Yeah, quite exciting. I purchased the DVD and Novel late last year. A few others here have probably seen it the original but for those who haven't, and may be interested (you can find it on Netflix and probably some video stores perhaps), here is the plot (possible minor spoilers):

And Japan is now going 3D happy. Battle Royale receiving a 3D re-release in November, and now one of the biggest films of the year will be getting the 3D treatment, too.




*5. Umizaru 2 - Test Of Trust (Toho) $58.4m (7.10b yen)

If Avatar and Alice in Wonderland are any indication, 3D is quickly becoming hugely popular in the region. At least among live-action films. Every CGI film (Ice Age 3, G-Force, Toy Story/Toy Story 2, Coraline, etc.) has resulted in some disappointing numbers. Only Up did quite well, but it's success can't really be attributed to 3D alone.

Some more details about Umizaru 3 and Toho,



Japan's 'Godzilla' studio enters 3D films




3D should give Umizaru 3 the edge over Toho's own Nodame Cantabile the Movie II and Ghibli's (Toho distributes) The Borrower Arrietty on second place among local films behind Bayside Shakedown 3. And who knows, if Umizaru 3 can pick up the same 80%+ of it's gross from the 3D screens like Alice currently is, and being the final film in the series, $100m isn't totally out of the question for it.

Possibly looking at: Bayside Shakedown 3 - $150m+, Umizaru 3 - $80m+, The Borrower Arrietty - $75m+, Nodame Cantabile the Movie II - $50-55m, Pokemon 13 - $45-55m. I haven't checked the late fall schedule for them yet, but there's probably a contender among them. The live-action Kimi ni Todoke could be big if given a wide enough release. Each of the 10 Volumes in the Manga have sold close to or over 1m copies.

Although, Toho going 3D will just cause them to grow even bigger squashing every other local and foreign distributor even more though as they operate a clear majority of screens in the region. Their yearly market share is already over 30% the past few years.. it could grow to as much as 40% soon with smaller companies closing. Several have already folded this year, and it's causing some foreign distributors, like WB (check the current Top 10 at the BO), to distribute local films.


And again, the USD figure they give is what then Yen total would be today.

Weekend Anaysis
5/15-16, 2010




1. Alice In Wonderland Walt Disney Int'l $4,745,557 5 858 $5,531 -17 $101,025,920
2. Trick The Movie Psychic Battle Royale Toho $2,581,740 2 320 $8,068 -36 $9,149,445
3. Green Zone Toho Towa $1,748,920 1 258 $6,779 0 $2,387,815
4. Nodame Cantabile The Movie II Toho $1,183,942 5 410 $2,888 -28 $37,169,799
5. Detective Conan The Lost Ship in the Sky Toho $1,046,093 5 532 $1,966 -28 $30,925,591
6. Clash Of The Titans Warner Bros. International $605,322 4 468 $1,293 -36 $15,036,915
7. Gintama: Benizakura arc - a New Retelling Warner Bros. International $581,943 4 90 $6,466 -17 $9,443,666
8. From Paris With Love Warner Bros. International $560,848 1 213 $2,633 0 $560,848
9. Crayon Shin Chan 2010 Toho $452,680 5 298 $1,519 -21 $12,646,280
10. Shodo Girls! Warner Bros. International $340,417 1 163 $2,088 0 $340,417


Solid week for Alice in Wonderland at No.1 for five weeks now, adding about $10m to it's total. Still nothing indicating a gross below $140m. That is if the exchange rate doesn't end up hurting films soon. I'm still thinking a finish just over $150m.

Trick the Movie 3 sees a usual hold it's second week. So far it's run is comparable with Liar Game: The Final Stage from March which finished in the mid 20m's. So a gross around there is likely.

Pretty good start for Green Zone. Unless it's poorly received, it should eventually cross $10m.

Nodame Cantable the Movie II rebounds a bit from a rather weak week last week. Adding about $5m for the week all together. With Summer starting, it should eventually reach the low 50's. The original finished with $43m.

Detective Conan: The Lost Ship in the Sky keeps mirroring last year's film. A total around $35/36m looks to be the finish. This would match last year's highest grossing film in the series.

Average for From Paris With Love (though admissions it ranked 6th).




No.1 films of 2010,

First 9 Weeks - Avatar
Next 5 Weeks - Doraemon
1 Week - Shutter Island
Last 5 Weeks - Alice in Wonderland

Tetsuya Nakashima’s “Confessions” announced as the centerpiece presentation of NYAFF 2010



http://www.nipponcinema.com/blog/tetsuy ... yaff-2010/


Lucky New Yorkers. You get "IP Man 2" to open, and the much hyped "Confessions" this year. Glad the UK picked Confessions up for release this fall, too. Trailer for "Confessions" can be found in the link.

Not-So-Box Office News of the Week

Earlier this month, a team of researchers at Tokyo Polytechnic University conducted a survey of Japan's public opinion on "Cool Japan" — the premise that Japan's strength in business and international affairs lies in anime, manga, films, fashion, and other fields of Japanese arts and entertainment content. Only 29.0% of the respondents had heard of the term "Cool Japan," and only 4.6% said that they were familiar with what the term means. (The use of culture for global influence is also called "soft power," as opposed to "hard power" such as military strength.)

When asked about which fields they want to introduce to the world as "Cool Japan," 56.9% said "animation" — the #1 response. At 49.9%, manga was the #2 response.



Question: "What part of Japanese culture do you want to introduce to the world as a part of 'Cool Japan'?"

Teenagers

1 Animation 60.9%
2 Manga 56.7%
3 Game 47.5%
4 Japanese cuisine 41.8%
5 Japan-like scenery 39.5%


Twenties

1 Manga 58.4%
2 Animation 57.1%
3 Japanese cuisine 53.4%
4 Japan-like scenery 49.8%
5 Traditional arts 42.9%


Thirties

1 Animation 56.2%
2 Japanese cuisine 48.5%
3 Manga 46.5%
4 Japan-like scenery 43.5%
5 Traditional arts 38.8%


Forties

1 Animation 53.5%
2 Japanese cuisine 45.4%
3 Japan-like scenery 43.8%
4 Manga 39.2%
5 Traditional arts 33.8%



Question: "Which television anime to you think of as part of 'Cool Japan'?"


Male Teenagers

1 One Piece 50.7%
2 Dragon Ball franchise 50.0%
3 Doraemon 41.2%
4 Neon Genesis Evangelion 40.4%
4 Pokémon franchise 40.4%


Males in Their Twenties

1 Dragon Ball franchise 59.6%
2 Mobile Suit Gundam franchise 56.4%
3 Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise 50.0%
4 Doraemon 45.7%
5 Lupin III franchise 42.6%


Males in Their Thirties

1 Mobile Suit Gundam franchise 61.5%
2 Dragon Ball franchise 54.8%
3 Neon Genesis Evangelion 47.4%
4 Doraemon 46.7%
4 Lupin III franchise 44.4%


Males in Their Forties

1 Mobile Suit Gundam franchise 48.9%
2 Lupin III franchise 46.7%
3 Doraemon 40.7%
4 Space Battleship Yamato franchise 40.0%
5 Dragon Ball franchise 36.3%

_______________________________________________________

Female Teenagers

1 One Piece 62.4%
2 Detective Conan (Case Closed) 47.2%
3 Pokemon franchise 45.6%
4 Dragon Ball franchise 43.2%
5 Doraemon 41.6%
5 Neon Genesis Evangelion 41.6%


Females in Their Twenties

1 Doraemon 62.4%
2 Dragon Ball franchise 59.2%
3 One Piece 51.2%
4 Mobile Suit Gundam franchise 47.2%
5 Lupin III franchise 44.8%


Females in Their Thirties

1 Doraemon 52.8%
2 Mobile Suit Gundam franchise 44.8%
3 Dragon Ball franchise 43.2%
4 Lupin III franchise 36.0%
5 Galaxy Express 999 34.4%


Females in Their Forties

1 Doraemon 51.2%
2 Mobile Suit Gundam franchise 46.4%
3 Dragon Ball franchise 38.4%
4 Space Battleship Yamato franchise 36.8%
5 Mighty Atom (Astro Boy) 36.0%
5 Detective Conan (Case Closed) 36.0%



For manga, Dragon Ball was the top response (61.5%) among all demographics except for female teenagers. The top response among female teenagers was One Piece (71.2%). All age groups gave Osamu Tezuka (75.6%) as the top response among manga creators. At 60.8%, the Dragon Quest franchise was the top response for games.

As for Japanese films, the top two responses were Studio Ghibli films (76.3%) and Departures (39.6%). The top response for directors was Akira Kurosawa (70.5%), followed by Hayao Miyazaki (60.7%). Ironically, Miyazaki himself has downplayed the use of Japanese entertainment as a "soft power" to promote the country.

62.8% said that they believe that soft power will become the driving force behind Japan's recovery from the current recession. Former prime minister Taro Asō made soft power a key element in his policies, although the Japanese government has been dealing with soft power before and after Asō's time in office.

On Wednesday, the government laid out a proposal to double the revenues that Japan earns overseas from anime, films, and other content fields by 2020. The "Intellectual Property Promotion Plan 2010" is intended to boost the international revenues in these fields to 2.6 trillion yen (about US$28 billion) in a decade. The plan's backers also aim to reduce the damages caused by piracy on Japanese businesses by half.

The Tokyo Polytechnic University team conducted its survey through mobile phones from April 30 to May 7. The team had a sample of 1,000 respondents between 15 and 49 years old, split between males and females. There were 136 male teenagers, 125 female teenagers, 94 males in their 20s, 125 females in their 20s, 135 males in their 30s, 125 females in their 30s, 135 males in their 40s, and 125 females in their 40s.


http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... al-exports


I like the age breakdown. It shows which anime or each generation grew up around. Gundam > Dragon Ball > One Piece.

Update in local currency.


Info: 1b is generally seen as the success mark in the region. Eiren (Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan) will only include films that reached 1b or more in their yearly rankings, too.

Title/Yen Total/(Days in Release/tracking ends)

In Release:

Alice in Wonderland - 9,232,102,577 (30)
Nodame Cantabile The Movie II - 3,364,302,940 (30)
Detective Conan 14 Lost Ship in the Sky - 2,893,967,658 (30)
Shutter Island - 1,566,735,404 (38)
Clash of the Titans - 1,358,422,102 (23)
Crayon Shin-chan 18 Super Dimension - 1,142,521,292 (30)
____________________________________________________________
Gintama the Movie - 853,132,724 (23)
Trick the Movie 3 - 836,533,020 (9)
My Darling is a Foreigner - 652,487,086 (30)
Idakankan - 340,042,500 (23)
Yazima Beauty Salon the Movie- 327,247,134 (18)


2010 (Dec 09 included) Archive:



*Films below 250,000,000 are excluded.

Weekend Forecast



1. Alice in Wonderland
2. Masked Rider × × Super Rider Den-THE MOVIE TRILOGY EPISODE RED Sutatouinkuru zero 　
3. Trick the Movie: Psychic Battle Royale
4. Green Zone
5. Box (not The Box)
6. Nodame Cantable the Movie II
7. Detective Conan: The Lost Ship in the Sky
8. From Paris With Love
9. Clash of the Titans
10. Gintama the Movie: A New Retelling

I think there's an chance Kamen Rider Episode Red can take No.1 this weekend (it will in admissions at least). Since this trilogy in the series is being released within 5 weeks of each other, each is only being shown for 2 weeks at many cinemas. And the cards (in the picture above) will only be given out the first week (first card for Episode Red, middle for Episode Blue in 2 weeks, and Episode Yellow in the middle of June). So it should be a little frontloaded and a chance at No.1 I think.

I'm going to start covering theater listings (thanks to umedaotoko who provides the weekend forecasts) for certain areas of Japan (primarily Tokyo) with some bigger films coming up this summer, but only just a couple areas.

And I basically want the users who visit this thread (ihope, lector, jon, jiffy, bluebomb and anyone else) and those who may have interest in it to vote and decided which 2 areas they'd like me to update weekly. This won't happen until early June though.

The choices:

Shibuya, Tokyo (pop. 210,000) - Consists of many younger people, so smaller releases will be limited. Anime/Manga adaptations and Hollywood films likely play better in this area than most, however.

Osaka (pop. 4.5m, City - 2.7m) - The largest single area I'd update. Osaka is one of the more conservative areas and has a higher older demographic than many areas, so older skewing films should play well here.

Shinjuku, Tokyo (pop. 310,000) - Has the highest number of registered foreigners in Japan. The area is one of the major commercial areas, and has some of the best public transportation in Tokyo; so theaters would be easier to reach here than other areas.

Ginza, Chuo / Tokyo (pop. 500,000) - One of the biggest business areas in Japan, so there probably aren't too many moviegoers. But, the area does have a large shopping disctrict which brings in many people.

Alice in Wonderland is expected to cross 10b Yen ($111m) this weekend, day 37. The source notes that it took Armageddon 65 days to cross the mark, while it took both Pirates 3 and Finding Nemo 53 days. So Alice in Wonderland is about to become Disney's 4th film to reach the milestone. It'll soon pass Pirates 3 (10.9b) and Finding Nemo (11.0b), too. To become Disney's biggest film in the region, it'll still need a few more weeks to reach Armageddon (13.5b).

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20100 ... vwalk-movi

The real test is to see if it can manage to match Avatar. #10 All Time looks assured for Alice right now. At least for a little while until Bayside Shakedown 3 this summer.


1 Spirited Away ¥30.4b
2 Titanic ¥25.9b
3 Howl's Moving Castle ¥22b
4 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone ¥20.3b
5 Princess Mononoke ¥19.3b
6 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ¥18b
7 Bayside Shakedown 2 ¥17.35b
8 Ponyo ¥15.5b
9 Avatar ¥15.1b
10 The Last Samurai ¥13.7b

The total will probably go up $1-2m in a few days like it's done the past several weeks. If Alice did hit Y10b, then it'd be about $111m.

No.1 Films of 2010 (Calendar Year)

1. Avatar Fox Int'l $7,351,042 2 840 $8,751 11 $35,050,720
1. Avatar Fox Int'l $6,897,825 3 840 $8,212 -6 $50,548,688
1. Avatar Fox Int'l $5,606,688 4 815 $6,879 -19 $65,211,354
1. Avatar Fox Int'l $5,754,496 5 761 $7,562 3 $77,732,992
1. Avatar Fox Int'l $6,846,505 6 678 $10,098 19 $91,978,188
1. Avatar Fox Int'l $6,406,579 7 650 $9,856 -6 $108,042,330
1. Avatar Fox Int'l $5,623,472 8 639 $8,800 -12 $121,621,223
1. Avatar Fox Int'l $4,415,738 9 617 $7,157 -21 $129,543,968
1. Avatar Fox Int'l $4,036,232 10 606 $6,660 -9 $141,524,593

1. Doraemon: Nobita's South Sea Adventure Toho $6,115,994 1 366 $16,710 0 $6,115,994
1. Doraemon: Nobita's South Sea Adventure Toho $3,784,429 2 366 $10,340 -38 $10,758,575
1. Doraemon: Nobita's South Sea Adventure Toho $3,052,869 3 366 $8,341 -19 $15,186,858
1. Doraemon: Nobita's South Sea Adventure Toho $2,453,305 4 366 $6,703 -20 $21,822,951
1. Doraemon: Nobita's South Sea Adventure Toho $1,737,623 5 366 $4,748 -29 $29,372,454

1. Shutter Island Paramount Int'l $2,937,750 1 442 $6,646 0 $3,691,285

1. Alice In Wonderland Walt Disney Int'l $14,297,616 1 859 $16,644 0 $14,297,616
1. Alice In Wonderland Walt Disney Int'l $10,910,971 2 877 $12,441 -24 $37,703,333
1. Alice In Wonderland Walt Disney Int'l $11,511,994 3 877 $13,112 6 $62,860,231
1. Alice In Wonderland Walt Disney Int'l $5,701,600 4 878 $6,494 -51 $91,581,693
1. Alice In Wonderland Walt Disney Int'l $4,745,557 5 858 $5,531 -17 $101,025,920
1. Alice In Wonderland Walt Disney Int'l $4,200,000 6 841 $4,994 -13 $112,300,000*





Shutter Island had to ruin the fun. Still, this year is looking to have possibly fewer than 10 films at No.1 with Bayside Shakedown 3 in July, Umizaru 3 in September, Harry Potter 7 in November, and Space Battleship Yamato to take the remaining in December.

5/22-23,
Weekend Admission Rankings



1 1 Alice in Wonderland Disney 6
2 NEW Kamen Rider Den-o Trilogy The Movie Episode Red Toei 1
3 2 Trick The Movie Psychic Battle Royale Toho 3
4 3 Green Zone TohoTowa 2
5 NEW Box! Toho 1
6 5 Detective Conan The Lost Ship In The Sky Toho 6
7 4 Nodame Cantabile The Movie II Toho 6
8 6 From Paris With Love WB 2
9 8 Clash of the Titans WB 5
10 7 Gintama the Movie: A New Retelling WB 5

-Alice in Wonderland exceeds 10b Yen/10,104,583,400 to be exact (or about $112m USD) with 6,539,954 admissions after six weeks. Alice grossed 87% of it's earnings last week. So about $10m for the whole week using a rough number.

-Kamen Rider Episode Red opened on 209 screens, earning 199,381 admissions. Episode Blue will be released on June 5th, and Episode Yellow on June 19th.

-Box! releaed on 237 screens earned 81,055 admissions. Positive WOM is expected to spread for this one.

Upcoming Releases:

5/28



5/29






(what's up with Boxes this year? Fourth released with it in the title already)







Coming Soon:
6/4: Sex and the City 2, Brothers
6/5: Seaside Motel, Confessions, Kamen Rider Episode Blue, Real Onigokko 2, Kuro Nezumi, Killer

HR Alice update




Wow

Yeah, just updated the No.1 Films of 2010 with the update since it included the weekend gross. It's about a 13% weekend drop, but the week as a whole stayed about flat ($10m or so) in USD. $150m is still looking pretty good.

I did it with Avatar, and since Alice in Wonderland is still about $20m ahead (it'll grow smaller) of Avatar after 6 weeks, might as well do it for Alice, too.

USD




Yen



Bayside Shakedown 3 and Harry Potter 7 (thanks to 3D) will see themselves on these charts this year, too. Crazy year. Umizaru 3 (first major local film in 3D) can't be ruled out either. With the current exchange rate, Umizaru 2 would have grossed about $77m. Space Battleship Yamato is a $100m contender as well, but since it's a Dec. release, it'll be included in the 2011 charts.

Additional weekend numbers:

-Kamen Rider Episode Red - Y232,513,850 (about $2.6m USD).
-Box! - Y108,937,101 (about $1.2m USD)
-Detective Conan: The Lost Ship in the Sky just shy of Y3,000,000,000 (or about $33m) total. It's about $3m from becoming the highest grossing film in the franchise, but it'll be really close.

Too bad no numbers have been released for Trick the Movie 3 or Nodame the Movie II (*crosses fingers for $40m total*) because I won't be able to update anything until this weekend most likely. Finally moving out on my own, well, with boyfriend, old middle school friend, and a stranger from NY. I hope someone knows how to cook.

Final Bayside Shakedown: The Movie 3 poster revealed,



Toho has also reported that advanced ticket sales are near 160,000 (which is about $2.4m USD already) as of May 21st, breaking their previous advanced ticket film (it wasn't specified) at the same point in time by 142%. I do know that Rookies sold 240,000 advanced sales before it opened, so Bayside is near closing in on it with 6 weeks to go. Rookies opened to almost $13m (highest opening for a local live-action film).

Bayside Shakedown 2 opened just over $10m and went on to finish with $164.5m in 2003.

The third film opens on July 3rd.

That's insane for Alice.

It never occurred to me that it would become massive in Japan, but in retrospect it makes sense: It's actually rather similar to the type of quirky, surreal fantasy that Miyazaki does, and which is traditionally huge in Japan.

BOM is back to using an unusual exchange rate. They're almost 6m too low on Alice in Wonderland, and too low on everything.

Variety has the more accurate ones (matching Screendaily and HR):

1. Alice In Wonderland Walt Disney Int'l $4,174,851 6 841 $4,964 -12 $112,393,300
2. Masked Rider Den-O Trilogy the Movie Episode Red TOEI $2,583,229 1 209 $12,360 0 $2,583,229
3. Trick The Movie Psychic Battle Royale Toho $2,212,718 3 320 $6,915 -14 $13,456,072
4. Green Zone Toho Towa $1,250,455 2 258 $4,847 -29 $5,428,865
5. Box! Toho $1,210,290 1 237 $5,107 0 $1,210,290
6. Nodame Cantabile The Movie II Toho $943,397 6 346 $2,727 -20 $36,981,621
7. Detective Conan The Lost Ship in the Sky Toho $873,227 6 340 $2,568 -17 $33,266,304
8. Clash Of The Titans Warner Bros. International $444,310 5 455 $977 -27 $16,538,860
9. From Paris With Love Warner Bros. International $435,813 2 213 $2,046 -22 $1,746,371
10. Gintama: Benizakura arc - a New Retelling Warner Bros. International $358,706 5 89 $4,030 -38 $10,428,127

5/29-30
Weekend Forecast

1 Alice in Wonderland
2 Prince of Persia
3 Trick the Movie: Psychic Battle Royale
4 Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Episode Red
5 Zatoichi The Last
6 Railways 49
7 Green Zone
8 Box!
9 Nodame Cantable the Movie II
10 Detective Conan: The Lost Ship in the Sky

According to umedaotoko, marketing and advertising for Prince of Persia is terrible, and they're not mentioning it's even a Disney film (maybe due to focusing everything on Alice so it can surpass 15b yen in the end), so it's not going to beat Alice in her 7th week.

Darn it I'd say yes Alice will make it 7. BTW is there any chance that Alice passes Avatar there ?

In Yen, there's a strong chance. In USD, it's 50/50 because the exchange rate is hurting a bit. It probably just depends on what the exchange rate is in mid June.