The highly anticipated live-action film adaptation of Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist manga has finally released in 341 theaters across Japan on December 1st. Thanks to the absence of strong world wide release competitors, it was able to rank No.1 pretty easily in its first weekend at the Japanese box office, but its gross was far below what had been expected.
The film directed by Fumihiko Sori earned only 264 million yen on 191,200 admissions on its first Saturday and Sunday (373 million in three days total), which was less than half of that of this summer's smash hit film Gintama (541 million yen), and even then it was only only 41.3 percent of that of the star Ryosuke Yamada's previous live-action adaptation film based on the popular Japanese manga, Assassination Classroom: Graduation (639 million yen/March 2016).
The 133-minute film is also scheduled to be distributed in over 190 countries/regions all over the world, so perhaps it will be more accepted and make more gross worldwide than just in Japan?
Fullmetal Alchemist Synopsis: Fullmetal Alchemist Synopsis: In an alchemical ritual gone wrong, Edward Elric lost his arm and his leg, and his brother Alphonse became nothing but a soul in a suit of armor. Equipped with mechanical “auto-mail” limbs, Edward becomes a state alchemist, seeking the one thing that can restore his and his brother’s bodies...the legendary Philosopher’s Stone.