THE FIRST SLAM DUNK came onto the court and immediately scored a three-pointer, making over 1 billion yen in its first two days topping the weekend box office charts and pushing Makoto Shinkai’s massive anime film Suzume down into second place. 

Over its first two-day weekend, THE FIRST SLAM DUNK made 1.296 billion yen (US$9.57 million) on the back of 847,000 tickets sold, marking the best opening for a Slam Dunk anime film in the history of the franchise, though the others were released under much different circumstances.

The latest film, directed and written by series creator Takehiko Inoue at Toei Animation and DandeLion, is already the highest box office of the original films, surpassing 1994’s Slam Dunk: Zenkoku Seiha da! Sakuragi Hanamichi’s box office of 1.12 billion yen and 1995’s Slam Dunk: Shohoku Saidai no Kiki! Moero Sakuragi Hanamichi’s total of 1.27 billion yen. Only the first anime film, just titled Slam Dunk and released in 1994, has made more with 1.45 billion yen. 

Unlike THE FIRST SLAM DUNK, the other four films were released as part of the Toei Anime Fair, which saw the film’s release with other Toei Animation films such as Dragon Ball Z and Yu Yu Hakusho and shares a box office total. The box office is combined as one ticket gave entry to all the films as double or triple billings.

RELATED: THE FIRST SLAM DUNK Anime Film Rebounds Its Way Onto IMAX Screens on December 3

The original Slam Dunk TV anime aired from 1993 to 1996, with four anime films being spun off from the original anime. You can catch an on-demand replay of the TV anime right here on Crunchyroll, which describes the series as such:

Hanamichi Sakuragi, an entering freshman at Shohoku High, holds a record for being rejected by 50 girls during middle school. Ever since the last girl turned him down for a guy on the basketball team, Sakuragi's been traumatized by the sport.

THE FIRST SLAM DUNK opened in Japan on December 3 in regular and IMAX theaters and expanding to Dolby Cinema screens on December 10.

Source: Kogyo Tsushin

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Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.