After more than 20 years, legendary basketball anime Slam Dunk proved it remains big in the anime world with the success of its brand-new movie, The First Slam Dunk. The computer-animated sports film raked a staggering ¥1,295,808,780 or $9.50 million USD in its first two days in theaters, dethroning Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume no Tojimari in the weekend box office.
The movie sold around 847,000 ticket sales from its opening on Saturday, Dec 3, to Sunday, Dec 4. It premiered in 40 IMAX screens and 34 Dolby Atmos screens across Japan and will screen in Dolby Cinema theaters starting Dec 10.
Takehiko Inoue, creator of Slam Dunk manga, is the director and the scriptwriter of the film. Yasuyuki Ebara (Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress) is the character designer/animation director. Meanwhile, Katsuhiko Kitada (Attack on Titan episodes, Major: Yūjō no Winning Shot), Naoki Miyahara (Digimon Adventure, Popin Q), Toshio Ōhashi (LayereD Stories 0), and Yū Kamatani (Looking for Magical DoReMi, Precure Super Stars!) serve as the technical directors.
The stars the following voice actors:
- Shugo Nakamura as Ryota Miyagi
- Jun Kasama as Hisashi Mitsui
- Shin’ichirō Kamio as Kaede Rukawa
- Subaru Kimura as Hanamichi Sakuragi
- Kenta Miyake as Takenori Akagi
The staggering digits made the film No. 1 in the weekend box office charts. It also already surpassed the sales of the 1994 Slam Dunk: Zenkoku Seiha da! Sakuragi Hanamichi and the 1995Slam Dunk: Shohoku Saidai no Kiki! Moero Sakuragi Hanamichi, which amassed 1.12 billion yen and 1.27 billion yen respectively.
Inoue published the Slam Dunk manga in 1990. The series later inspired a television anime in 1993.
Crunchyroll is streaming the anime. It describes the story as follows:
Hanamichi Sakuragi is a delinquent with a long history of getting dumped by girls. After enrolling in Shohoku High School, Hanamichi becomes interested in a girl named Haruko who loves the game of basketball.
The First Slam Dunk serves as the comeback film of the iconic sports anime. You can watch the trailer of the film below:
Read More: The First Slam Dunk Anime Film to Open in Hong Kong, Macau in Early 2023
