After climbing to fifth position on the international list due to huge box office grosses from around Asia over the past weekend, THE FIRST SLAM DUNK has now joined the top 10 highest-grossing list in Japan owing to a great turnout over the Golden Week holidays. The film has surpassed JUJUTSU KAISEN 0 on the list of highest-grossing movies in Japan.
Since it first premiered in December of last year, THE FIRST SLAM DUNK has sold over 9.66 million tickets, resulting in a total of 13.96 billion yen (US$106.09 million) being brought in by the Japanese box office as of May 7th. It has currently surpassed JUJUTSU KAISEN 0 to become the highest-grossing film of 2023 in Japan; the official box office calendar in Japan runs from December to November. It is also the 10th highest-grossing anime film and the 16th highest-grossing picture overall. In Japan, Weathering With You is now ranked higher than Slam Dunk on both of those charts.
The distance between THE FIRST SLAM DUNK and Suzume, which is also now playing in cinemas all over the world, continues to narrow while the former maintains its position as the fifth highest earning anime film of all time worldwide. The film has now made a total of US$91.92 million in China, making it the second-biggest market for Slam Dunk outside of Japan. South Korea is in second place, with a total of US$36.46 million. The movie has earned a total of $264.82 million over the world as of this moment, with $30.35 million of that coming from seven different Asian countries and regions.
Watch the trailer for the film below!
Take a look at the history of THE FIRST SLAM DUNK:
The original Slam Dunk manga aired on television from 1993 to 1996, and four anime films were based on it. The storyline follows Hanamichi Sakuragi, an incoming freshman at Shohoku High, who also holds the record for having been rejected by the most number of girls in middle school, which sadly adds up to a whopping 50 total. Sakuragi has been traumatized by basketball ever since he was most recently rejected by a girl for a fellow teammate.
During a December 2014 dinner with Matsui, Inoue gave the film the go-ahead. Then, Matsui suggested that Inoue write the script and direct, as he was the person most trusted with the dialogue and physical appearance and expression of the characters. In January 2015, he began working on the script after Inoue's acceptance. In 2018, motion capture and model development began. Then on January 6, 2021, Inoue unexpectedly announced on Twitter that production had begun on the film.
On August 13, 2021, Inoue was revealed to be the film's screenwriter and director, alongside other production staff members including Yasuyuki Ebara as character designer/animation director and Naoki Miyahara, Katsuhiko Kitada, Toshio Ohashi, Yasuhiro Motoda, Fumihiko Suganuma, and Haruko Kamatani as sequence directors.
Let us know if you have watched THE FIRST SLAM DUNK anime film in the comments below!