5th Film in Kingdom Live-Action Series Opens at #1 at Japan Box Office
Japan box offices saw a familiar name at the top this weekend: Kingdom. The fifth film in the live-action series based on Yasuhisa Hara's manga of the same name opened at number one in its debut weekend as of July 24, 2026. According to Anime News Network, the film outperformed its competitors to become the most-watched movie of the week.
This new installment continues the story set in China's Warring States period in the 3rd century BC. The political intrigues and battle scenes revolving around the characters Xin (Shin) played by Kento Yamazaki and Ying Zheng (Ei Sei) played by Ryo Yoshizawa are receiving great interest from fans. The first film was released in 2019, followed by sequels in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Each has earned over 4 billion yen (about $30 million) at the Japanese box office, making the series one of the country's most successful live-action adaptations.
Among other releases that same weekend, the anime film You, Fireworks, and Our Promise took fifth place. This film tells the emotional story of a young couple under fireworks and has an original screenplay. Additionally, the live-action film The Samurai and the Prisoner ranked ninth, and Detective Conan: Highway no Datenshi managed to take tenth place. As one of the Detective Conan series' 30th-anniversary projects, this film continues to attract the interest of long-time anime fans.
Kingdom's success stands out as one of the rare examples showing that quality can be maintained when transitioning from manga to live-action. Yasuhisa Hara's manga, which has been serialized since 2006, has sold over 100 million copies in Japan. The series, which previously had two seasons of anime adaptation, is praised especially for its historical accuracy and action scenes. Fans are now wondering whether a sixth film will be announced following the fifth; the source material is not yet exhausted.
In the coming weeks, it will be eagerly watched how far Kingdom will go at the box office and when its international distribution will take place. For now, this series, which holds one of the biggest box office records in Japanese cinema, is going through an exciting period for both manga and movie fans.
