ($1,093,629 / $11,281,299) 4th – Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore ($1,073,066 / $30,891,296) 5th – Radiation House ($551,481 / $4,622,406) 8th – XXXHOLiC ($295,141 / $2,882,403)
It’s also worthwhile checking XXXHOLiC‘s performance against the previous movies directed by Mika Ninagawa by their second week:
Sakuran (2006) – second week at #7 (Grossing: $670,913 / Total domestic gross by week 2: $1,615,641)
Helter Skelter (2012) – second week at #4 (Grossing: $2,152,782 / Total domestic gross by week 2: $10,263,918)
Diner (2019) – second week at #5 (Grossing: $1,398,350 / Total domestic gross by week 2: $5,921,261)
No Longer Human – second week at #5 (Grossing: $1,147,796 / Total domestic gross by week 2: $6,045,219)
It doesn’t seem like the movie is doing super well. It’s only winning against Sakuran at this point, but then again, maybe Sakuran‘s numbers have not been adjusted to reflect inflation over time.
One potential reason is the lack of a better distribution. So it depends on how many theaters the movie is actually showing.
They recently announced that from May 20th they will start screening sessions with audio commentary by the cast and director, as a strategy to make people go back and watch it again.
The XXXHOLiC live-action movie directed by Mika Ninagawa debuted on the 5th place in Japan’s box office on it’s opening week. It took a while for the numbers to come in, due to the Golden Week holiday in Japan.
The movie grossed US$678,321 in its opening weekend (April 29th-May 1st) and US$1,450,436 after 9 days since its release.
April 29th – May 1st weekend (Gross/Total Gross)
1st – Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween ($5,665,453 / $40,330,183) 2nd – Crayon Shin-chan: Mononoke Ninja Chinpuden ($2,191,837 / $6,726,318) 3rd – Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore ($2,166,432 / $26,088,958) 4th – Free! The Final Stroke Part 2 ($987,323 / $3,215,116) 5th – XXXHOLiC ($678,321 / $1,450,436)
I honestly expected a much better performance, I don’t know how much the pandemic caused an impact on it — probably not much considering how well the Detective Conan movie is doing. Also, I’ve been informed that the movie is not being screened in a lot of theaters, which could mean that the distribution is not as wide as the other movies in positions 1-4. If there are less screens showing the movie, you will end up having less grossing.
There are many ways to measure if a movie was successful, the most common of them being whether it profited enough to cover its productions costs. Unfortunately, at this point it is unknown how much was the production cost for the XXXHOLiC movie.
It’s also worthwhile checking XXXHOLiC‘s performance against the previous movies directed by Mika Ninagawa:
Sakuran (2006) – debuted at #6 (First weekend gross: $370,831 / Total domestic gross: $5,973,534)
Helter Skelter (2012) – debuted at #4 (First weekend gross: $2,937,152 / Total domestic gross: $24,231,554)
Diner (2019) – debuted at #3 (First weekend gross: $1,756,882 / Total domestic gross: $9,673,094)
No Longer Human – debuted at #4 (First weekend gross: $1,566,799 / Total domestic gross: $10,452,114)
Only Sakuran (2012) had a slightly worse performance than XXXHOLiC, but given that the numbers are from 2012, I honestly don’t know if they have been corrected to reflect inflation over the years (I don’t think so). Helter Skelter had a really good opening weekend, the best of all five Ninagawa movies, and the best total grossing as well.
There are two things to keep an eye out from now on: 1) how the XXXHOLiC movie goes in the next weekends (maybe it will have a timid, but long run); 2) Due to CLAMP’s international appeal, there is a possibility of having the XXXHOLiC movie opening in other countries, which would of course contribute to its total grossing. The same happened with Sakuran and Helter Skelter (both also manga adaptations).
Considering that at this point the movie is not getting distributed massively, one could say that it was a good first week performance. Let’s hope that it will open in more screens in the next weeks.
The official guidebook for XXXHOLiC Rei was released today in Japan and with it came the announcement that, after 6 years (7 years if you consider the release of volume 4), the serialization of XXXHOLiC Rei will be resumed in Young Magazine in Japanese Spring, 2023!
Some websites specialized in manga and anime culture, such as Comic Natalie, are also reporting it.
Next Spring in Japan will kind of coincide with the series’ 20th Anniversary — which is actually in February.
It might also indicate that Card Captor Sakura Clear Card arc could be over or very near its ending by then. Unless, of course, CLAMP want to link both series towards the end, in which case we might see Clear Card for a little longer.
This makes completely sense after all the different adaptations (theater, live action movie) and new versions coming out. Not to mention XXXHOLiC Rei seemed the most likely to be picked up after Clear Card — after all, it’s hard to believe that Kodansha would be left without a CLAMP series for long.
It’s good to have a confirmation, even though it’s still a year ahead!
With the opening date for the XXXHOLiC live action moving drawing near, it’s been announced today that a limited amount of cards illustrated by CLAMP will be distributed to those to come to watch the movie at the theaters. They don’t specify how many postcards will be available.
In the new illustration, the cast of XXXHOLiC can be seen wearing the same costumes as seen in the movie. The setting is also akin to the movie.
— 映画『ホリック xxxHOLiC』公式 (@xxxHOLiC_movie) April 1, 2022
Which can be roughly translated as:
The work called “XXXHOLiC”, for which director Mika Ninagawa loves it deeply, the wish for wanting to see the “picture” and “story” that she envisions has come true.
As original authors, we are very happy as a movie fan.
I’m really happy about this because for the first time in months (and about time, really), we have an official statement from CLAMP.
They have spoken informally about the movie in some of their twitter spaces, but always very briefly. The postcard is a nice gift to the fans, too. I’m glad they did it.
I did notice, however, that CLAMP’s comments were not included in the movie official website along with everyone else’s. They can be seen only in the News section that talks about the postcard.
There are many ways to interpret CLAMP’s comment. They were, of course, very polite. But the impression I had reading the comment is that the movie is Mika Ninagawa’s vision entirely, which makes perfect sense given that she’s the director. I do wonder if there were any disagreements between her and CLAMP, which led to this “distant” approach from CLAMP.
They will be released on April 6. They can be ordered via Amazon Japan (volume 17, volume 18).
My guesses were half-right! We have older Doumeki on the cover of 17 but we don’t have an older Kohane on the cover of volume 18. Instead, we have Yaobikuni, becoming one of the few selected yokai to make it to the covers.
My bet for volume 19 now is Watanuki all by himself, or maybe with older Kohane? xD
Only one volume left for XXXHOLiC now. Volume 19 will come out on May 6th.
XXXHOLiC Rei will not be released immediately after. Instead, the next CLAMP PREMIUM COLLECTION series will be Tokyo Babylon, to be released by Kadokawa.
Really excited about this! This will coincide with CLAMP’s 33rd Anniversary. They did a special feature by the time of their 20th Anniversary.
And the interview is likely the one that Nanase Ohkawa-sensei mentioned a couple of weeks ago on her twitter:
Nanase Ohkawa-sensei has tweeted that the 4 members of CLAMP just did their first interview in a long time (6 years to be precise, the last one was in 2016!).
The interview was conducted remotely and an announcement will be made soon.
We get to see some of the clients in the trailer, such as “Misaki” (who is the lady with the habit of lying) as well as Spider Lady and the original character Akagumo. But we don’t get to see Neko Musume, Zashiki Warashi or any other clients (I think?).
It seems like there will be a lot of action taking place in Tokyo, as expected from Mika Ninagawa. You can see the iconic Shibuya 109 building in one of the scenes.
I am not sure if the theme song fits XXXHOLiC. I am not familiar with the band. Of course I would love it to be Suga Shikao the one performing the theme song, but I didn’t think he would be chosen.
The last scene in the trailer looks beautiful and perhaps it gives us an indication of how much from the original story the movie will cover.
The visuals look good. The trailer looks a bit too heavy on the CGI, but maybe they chose these scenes purposely for the trailer to cause an impact in the audience. It also feels very action-based, a bit too much for XXXHOLiC, but again, it might be the selection of scenes they picked.
All that said, the trailer did its job to make me wanna see the movie!
They will be released on March 4. They can be ordered via Amazon Japan (volume 15, volume 16).
I’m so glad the Oden Fox got its cover! It makes perfect sense!
And as expected, Watanuki on the cover of volume 16, given that this is the volume where “Rou” begins.
Really interesting how they have kept it 100% XXXHOLiC, not using the Tsubasa characters.
What’s next for volumes 17-19? Possibly older Doumeki and older Kohane? We never saw older Himawari so I don’t think she is an option. Is Watanuki getting the 19th cover alone?
These covers are so gorgeous!
Here’s the upcoming release schedule for XXXHOLiC:
April 6th 2022: volumes 17 & 18 May 2022: volume 19 & ?
Chibi Yuuto's CHRoNiCLEs 