The Umamusume: Pretty Derby — Beginning of a New Era anime movie has placed second on the May 24-26 Japanese weekend box office ranking, with Kogyo Tsushin reporting a moviegoer count of 226.6 thousand and a gross of 354 million yen (~US$2.25 million) for its opening weekend.
The film, which is part of the Umamusume franchise that includes a multi-season TV anime, an ONA, and a social simulation game, follows horse girl Jungle Pocket (Yuri Fujimoto) as she takes on the once-in-a-lifetime Classic Sankan (Triple Crown) Race. Among the competitors are her formidable same-generation rivals Dantsu Flame (Haruna Fukushima), Agnes Tachyon (Sumire Uesaka) and Manhattan Cafe (Yui Ogura).
Beginning of a New Era is directed by Ken Yamamoto (Pokémon: Hisuian Snow director, Princess Connect Re: Dive Season 2 opening storyboard artist and director) with Tatsuya Kobari (Umamusume: Pretty Derby Season 3 co-series composer) as scenario director and story composer and Jun Yamazaki (Umamusume: Pretty Derby — Road to the Top) as character designer and chief animation director. Like the Umamusume: Pretty Derby — Road to the Top ONA, the film is produced by CygamesPictures with Kan Mizoguchi as animation producer.
Aside from Beginning of a New Era, other anime movies that placed on the weekend ranking are Detective Conan: The Million-dollar Pentagram at third, Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction Part 2 at fourth, and Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle at ninth. The Million-dollar Pentagram, which features Kaito Kid, is now the best-performing Detective Conan movie and the 17th highest-grossing movie (tied with The Super Mario Bros. Movie) in Japan with 14.02 billion yen (~US$89.2 million), while The Dumpster Battle is currently Japan’s 40th top-grossing film with 10.8 billion yen (~US$68.8 million).
Source: Kogyo Tsushin