"Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie," the latest feature film adaptation of the popular ninja manga and anime series, has became the highest grossing film in the franchise.
The film raked in 1.46 billion yen ($18.2 million) between its July 28 opening day and Sept. 23, attracting 1.25 million moviegoers.
The box office figure was a 78-percent increase from the previous movie, "Naruto the Movie: Blood Prison." That film fell far short of topping the 1 billion yen threshold, earning 800 million yen at the box office in the summer of 2011.
"Road to Ninja" broke the record held by the first feature adaptation, 2004's "Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow!", which made 1.37 billion yen.
With the "Naruto" TV series celebrating its 10th anniversary and airing the 500th episode in 2012, the production team had extra enthusiasm for the latest film. For the first time, "Naruto" creator Masashi Kishimoto joined the production from the planning stage, providing the story and character designs.
TV Tokyo Corp., which airs the ninja anime series, said the film enjoyed commercial success for its highly praised story, extensive promotional activities, the launch of a social networking game service and other factors.
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