VIVANT, the TBS spy drama starring Masato Sakai, is coming to cinemas. A new feature opens across Japan on Friday 4 December 2026, with simultaneous IMAX screenings, the film’s official site announced on 8 November. As the second season’s finale ended, Sakai told viewers on air that the next adventure would play out on the big screen, Eiga.com reported. Opening day is 26 days after that broadcast.
The official announcement calls the turnaround unusual. When TBS turned its Sunday drama Tokyo MER into a film, the series had aired in 2021 and the film arrived in April 2023. This time the producers are trying to carry a live television audience into cinemas while the ending is still being discussed. Tickets for screenings from opening day went on sale at midnight on 9 November, Japan time (16:00 CET on 8 November), at most participating cinemas, about a month before release, which the site itself calls an unusual experiment.
Key facts
- Film: VIVANT, a new story continuing the TBS Sunday drama; Masato Sakai, the series lead, announced it on air
- Release: 4 December 2026 nationwide in Japan, IMAX at the same time; distributor Toho
- Tickets for screenings from 4 December on sale from 00:00 JST on 9 November
- Opening ceremony: 4 December, 16:00 JST, in Tokyo; guests to be announced
- Season 2 premiere drew an 18.8% household rating in the Kanto region (Video Research)
A drama that rates
VIVANT follows Yusuke Nogi, played by Sakai, an operative in Beppan, an unofficial intelligence unit inside Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, as he chases a terrorist network called Tent. The first season, directed by Katsuo Fukuzawa and broadcast in TBS’s 21:00 Sunday Theatre slot from July to September 2023, was built on months of overseas location shooting and grew steadily week by week. Its first episode drew an 11.5% household rating in the Kanto region; the finale reached 19.6%, the series high, according to Video Research data reported by Oricon. Across all ten episodes it averaged 14.3%, Sports Nippon reported.
The second season, which began on 26 July this year, opened at 18.8% in both Kanto and Kansai, the Mainichi Shimbun reported, a figure the paper described as exceptional at a time when live viewing is falling. Sports Nippon noted that the run was scheduled across two consecutive broadcast quarters, unusual for the slot. Ratings for the 8 November finale had not been published at the time of writing.
The official announcement describes the film as an entirely new instalment and the culmination of the story, made on the largest scale in the franchise. It gives no plot, running time, director credit or cast list beyond Sakai. TBS and Toho have not disclosed a budget or a screen count. Eiga.com names Toho as distributor, and the film site runs on Toho’s movie domain, but the page itself does not print a distribution credit and Toho’s public line-up had not added the title when the announcement landed. To build the audience in the meantime, both seasons will stream free in stages on TVer and TBS FREE, and the full series is already on U-NEXT.
Toho’s December
The title joins a Toho release calendar already busy into the new year. Godzilla Minus Zero, which set a Japanese live-action opening-day record at the start of the month, is still in cinemas. Toho’s line-up lists a theatrical instalment of the anime The Apothecary Diaries for 11 December and SUKIYAKI Ue o Muite Arukō for 25 December. That gives the studio a live-action spy film between a monster film and an anime in the year-end season, which will weigh on the second half of results after its 25% fall in half-year operating profit.
The nearest comparison is another TBS Sunday Theatre drama. The first Tokyo MER film, released by Toho in April 2023, took ¥4.53bn in Japan, according to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan’s annual figures, and was followed by a second film in 2025. Toho lists a further Tokyo MER film with its date still to be set.
Our reading
A 26-day turnaround only works if the film was made alongside the series and held back until the finale aired. That is a production bet, not a scheduling accident. It lets Toho sell tickets while the audience is at its peak instead of rebuilding awareness a year later, and IMAX adds a premium-priced format to a television brand.
The risk is the flip side of the same choice. A film that leans on a live finale depends on viewers who watched it; casual audiences get four weeks to catch up, which is why the free streaming push matters. The next evidence is the 8 November finale rating, due from Video Research, and then the first weekend, 5–6 December, against the Tokyo MER benchmark. For more on how Japanese studios are monetising local hits, see our analysis of Asian franchises and local IP.
Sources
- VIVANT film official site (vivant.toho-movie.jp), announcement of 8 November 2026
- TBS, VIVANT programme site
- Eiga.com, 8 November 2026. VIVANT film announced after the Season 2 finale
- Mainichi Shimbun, 27 July 2026. VIVANT Season 2 premiere rating
- Sports Nippon, 27 July 2026. VIVANT Season 2 premiere rating and Season 1 averages
- Oricon News, 19 September 2023. VIVANT Season 1 finale rating
- Oricon News, January 2024. Eiren 2023 box office (Tokyo MER film)
- Toho, film line-up
- Tokyo MER film official site (second film; first film box office)