| Rank | Title | Gross | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Princess Mononoke | ||
| 2 | Lost Paradise | ||
| 3 |
A list of films released in Japan in 1997 (see 1997 in film).
| Title | Director | Cast | Genre | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carranger vs. Ohranger | |||||
| Cat's Eye | Kaizo Hayashi | ||||
| Crayon Shin-chan: Pursuit of the Dark Tama Tama | Anime | ||||
| Cure | Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Thriller | [1] | ||
| The Eel | Shohei Imamura | Won the Palme d'Or at Cannes | |||
| The End of Evangelion | Hideaki Anno | Finale to the TV series Neon Genesis Evangelion. Won the Animage Anime Grand Prix, Japanese Academy Prize for "Best Sensation," and "Anime Choice Award" at Animation Kobe. | |||
| Hideaki Anno | Clip show of episodes 1-24 of the TV series Neon Genesis Evangelion, followed by 27 minutes of a draft of The End of Evangelion. | ||||
| Fireworks | Takeshi Kitano | ||||
| I Thought About You | Yukio Kitazawa | Yōta Kawase | Gay Pink | Pink Grand Prix, Best Film | |
| Magunichuudo - ashita heno kakehashi | Hiroshi Sugawara | Kumie Tanaka, Naoto Ogata, Hiroko Yakushimaru | Drama | ||
| Moonlight Serenade | Masahiro Shinoda | Entered into the 47th Berlin International Film Festival | |||
| Parasite Eve | Masayuki Ochiai | Hiroshi Mikami, Riona Hazuki, Tomoko Nakajima | |||
| Perfect Blue | Satoshi Kon | Mystery, thriller | Animated film[2] [3] | ||
| Princess Mononoke | Fantasy, adventure | Animated film[4] | |||
| Rainy Dog | Takashi Miike | Crime | [5] [6] | ||
| Rebirth of Mothra II | Science fiction | [7] | |||
| School Ghost Stories 3 | Shusuke Kaneko | Naomi Nishida, Hitomi Kuroki, Hideki Noda | |||
| Sharan Q no enka no hanamichi | Comedy | [8] | |||
| Animated | |||||
| Tokyo Biyori | Naoto Takenaka | Naoto Takenaka, Miho Nakayama, Yakako Matsu | Comedy-drama | ||
| Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald | Comedy | ||||
| Woman of the Police Protection Programme | Juzo Itami | Nobuko Miyamoto, Masahiko Nishimura, Takehiro Murata |