An interactive anime film, “Hypnosis Mic – Division Rap Battle,” has achieved an unprecedented milestone in the Japanese theatrical market, earning JPY2.5 billion ($16.5 million) despite a remarkably narrow release. This makes it the first Japanese film since nationwide tracking began in 2004 to surpass JPY2 billion while playing on an average of fewer than 60 screens throughout its run. The film is a part of the expansive “Hypnosismic” franchise, which originated at King Records in 2017 and envisions a world where rap battles replace traditional weapons for supremacy. The universe has already diversified into various media, including music, radio dramas, manga, stage productions, games, and anime series.

A key innovation behind the film's success is its interactive nature. As one of Japan's pioneering interactive movies, it features a new rap battle where the story and the ultimate winner of the contest, known as the Third Division Rap Battle, dynamically change at each screening. This real-time variability is driven by audience members, who use their smartphones to vote on plot developments. The film, distributed by Toho and produced by King Records, initially launched on February 21 in 85 venues, utilizing Kino Industries’ CtrlMovie platform to facilitate this unique audience participation.

The film built considerable momentum through strong word-of-mouth, leading to consistent audience growth for eight consecutive weeks. Repeat customers played a significant role in its box office performance, accounting for over 80% of total admissions as viewers returned to experience different narrative outcomes. Its unusual longevity saw it continue to sell out limited engagements through the summer. A nationwide re-release on September 2 further boosted its success, propelling it back into Japan’s Top 10 and adding more than 107,000 admissions over two weeks, even posting its third-strongest single-day performance an impressive seven months after its initial launch.

Tobias Weber-Ingold, co-CEO and co-founder of Kino Industries, highlighted the film's success as a validation of interactive cinema as a lucrative new frontier. He noted that branched-narrative movies, on average, generate four to six times the revenues of regular films, a factor that producers, distributors, and exhibitors are closely observing as the CtrlMovie-powered format expands globally. Weber-Ingold differentiates CtrlMovie from existing premium formats like 4DX or IMAX, emphasizing that its appeal lies in narrative participation, transforming audiences into collaborators who actively shape the story's outcome in real time, rather than focusing solely on spectacle.

Ryoji Kure, the Toho executive who championed the film's release strategy, expressed that “Hypnosis Mic’s” performance far exceeded Toho's expectations, acknowledging the release as an “adventure” that proved “absolutely worth all the effort.” The CtrlMovie system, developed by Kino Industries since its founding in 2018, seamlessly enables collective audience decision-making to branch narratives during screenings, ensuring each show offers a unique experience based on viewer input. Kino Industries is now accelerating its expansion plans, with multiple English-language productions utilizing the technology currently underway. Scott C. Silver, COO of Kino Industries, likens CtrlMovie's impact on storytelling to IMAX's impact on scale, envisioning a premium, participatory experience that deepens audience connection to the screen, with technology designed to extend seamlessly from theaters into home and gaming environments, creating a truly interactive ecosystem.