‘Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback’ breaks box office franchise record in Japan | News

Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback, the latest entry in Japan’s popular long-running anime film franchise, earned $24.1m (¥3.43bn) from 2.31 million admissions over its three-day opening weekend (April 18-20) – a up-to-date record for the franchise.

The previous record was set by Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram, which earned $23.5m (¥3.35bn) on 2.27 million admissions across its opening weekend in April 2024. That film ended up being Japan’s top-grossing film of 2024 with a total of $110.9m (¥15.8bn).

One-Eyed Flashback, the 28th film in the annual franchise based on the manga by Gosho Aoyama, opened on 522 screens, marking the widest release in history of Detective Conan features.

The film takes place in Japan’s snowy Nagano Prefecture and revolves around a series of mysterious events and murders in the prefecture. Like many Conan films it features real-life locations, which frequently become tourist spots for fans of the series. It was directed by Katsuya Shigehara, who served as unit director and key animator on several previous Conan films.

Detective Conan (known as Case Closed in some territories) centres on a teenage detective who shrinks down to child size after being forced to take a mysterious drug, and who continues to solve mysteries under the name Conan Edogawa. Aoyama launched the manga in 1994, and it is still ongoing. There is also a television anime adaptation, which has featured more than 1,100 episodes to date. The films, released annually since 1997, are animated by TMS Entertainment and distributed by Toho.