Tokyo Broadcast System's Boys Over Flowers earned a huge $9.55m (Y1bn) on 805,000 admissions over the weekend, knocking Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull out of the top spot after only one week.

Released on 400 screens by distributor Toho, per screen averages topped $23,880, the highest figure for any release (local or import) since Evangelion 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone's $28,810 ($31,743 at current rates) in September 2007.

With Y1bn considered the threshold of a hit in Japan, it is extremely rare for a local film to reach the figure on the first weekend. The take more than doubles the opening weekend of TBS' biggest hit of 2007, Sky Of Love ($37.4m). The film skews heavily to female audiences, with women accounting for over 90% of admissions.

Along with The Magic Hour, the film also puts distributor Toho back at the top of the box office after a rare stretch of little activity in the top ten. Toho is aiming for a Y10bn ($95.5m) final tally.

The romantic comedy is based on characters from the original shojo manga (girl's comic) and storylines from the recent live-action TV series. The cast is headed by Shun Oguri, Jun Matsumoto and Mao Inoue and the film is directed by TV series helmer Yasuharu Ishii. A missing wedding tiara plotline includes international locations such as Las Vegas and Hong Kong.

The original comic series ran from 1992-2003, selling close to 60 million copies to date. It has also spawned both animated and live-action TV series, including Taiwanese spin-off Meteor Garden and its boy band F4. TBS also produced a previous feature film in 1995.

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