One Piece Film Red has earned over 6.47 billion yen (~US$48.5 million) at the Japanese box office since its August 6 premiere, Kogyo Tsushin reported on August 15.

With the current pace of its earnings, One Piece Film Red is poised to become the highest-grossing One Piece film. Currently, that position is held by 2012’s One Piece Film Z, which has a total gross of 6.87 billion yen (~US$51.54 million).

Kogyo Tsushin also reported that One Piece Film Red made 1.497 billion yen (~US$11.2 million) over its second weekend and maintained its top spot at the weekend box office; the film made 2.25 billion yen (~US$16.68 million) in its debut weekend. A total moviegoer count of over 4.62 million and a second weekend moviegoer count of 1.03 million were also recorded.

One Piece Film Red is the 15th One Piece movie. The film features a new character called Uta (Kaori Nazuka; singing voice Ado), a diva who is Shank’s daughter. The movie is directed by Gorou Taniguchi (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;Surrection, One Piece: Taose! Kaizoku Gyanzakku) with Tsutomu Kuroiwa (One Piece Film: Gold, GANTZ:O) as scriptwriter, Masayuki Satou (One Piece Film Strong World character designer and animation director) as character designer and chief animation director, and One Piece mangaka Eiichiro Oda as general producer and original story creator.

Multiple animated music videos have been released for Uta’s songs from the Uta no Uta One Piece Film Red album, with more on the way. These music videos have proven to be highly popular: the first has obtained nearly 29 million views since its June 15 release, while the latest has over 6.8 million views so far since its August 6 premiere.

Source: Kogyo Tsushin