Mark Schilling
Japan Correspondent
TOKYO — Disney’s “Big Hero 6” climbed atop the Japanese box office for the peak New Year’s holiday period. Released in Japan on Dec. 20, the picture recorded $5.6 million on 505,000 admissions on Jan. 3-4 .
By Jan. 4, its 16th day on release, its cumulative total had risen to $34.6 million on 3.36 million admissions, the second fastest box office pace for a Disney animation, after “Frozen.”
The other hot animation on the charts was the locally produced “Yokai Watch the Movie: The Secret is Created, Nyan!,” which topped the 5 billion yen ($42 million) mark after 16 days on release.
Based on a popular role-playing game by Level 5 that has since spawned a hit TV anime show, “Nyan” set an opening weekend (Dec. 20-21) record for distributor Toho with a $13.6 million from 408 screens.
