Mama ga Mou Kono Sekai ni Inakutemo (“Even If Mum Is No Longer in This World”), a drama starring Haruna Kawaguchi, has taken ¥4.01bn ($25m) at the Japan box office in its first 43 days, with 2,842,801 admissions. The exact total to Friday 13 November was ¥4,013,510,680, according to figures from the distributor, Toei, published by Oricon News on Saturday. The film’s official site announced the milestone the same day.
Known in Japan by the short form Mamaseka, the film opened strongly on 2 October and has kept building on word of mouth, first among young audiences and then across age groups, Toei says. That staying power matters more than the milestone itself: the film topped the weekend chart three times running before Toho’s Godzilla Minus Zero (Gojira -0.0) arrived this month, and some screenings are still selling out six weeks into its run.
Key facts
- Film: Mama ga Mou Kono Sekai ni Inakutemo: Watashi no Inochi no Nikki, dir. Yuki Yamato; stars Haruna Kawaguchi and Mahiro Takasugi; distributor Toei
- Total to 13 November (43 days): ¥4,013,510,680 ($25.1m) from 2,842,801 admissions, distributor figures
- Average ticket price: about ¥1,412, by FilmBunch’s calculation from the two distributor figures
- No. 1 on the Kogyo Tsushin weekend chart for at least weeks three to five; No. 2 on 6–8 November behind Godzilla Minus Zero
- Conversion at the European Central Bank reference rates for 13 November (about ¥160 to the dollar)
How the total built
The film’s own news page tracks the run in steps. It had passed ¥1.8bn and 1.2 million admissions by 16 October, two weeks in, when Takasugi and Yamato held a talk event at Shinjuku Wald 9 in Tokyo. It crossed ¥3bn and 2 million admissions on 26 October, its 25th day, and reached ¥3.4bn and 2.4 million by 1 November. Kogyo Tsushin’s weekend chart, which the site quotes, had it at No. 1 by both admissions and gross in its third, fourth and fifth weekends.
The arrival of Godzilla Minus Zero on 3 November pushed it to second place. Over 6–8 November the Toho film took ¥1.13bn from 699,000 admissions in three days, while Mamaseka added ¥186m and 137,000 admissions in its sixth weekend, taking its total past ¥3.8bn and 2.74 million, eiga.com reported from Kogyo Tsushin data. Godzilla Minus Zero had passed ¥2.5bn in its first six days, with 1.61 million admissions, eiga.com said; our Japan box office reports track both runs.
Set against the 13 November total, those figures mean the film sold roughly 100,000 tickets and took about ¥200m ($1.3m) on the five weekdays that followed, by FilmBunch’s calculation. For a film in its seventh week, up against a new Godzilla, that is a firm weekday hold.
The film
The story comes from the published diary of Nodoka Endo, who was told at 21 that she had stage 4 colorectal cancer and wrote until ten days before her death at 24. Shogakukan published the book. Kawaguchi plays Endo and Takasugi her husband, Shoichi. Yamato, whose earlier films include Drowning Love and Toei’s Hot Gimmick: Girl Meets Boy, directed and co-wrote the screenplay. A producer came across the diary after the couple had appeared on a Nippon TV variety programme, Oricon reports.
Toei, which also set out rules this month for generative AI in its productions, is now using the hit to promote the director. On 22 November, Bunkamura Le Cinéma Shibuya Miyashita in Tokyo will hold a one-day retrospective of four Yamato films, from her debut Anoko ga Umibe de Odotteru (2012) to Hot Gimmick (2019), with the director speaking at each of the three screenings. A new round of cinema giveaways began on 6 November.
What is not known
Toei has not published a current screen count, a split between weekend and weekday takings, or any plans for a release outside Japan. The totals are the distributor’s, in yen; the dollar conversion is ours, at the European Central Bank reference rates for 13 November, the last day the total covers. Our weekly box office coverage tracks the other major markets.
Our reading
A drama without franchise backing reaching ¥4bn on word of mouth is the kind of result Japanese distributors build release plans around, because it holds screens through the weekdays when event films fade. The next evidence is Kogyo Tsushin’s chart for 13–15 November, which will show whether Mamaseka holds second place against Godzilla Minus Zero in its seventh weekend, and whether Toei announces any release outside Japan.
Sources
- Mama ga Mou Kono Sekai ni Inakutemo official site, news: ¥4bn passed and Yamato retrospective announced, 14 November 2026
- Oricon News, Kawaguchi Haruna’s Mamaseka passes ¥4bn, 2.84 million admissions in 43 days, 14 November 2026
- Eiga.com, Japan weekend box office ranking 6–8 November 2026 (Kogyo Tsushin data)
- Bunka Tsushin, Toei’s Mamaseka No. 1 for a third straight weekend, passes ¥3.4bn
- European Central Bank, euro foreign exchange reference rates, 13 November 2026