The Mainichi Shimbun paper's Mantan Web site reported on Tuesday that Studio Ghibli's Karigurashi no Arrietty anime film sold 1,038,138 tickets and earned 1.35 billion yen (about US$15.6 million) between Saturday and Monday. This first feature film from veteran Ghibli animator Hiromasa Yonebayashi opened on 447 screens this past weekend.

The number of tickets that Arrietty sold is 82.9% of what Ghibli's last film, 2008's Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, sold in its first three days. Due to its slightly higher average ticket price, Arrietty's box office take is 85.6% of what Ponyo earned. As a result, the film distributor TOHO is confidently predicting that Arrietty will eventually earn over 10 billion yen (US$120 million). Ponyo eventually became the #1 film — domestic or foreign — of 2008 at the Japanese box office with 15.4 billion yen (US$165 million).

On Arrietty's opening day, Yonebayashi made a special appearance at Tokyo's Scala-za theater with longtime Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki, Mirai Shida (the voice of the title character Arrietty), Ryunosuke Kamiki (Sho), Keiko Takeshita (Sadako), Tomokazu Miura (Pod), Shinobu Ōtake (Homily), and theme song composer/performer Cécile Corbel. Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki planned and wrote this film, which is based on The Borrowers (Yukashita no Kobito-tachi) novel by the late English author Mary Norton.