For the third week in a row, Tales from Earthsea was #1 at the box office, holding Pirates of the Caribbean at #2. The only new movies to make the top 10 this weekend were UNITED93 and Tokyo Friends. Tokyo Friends is Ai Otsuka's first starring role in a film.

Ryoko Shinohara will once again take on the role of police officer Natsumi Yukihira in a special episode for the popular drama series Unfair. The special is scheduled for October 3 and is tentatively titled "Unfair the Special: Code Breaking Cryptanalysis." Ratings for the original series (which aired earlier this year in the winter season) averaged over 15%. Unfair also topped Oricon's quarterly drama satisfaction survey, with a rating of 82.8%.

Actor Shota Matsuda has been selected for his first leading film role, in an adaptation of Gets Itaya's autobiographical novel, "Waruboro." The film is scheduled for release next summer.