‘Psycho-Pass’ Movie Debuts #4 In Japanese Box Office With Solid $2 Million Weekend Opening

Perhaps the peculiar advertising schemes of real live Sibyl System scanners in the Japanese metro and a Sibyl System cake helped bolster ticket sales for the premiere of the animated "Psycho-Pass" movie.

But then again, there were plenty of fans looking for Gen Urobuchi generated writing after the allegedly disappointing "Psycho-Pass" season two.

Whatever the case may be, the "Psycho-Pass" movie is off to a solid start in terms of box office performance. Crunchyroll reports that the cyberpunk anime film debuted at number four in the Japanese box office with 136,899,100 yen on its opening day. The full weekend numbers for the film converts to a little over 2 million U.S. dollars, yielding a considerably solid opening weekend for the Urobutcher's full length movie.

Say what you will about critics opinions, but many fans agreed with Hope Chapman's assertion that writer Tow Ubukata is largely responsible for the reportedly disappointing "Psycho-Pass" season two:

"Honestly, this series hurt my heart to watch. It made me sad not because it was stupid and poorly-written, but because in the end, it fundamentally misunderstood the ideas behind the franchise it was continuing," wrote Chapman on ANN.

At the end of her review she mentioned that she was looking forward to the "Psycho-Pass" movie which included the return of original production staff members, including original writer Gen Urobuchi.

Based on the opening numbers of the "Psycho-Pass" movie, perhaps Chapman was not alone in her desire to return to original ideas about "Psycho-Pass."

According to Anime News Network, the "Psycho-Pass" movie premiered in theaters in Japan on January 9. They also report that the movie was directed by Naoyoshi Shiotani and written by Gen Urobuchi and Makoto Fukami. Kana Hanazawa also returned to voice main character Inspector Akane Tsunemori.

Although there's no confirmation of an English release, perhaps Funimation will license the film after previously licensing the two seasons of the TV anime. Given the strong performance in Japan, it perhaps would be in their benefit to release it to fans in North America.