Japanese films held their own against the foreign competition at the local box office in 2019. According to figures compiled by the Private Life entertainment data and ranking site, domestic films took five of the top 10 box-office slots this year, with the leader, at ¥13.9 billion, being Makoto Shinkai's animated film, "Weathering With You."
This is about half the ¥25.03 billion made by Shinkai's previous film, the 2016 smash "Your Name." but it's still stupendous by Japanese standards — and another indication that Shinkai has well and truly inherited the mantle of anime maestro Hayao Miyazaki, a box-office king for more than two decades.
Of the 10 highest-earning Japanese films in 2019, five are animated films, including new feature iterations of the long-running "Conan the Detective," "One Piece," "Doraemon" and "Dragon Ball" franchises.