The Japanese movie distributor Toho has reported that the latest Pokemon movie has earned $32 million since its July 19th release and driven the total for all 11 Pocket Monster films past the 50 billion yen mark ($455) at the Japanese box office, making the series the highest grossing animated franchise in Japanese history.  The 11th and latest Pokemon feature, Giratina and the Sky’s Bouquet: Shaymin, has been trailing Miyazaki’s latest anime feature Ponyo on a Cliff at the box office this summer (see “New Miyazaki Film to Venice”), but since Miyazaki is yet to make a sequel, much less a series, Pokemon’s record appears safe, especially since the series appears to be far from over.

The Pokemon franchise also holds an American box office record—the first Pokemon film earned $85.7 million in the U.S. in 1999, the American box office record for a Japanese film (animated or not).