{"id":7244,"date":"2025-09-02T21:59:50","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T04:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/?p=7244"},"modified":"2025-12-14T19:38:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T03:38:58","slug":"20250902_kokuho-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/en\/20250902_kokuho-us\/","title":{"rendered":"\"KOKUHO\" will be released\u00a0in North American theaters in Feb 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>GKIDS has acquired the North American distribution rights to <em><strong>KOKUHO<\/strong><\/em> (directed by Lee Sang-il), starring Ryo Yoshizawa, Ryusei Yokohama, and Ken Watanabe. GKIDS plans a theatrical release across North America in early 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the wide North American release is slated for 2026, the film is scheduled to screen at AFI Fest on October 24, 2025, and a limited run in select theaters beginning November 14, 2025 has also been announced. For full details see <a href=\"https:\/\/gkids.com\/films\/kokuho\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">the GKIDS&#8217;s site<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Japan, following its June 2025 release, <em><strong>KOKUHO<\/strong><\/em> surpassed <strong>\u00a517.0 billion<\/strong> in box office receipts as of November 10, 2025 \u2014 marking it as a huge hit and the <strong>second-highest grossing live-action Japanese film to date<\/strong>, with momentum to challenge the top film (&#8220;<em>Bayside Shakedown 2 \/ \u8e0a\u308b\u5927\u635c\u67fb\u7dda THE MOVIE 2 \u30ec\u30a4\u30f3\u30dc\u30fc\u30d6\u30ea\u30c3\u30b8\u3092\u5c01\u9396\u305b\u3088\uff01&#8221;,<\/em> 2003 release, \u00a517.35 billion).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The film premiered in the Director\u2019s Fortnight at Cannes and is also scheduled to make its North American festival debut at the Toronto International Film Festival.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>KOKUHO<\/strong><\/em> has been selected as Japan\u2019s official entry for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. The shortlist of five nominees will be announced on January 22, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-west-coaster wp-block-embed-west-coaster\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/en\/japanese-film-us\/\" class=\"st-cardlink st-embed-cardlink\"><div class=\"kanren st-cardbox\"><dl class=\"clearfix\"><dt class=\"st-card-img\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/JapaneseFilmUS_eyecatche_GPT-e1759373991340-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/dt><dd><p class=\"st-cardbox-t\">Japanese Films Playing in U.S. Theaters in 2026 (KOKUHO wide release expected in Feb)<\/p><div class=\"st-card-excerpt smanone\"><p>Japanese films in U.S. theaters 2025 \u2014 schedules, distributors, and where to buy tickets. Updated lineup and festival screenings.<\/p><\/div><\/dd><\/dl><\/div><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GKIDS will release KOKUHO in North America in early 2026. Read our updated report on the film\u2019s Japan box-office success, festival screenings, and Oscar bid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7081,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/?p=6907","footnotes":""},"categories":[146,111,134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pick-up","category-notice","category-movie","en-US"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7244"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7279,"href":"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7244\/revisions\/7279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}