Space Battleship Yamato Movie Kimura Takuya

SMAP’s Kimura Takuya (38) was at the opening of his movie, “Space Battleship Yamato,” at Tokyo’s Toho Cinemas.

Saturdays are known for movie openings, otherwise known as “Movie Day,” but they made an exception for “Yamato” and opened the movie to the public on 12/1. Kimura yelled with deep emotion, “I want a lot of people to embark on Yamato!”

Several distributors have reserved distribution rights in the following 6 countries: France, Germany, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. It was also announced that offers from American Hollywood distributors were on the table, too. Kimura commented on this departure into the world, “Please enjoy this sci-fi film that was made in Japan. I want to show everyone that there’s a bigger ship to embark on than the Yamato.”

Toho is aiming for 8 billion yen (roughly 95 million dollars) at the box offices and they’re confident they’ll topple the current box office winner, “Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows Part 1” by New Year’s. It’s possible “Yamato” will exceed Kimura’s last record breaking movie, 2007’s “Hero,” which collected 8.6 billion yen (roughly 102 million dollars) at the box office.