Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Japanese: ), also known in many European editions as Furyo (俘虜, Japanese for "prisoner of war"), is a 1983 British-Japanese wartime drama film directed by Nagisa Oshima, produced by Jeremy Thomas and starring David Bowie, Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano and Jack Thompson. The screenplay by Oshima with Paul Mayersberg was based on Sir Laurens van der Post's experiences as a Japanese prisoner of war during World War II as depicted in his works "The Seed and the Sower" (1963) and "The Night of the New Moon" (1970). Sakamoto also wrote
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film) its opening weekend in the United States and Canada at 3,855 theatres, achieving, at the time, the third biggest-opening weekend of all time. This opening also broke "Hulk"s record ($62.1 million) for the highest-opening weekend for a film released in June. "Prisoner of Azkaban" held this record for five years until "" topped it in 2009 with $108.9 million. The film was also No. 1 at the North American box office for two consecutive weekends. "Prisoner of Azkaban" made a total of $796.7 million worldwide, which made it 2004's second-highest-grossing film worldwide behind "Shrek 2". In the U.S. and Canada,