MUMBAI: The third instalment of NTV-Toho‘s 20th Century Boys trilogy has become the most successful film in the series, with an unbroken reign of six weeks at the top of the Japanese box-office.

Boys surpassed earnings of $44.9m (Y4bn) on the Oct 3-4 weekend, outdoing the first and second entries‘ $44.4m (Y3.95bn) and $33.8m (Y3.01bn) respectively.

Released on 29 August in 374 screens, 20th Century Boys: The Last Chapter held off other major releases over the past six weeks including The Taking Of Pelham 123, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Shochiku‘s big-budget ninja saga Kamui.

Made at a total of $60m, all three films were directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi and star a large cast led by Toshiaki Karasawa, Etsushi Toyokawa and Takako Tokiwa. The first film was released on August 30 2008 and the second on January 31 this year.