Openers this Week:


June 25: Michael Jackson - King of Pop Commemorated Film


June 26: Welcome to the Space Show, Mr. Kaku, Yellow Handkerchief, Nightmare on Elm Street, Universal Soldier: Regeneration, The Road, SR 2 Movie


Coming Soon:

July 3rd: Bayside Shakedown The Movie 3: Set The Guys Loose, The Cove, The Hangover

The Cove was originally planned to be released on June 26th, but negotiations are ongoing to gain more screens for the release because of all the cancelled showings that have occured during June.

Some known weekend and total figures:



Confessions Week 1 - $3m, Week 2 - $3.14m ($9.8m total), Week 3 - $3.17m ($17.1m total)

Confession's third week total is comparable with films that have opened about twice as high and finish over $30m. But those films have a third weekend around $2m, where Confession's is over 50% higher. $40m isn't really out of the question here. It'll depend how it's hit by the blockbusters in July, mostly being Toho releases (Bayside Shakedown, Pokemon, and Borrower Arrietty). They'll have to give up some of Confession's screens for such big releases in a span of three weeks.

Sex and the City 2 - $11.8m three week total.
Compared to Sex and the City's $9.6M three week total.

Iron Man 2 - $1.4m (-52%), $7.5m two week total.
Compared to Iron Man's $1.1m (-40%) second weekend, and $5m two week total.

-Screen Daily

The World of Studio Ghibli: Box Office History




The Early Years



"Laputa: Castle in the Sky" was released August 6th, 1986. It's the third film directed by Hayao Miyazaki (co-founder of Studio Ghibli), but despite the success of "Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind" that lead to Studio Ghibli being born, "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" was a dud at the Box Office. Since then, however, "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" has been enjoyed by audiences across the world.

Two years later, founders Miyazaki and Takahata released both of their latest as a double feature in theaters. Miyazaki's now most popular "My Neighbor Totoro", and Takahata's acclaimed "Grave of the Fireflies".



Unfortunately for them, these to failed at the Box Office. And in fact, it took two whole years for just "My Neighbor Totoro" to recover it's production costs.



I don't know why these classics didn't play well. Perhaps it was the sharp contrast between the two films, you couldn't pair up two different films if you tried. But regardless of the two films being financial failures at the Box Office, both films have become favorites among critics and fans alike.

"My Neighbor Totoro" recently sold 1 million dvds in Japan since it's 2001 release after spending 440 weeks on the charts, setting a new Oricon weekly DVD chart ranking record. You can now catch Totoro assisting Woody locate the rest of our favorite toys in "Toy Story 3"


After three financial failures at the Box Office, Studio Ghibli finally got a break in "Kiki's Delivery Service" released July 29th, 1989 in theaters.



The fourth film directed by Miyazaki grossed over 2 billion yen ($18 million) to triple it's budget and to top the year for Japan releases at the Box Office. Probably because of the goodwill from "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Grave of the Fireflies".



Following the success of "Kiki's Delivery Service", Takahata releases "Only Yesterday" on july 20th, 1991 which became a box office hit, and Miyazaki released "Porco Rosso"in 1992, which also went on to become a smash hit to top the year in 1992, outgrossing Hollywood's "Beauty and the Beast", and "Hook".


Director Destined For Greatness

Yoshifumi Kondo, an animator for Studio Ghibli, would make his directoral debut with "A Whisper of the Heart", a film written by Miyazaki himself. The film was met with critical acclaim, became a box office hit, just as Studio Ghibli had been expecting from Yoshifumi Kondo.



Unfortunately, Kondo would die from an aneurysm in 1998 at the age of 47. The death of Kondo would affect co-founders Miyazaki and Takahata greatly.



Highest Grossing Film In Japan

After several Box Office hits, and a death of a friend, Miyazaki wouldn't release another film for 5 years. Which is only 1/3 of the time it took him to finish development on the film that would become the biggest box office hit in Japan.

"Princess Mononoke" was the most expensive animated film ever released (2.1 billion yen), and consisted of 144,000 cels, or transparent sheets used for traditional hand-drawn animation. The film would eventually win Best Picture at the Japan Academy Awards, too.



Released on July 12th, 1997, "Princess Mononoke" went on to gross 19.3 billion yen ($165.5 million), selling over 13 million tickets, to become the biggest Box Office hit of all time.

This would be short-lived however, because "Titanic" would be released 5 months later and would eventually surpass "Princess Mononoke" in the Summer of 1998. But it wasn't long before Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki would return to the top.

"Princess Mononoke" remains Studio Ghibli's only PG-13 release, and would later disappoint in North America because of Miyazaki refusing to edit the film to achieve a PG rating.


Isao Takahata's final film (or not)

Takahata would release his last film, "My Neighbors the Yamadas" on July 17th, 1999. The film was done in a different style than his earlier films, which may have been the reason for the weak box office result.



Takahata hasn't released any films since, but it's said he's actually working on the "Taketori Monogatari" project to be released in the near future.

The movie would be based on a 10th Century folktale believed to be the oldest surviving narative in Japan. Those who have played the video game "Okami" would be familiar with the tale as it was featured.


Return To The Top

After releasing the short-lived all-time Box Office champ, "Princess Mononoke", how was Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki going to ever top such a feat? Apparently quite easily.

"Spirited Away", released on July 27th, 2001 would go on to break many records and received many firsts.



The film sold 23.5m tickets, by far more than any film before it (Titanic sold 16.9m), and more than double recent Box Office hit, "Avatar" (about 10m tickets sold).

It grossed over 30 billion yen ($234m) in theaters, which with today's exchange rate, would be $336 million.

The film also holds the DVD sales record, having sold nearly 2.5m DVDs in Japan.

Spirited Away still remains the only foreign film that has grossed more than $200m that hasn't been released in the United States first, and the solo $200m+ earner from a single foreign country.



Next would come "Howl's Moving Castle" released November 21st, 2004. While matching "Spirited Away" was an impossible feat, the film would become a huge success in it's own right.



"Howl's Moving Castle" still holds the record for biggest opening for a local film, grossing 1.48 billion yen ($13.9m) in two days, as well as the largest second and third weeks (in USD) in history.

The film went on to gross 22 billion yen ($190 million) with nearly 16m tickets sold to become the third biggest film in history after spending 10 weeks at No.1, and 21 weeks in the top 10.


Ponyo On A Cliff, And The Future

Having used limited CGI in "Princess Mononoke", "Spirited Away", and "Howl's Moving Castle", Miyazaki decided to go back to traditional hand-drawn animation for his next film, "Ponyo".

Enjoying the traditional animation, Miyazaki went all out setting a record for himself for most separate hand-drawn images, totalling 170,000. Mostly due to the how involved the sea and waves were in the film, and would become Studio Ghibli's most expensive film with a budget north of 3 billion yen.



"Ponyo" was released on July 19th, 2008 on 481 screens, which set a record for a local release that still stands.

Following "Spirited Away" and "Howl's Moving Castle" wouldn't be easy, and opening a bit below both of them, "Ponyo" wasn't looking like it'd become the huge success it's predecessors became. Or so it appeared.

"Ponyo" would soon deliever, reaching 10 billion yen in 31 days. By comparison, it took "Howl's Moving Castle" 33 days, and "Princess Mononoke" 43 days to hit the milestone.

But without the Holiday boost "Howl's Moving Castle" had with it's Winter release, and more competition than "Princess Mononoke", it'd soon fall behind them.

"Ponyo" would remain in the top 10 for 14 weeks, selling 15m tickets to gross 15.5 billion yen ($172.15 million) to become the 8th biggest film in local currency, and 4th biggest in USD.



Studio Ghibli had a rough start at the Box Office, but would soon become one of the most renowned names in the world, and Miyazaki and his films the biggest and most successful in the country with four films making up the top five on the all-time charts (local currency).



Their latest work, "The Borrower Arrietty", will be released on July 17th, 2010 and is directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, and written by Hayao Miyazaki. Yonebayashi is making his directoral debut after working as an animator on many Studio Ghibli productions.


Studio Ghibli theatrical releases not included: Pom Poco (unknown Box Office), The Cat Returns ($54m), Tales of Earthsea ($62.93m, biggest local release in 2006 directed by Hayao Miyazaki's son, Goro Miyazaki)

I watched the anime version of Kimi Ni Todoke and it was really good. Faithful adaptation of the manga. Looks like another live action movie on my must watch list.



Not quite. This Is It was re-released in Hong Kong last week but only in IMAX. It will only run for 2 weeks though because Shrek is set to take its IMAX screens away when it comes out July 1.

The anime adaptation is good, and very faithful to the manga. I just hate that it ended about mid-way through where the manga is right now. Hopefully the increased sales of the manga, and the success of the live-action movie this fall, results in a second season for the anime.

Weekend Summary
6/19-20



1. Confessions Toho $3,162,359 3 266 $11,889 +3 $17,083,027
2. Kamen Rider Den-O Trilogy The Movie Episode Yellow TOEI $2,213,505 1 213 $10,392 0 $2,213,505
3. Iron Man 2 Paramount Int'l $1,608,837 2 415 $3,877 -44 $7,597,868
4. Sex And The City 2 Warner Bros. International $1,245,396 3 397 $3,137 -31 $11,865,007
5. Book Of Eli, The Kadokawa-Herald $1,042,092 1 239 $4,360 0 $1,042,092
6. Outrage Warner Bros. International $887,552 2 155 $5,726 -44 $4,252,877
7. Alice In Wonderland Walt Disney Int'l $789,898 10 379 $2,084 -27 $127,161,814
8. Flowers Toho $467,497 2 301 $1,553 -22 $2,171,800
9. Piecing Me Back Together SPD $460,713 1 110 $4,188 0 $460,713
10. A Lone Scalpel TOEI $377,173 3 256 $1,473 -34 $3,696,857

I've already mentioned Confessions enough in my above posts, so I'll just say the run so far is the most impressive this year (no drops, instead increasing week to week) without any theater gains or any holiday boosts. $30m is locked up right now, and the chances of reaching $40m will be decided by the competition in July.

Kamen Rider Den O Trilogy Episode Yellow opens between Episode Red ($2.6m) and Episode Blue ($2.1m). I'll have to check, but the combined totals for the trilogy looks to be over $20m once Episode Yellow is in release for another week or two. Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Decade Movie last December finished with about $17m.

Iron Man 2 sees a slightly bigger drop than the original in it's second week, but is still tracking comfortably ahead of it. A solid total near $15m is likely.

The drops for Sex and the City 2 have been quite impressive. Last weeks sub 20% drop was helped due to the Friday opening for the film, but the 31% drop this week is very good. It keeps it's pace ahead of the original, and should finish a little above Iron Man 2 with $17m or so.

The Book Of Eli sees a decent opening. It wasn't given much of a release, but it could have been worse. The total probably won't be much more than $5m though.

After losing almost half of it's screens last week and dropping near 50% due to Disney announcing the DVD release date (idiots), Alice in Wonderland has a great hold in it's 10th week. The exchange rate has also been getting a little better which is helping (perfect timing too, with the big July releases coming up), so $130m is definitely happening, giving Alice the 10th position on the All-Time USD Chart.

BOM has This Is It: 16 - Michael Jackson's This Is It Sony $113,524 - 244 - $465 $56,260,610 34

Michael Jackson: King of Pop Commemorated will open in 150 theaters on the 25th.

I'm changing the Not-So-Box Office News I post each week to be only Weekly Manga Sales. Most of the time there's a movie in release or to open in the future that is being adapted from a manga on the charts.

Manga Rankings, 6/14-20



1 1 Kimi ni Todoke #11 Karuho Shiina 249,935 722,993 Shueisha
2 - Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) #9 Yana Toboso 224,967 224,967 Square Enix
3 - Skip Beat! #25 Yoshiki Nakamura 134,022 134,022 Hakusensha
4 - Hajime no Ippo #92 George Morikawa 124,318 124,318 Kodansha
5 2 One Piece #58 Eiichiro Oda 114,154 2,074,787 Shueisha
6 31 Otoyome-Gatari (The Bride's Stories) #2 Kaoru Mori 108,672 128,525 Enterbrain
7 - Kaiōki #44 Masatoshi Kawahara 77,285 77,285 Kodansha
8 - Dear Boys Act 3 #4 Hiroki Yagami 76,920 76,920 Kodansha
9 6 Chihayafuru #9 Yuki Suetsugu 74,885 174,181 Kodansha
10 - Ouke no Monshou #55 Chieko Hosokawa 66,924 66,924 Akita Shoten

Kimi ni Todoke #11 remains at No.1 this week bringing it's total copies sold to 722,993, and is on target for 1m+. One Piece #58 clears 2m copies sold. 200m will likely be reached in the fall for the series.

Here is some information about the live-action adaptation:



Mikako Tabe and Haruma Miura have been cast in the lead roles of the upcoming live-action film adaptation of Kimi ni Todoke directed by Naoto Kumazawa (Rainbow Song, Oto-na-ri).

The film is based on a manga by Karuho Shiina which has sold over 10 million copies and spawned an animated series which recently aired on NTV.

Tabe will play a high school student named Sawako Kuronuma with long dark hair and a gloomy appearance who’s insultingly called “Sadako” by other students—a reference to the character from Hideo Nakata’s 1998 horror film “Ring”. Sawako is misunderstood and feared for her looks, but her life begins to change one day when a popular classmate named Shota Kazehaya (Miura) begins talking to her. His gesture of friendship gives her the confidence to be more outgoing and try things she never would have tried before. Eventually, her gratitude toward him leads to a budding romance.

In 2008 it won the Best Shōjo Manga award in the 32nd Annual Kodansha Manga Award.




“Kimi ni Todoke” will be released by Toho in Japan on September 25, 2010.


Who was your favorite character(s) in the anime adaptation, Bluebomb?

Also, the live-action adaptation is said to have an original ending.

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 - 11,523,805,596 (65)
Trick the Movie 3 - 1,771,807,568 (44)
Confessions - 1,546,774,457 (16)
Sex and the City 2 - 1,074,311,421 (17)
____________________________________________________________
Iron Man 2 - 687,945,401 (10)
Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time - 600,081,496 (24)
Railways - 461,309,638 (24)
Kamen Rider Episode Blue - 386,140,531 (16)
Outrage - 385,074,699 (9)
Alone Scalpel - 334,730,151 (16)


2010 (Dec 09 included) Archive:



2009 1b+ Results: Japanese Films - 34, Imported - 22
2010 1b+ Update: Japanese FIlms - 14, Imported - 9

Many films move into the archive, but all of them except for Kamen Rider Episode Red are still playing in many theaters. But weekly tracking is now unavailable for them, unfortunately. Over time if I read articles that mention the gross, I'll then update it.

Ayane, for sure. I hope they realize her awesomeness in the movie. All those moments when she was deep in thought figuring things out and plotting something with a scary face while the other characters around her were afraid of her scary faces were hilarious and I hope they are able to show this in the movie.

Ryu is second for me. He's the most interesting character in the series for me. Quiet, patient but smart. He and Ayane are the most adept and quick to pick up on the situation.

The other thing that makes me curious is how they will portray Chizuru. Switching suddenly from a tough guy attitude to crying after an emotional moment could lead to hilarious results. Who were your favourite characters, Corpse?

Hmm, original ending. We all know what that means...

It appears that Warner Bros. will be going all out with Harry Potter over the next 13 months.

Special Limited Edition Advanced Tickets will be available on July 3rd for both parts of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".

You can purchase the smaller Premium Limited Edition Ticket in the top right corner for Y5,000 (about $55 USD), or the Metal Plate Premium Limited Edition Ticket (or Pass) that has been signed by the cast members for Y10,000 (about $111 USD). Both Premium Limited Edition Tickets will get you into both Parts 1 and 2 of the movie with your choice of 2D/3D/IMAX.

No date was given when the special offer ends.

Regular advanced tickets for Part 1 go on sale in September.

Kazehaya (though I want to smack him sometimes for being totally oblivious ) and Chizuru.

Chizuru is probably my overall favorite though. She's just so hilarious. Loved her during the sports festival with her red shirt.

Here is the rest of the full cast:

Sawako


Kazehaya


Chizuru


Ayane


Ryu


Kurumi



They all look the part, though Ryu's actor looks a little too old to me, but he's okay.

As for the original ending, it's more than likely going to end with a kiss. Then again, that could anger some fans since it didn't happen in the anime, and still hasn't happened in the manga. I'll be curious to see how they end the movie.

The actor playing Ryu looks 35. And what is up with Kazehaya's hair?! It's certainly not 100% refreshing. Haha.

Realistically, what do you think this could make at the box office? With the success of the manga and anime, could it make what the Nodame Cantabile films made?

Ryu's actor is a bit too old for the part. The only somewhat miscast (based on appearance) in my opinion, though.

I think the film will surprise in September. It's been charting high on Eiga's charts for months now, currently ranked #25 out of 100.

Thankfully, Toho is distributing it, so it'll receive plenty of screens. Though it might be a little less than expected since Toho is releasing Umizaru 3 on September 18th and they've already announced a release on over 400 screens (pretty much the max for a local film), and will be spending most of their marketing on it being the first local 3D release. Umizaru 3 is going to be quite huge (an opening over $10m is likely).

But screens aren't everything, especially for fanbase films like Kimi ni Todoke.

Nodame Cantabile is asking too much. The fanbase is more diverse, and the series is more popular than Kimi ni Todoke (though the last few manga volumes for each have sold about the same amount) having a tv drama adaptation.

I'm thinking Kimi ni Todoke will do over $20m, though, hoping for as much as $25/30m. And Volume 12 might be ready for release in time for the film's release which will help energize the fans.

Weekend Forecast, 6/26-27

1 1 Confessions Toho 4
2 2 Kamen Rider Episode Yellow TOEI 2
3 3 Iron Man 2 Paramount 3
4 4 Sex and the City 2 WB 4
5 6 Outrage WB 3
6 5 Book of Eli, The Kadokawa-Herald 2
7 7 Alice in Wonderland Disney 11
8 8 Flowers Toho 3
9 9 Piecing Me Back Together SPD 2
10 NEW A Nightmare on Elm Street 1


Not sure if that very bold expectation for the new MJ movie was a mistranslation by the website or what, but it's not being projected to even debut in the top 10 this weekend, so their projection is impossible. It seemed much too high anyway.

This is a dead weekend like most before a big blockbuster opens, and this time it may be the biggest of them all this year: Bayside Shakedown The Movie 3. I've been referred to 4 channel ( I hate navigating here ) by Mark Schilling for updates on it, so expect them sometime in the near future.

The plus side, Confessions will remain at No.1 for the 4th week in a row completely dominating the month of June. And who knows, maybe it'll see yet another increase with absolutely no competition.

To deal with this rather uneventful weekend, and to prepare for the complete opposite next weekend, expect many updates, posts, etc. regarding the Bayside Shakedown series over the next week.

All Local Openings Over 1 billion Yen (2day)

2004, Howl's Moving Castle (Toho) - Y1,483,843,060 / 1,104,980 admissions (448 screens)
2003, Bayside Shakedown 2 (Toho) - Y1,237,750,000 / 865,553 admissions (408 screens)
2009, Rookies Graduation (Toho) - Y1,225,278,650 / 987,387 admissions (428 screens)
2009, One Piece Strong World (TOEI) - Y1,038,439,600 / 819,738 admissions (188 screens)
2008, Ponyo (Toho) - 1,025,472,300 / 812,557 admissions (481 screens)
2007, Hero (Toho) - Y1,009,473,875 / 749,807 admissions (475 screens)
2008, Boys Over Flowers Final (Toho) - Y1,005,798,910 / 805,350 admissions (400 screens)
2001, Spirited Away (Toho) - Y1,001,000,120 / 810,006 admissions (318 screens)

These 8 films are the only local releases that have opened above Y1 billion yen in two days.

From a simple glance at the list, it showcases Toho's ever continuing dominance in the market claiming 7 of the 8 titles. TOEI's One Piece Strong World is the oddball out here, but given the monstrous fanbase (the manga is the best selling manga of all time, and has currently sold 55% more copies than the entire population of Japan), and the special promotion for the film, it's easy to see why it was so huge last December. The film currently holds the record PTA (over $62,000).

Toho also operates the most theaters, and they have been the only local distributor that has given a film over 400 screens. In 2004, Howl's Moving Castle broke the screen count record, opening on 448 screens (1 out of every 6 screens) beating Bayside Shakedown 2's 408, and went on to best Bayside Shakedown 2's opening weekend record.

Since then, the adaptation of the super popular drama series Hero (tv ratings over 35%) broke the screen count record, opening on 475 screens. And then in 2008, Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo broke the record again, opening on 481 screens. Ponyo still holds the record for widest opening.

In 7 days, Toho will release Bayside Shakedown 3. Back in April, they announced the film had sold 160,000 advance tickets, outpacing all of their previous releases. The current live-action advance ticket record goes to Rookies Graduation with 240,000 (animated it's Pokemon 10 with over 2 million, earning it a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records beating one of the 90's Disney films).

It's been over 2 months since the 160,000 was announced, and with all the marketing Toho and Fuji TV are putting into Bayside Shakedown 3, it's sure to earn a spot above. Will it break the screen count record, possibly being the first local film to play on 500 screens, and can it overtake Howl's Moving Castle to reclaim the opening weekend record for the series?

While I'm only going to report Bayside Shakedown news for the week, I'll still update on this weak weekend, well, weak except for one film - Confessions, topping the box office for all of June.



Confessions has increased, again, with no screen gains of any kind. Increasing for the 3rd week in a row like this (with no help from anything) is the first time I know of without doing some research. It may have some sort of PTA record (under 300 screens), or at least a very high ranking, with 4 weekends with a PTA above $11,000.

Weekend 1 - 194,893 admissions - $2.94m ($2.94m)
Weekend 2 - 200,523 admissions - $3.08m ($9.76m total)
Weekend 3 - 210,102 admissions (1,194,344 total admissions) - $3.16m ($17.1m total)
Weekend 4 - 210,888 admissions (1,659,055 total admissions)- $3.23m ($24.2m total)

$40m total is looking more and more likely.

2010 (Calendar Year) Weekends

1. Avatar Fox Int'l $7,351,042 2 840 $8,751 11 $35,050,720
2. Avatar Fox Int'l $6,897,825 3 840 $8,212 -6 $50,548,688
3. Avatar Fox Int'l $5,606,688 4 815 $6,879 -19 $65,211,354
4. Avatar Fox Int'l $5,754,496 5 761 $7,562 3 $77,732,992
5. Avatar Fox Int'l $6,846,505 6 678 $10,098 19 $91,978,188
6. Avatar Fox Int'l $6,406,579 7 650 $9,856 -6 $108,042,330
7. Avatar Fox Int'l $5,623,472 8 639 $8,800 -12 $121,621,223
8. Avatar Fox Int'l $4,415,738 9 617 $7,157 -21 $129,543,968
9. Avatar Fox Int'l $4,036,232 10 606 $6,660 -9 $141,524,593
10. Doraemon: Nobita's South Sea Adventure Toho $6,115,994 1 366 $16,710 0 $6,115,994
11. Doraemon: Nobita's South Sea Adventure Toho $3,784,429 2 366 $10,340 -38 $10,758,575
12. Doraemon: Nobita's South Sea Adventure Toho $3,052,869 3 366 $8,341 -19 $15,186,858
13. Doraemon: Nobita's South Sea Adventure Toho $2,453,305 4 366 $6,703 -20 $21,822,951
14. Doraemon: Nobita's South Sea Adventure Toho $1,737,623 5 366 $4,748 -29 $29,372,454
15. Shutter Island Paramount Int'l $2,937,750 1 442 $6,646 0 $3,691,285
16. Alice In Wonderland Walt Disney Int'l $14,297,616 1 859 $16,644 0 $14,297,616
17. Alice In Wonderland Walt Disney Int'l $10,910,971 2 877 $12,441 -24 $37,703,333
18. Alice In Wonderland Walt Disney Int'l $11,511,994 3 877 $13,126 6 $62,860,231
19. Alice In Wonderland Walt Disney Int'l $5,701,600 4 878 $6,494 -51 $91,581,693
20. Alice In Wonderland Walt Disney Int'l $4,745,557 5 858 $5,531 -17 $101,025,920
21. Alice In Wonderland Walt Disney Int'l $4,174,851 6 841 $4,964 -12 $112,393,300
22. Alice In Wonderland Walt Disney Int'l $3,288,375 7 794 $4,142 -21 $117,831,323
23. Confessions Toho $2,935,807 1 266 $11,037 0 $2,935,807
24. Confessions Toho $3,078,318 2 266 $11,573 5 $9,757,052
25. Confessions Toho $3,162,359 3 266 $11,889 3 $17,083,027
26. Confessions Toho $3,234,000 4 266 $12,157 3 $24,200,000*

*Estimate

Five No.1 films in 26 weeks. Would have been only four if not for Shutter Island's single weekend on top. My prediction of 10 or less films at No.1 this year (calendar) is looking good with Bayside Shakedown in 5 days, Umizaru in September, Harry Potter in November, and Space Battleship Yamato in December.

Two major theater chains have listed their showtimes and additional information for the release of Bayside Shakedown 3.




Yokohama Cinemas


Showtimes
7/3: 10:00, 12:45, 3:30, 5:45, 8:30, 11:15, 2:00
7/4: 10:00, 12:45, 3:30, 5:45, 8:30, 11:15


Ticket Prices
Regular: Adult: 1800yen ($20)
High School and College: 1500 yen ($17)
Junior High and younger: 1000 yen ($11)
Senior (60+): 1000 yen ($11)
Infant (22 months or under): 1000yen ($11)
Disabled: 1200 ($13.50)
Executive Seat: 2500 yen ($28)
Pair Seat: 2000 yen per person ($44.50)

Specials
Ladies day(Wednesday): 1000yen (for ladies only) ($11)
Service Day (1st day of the month): 1000yen ($11)
Late Show (after 8PM) : 1200 yen ($13.50)
Couples Day: 2000 yen for two people. ($22.50)
Over 50 husband and wife (only one partner needs to be over 50 and ID is required) : 2000 yen for two people ($22.50)

Screen Capacity
スクリーン1 - 150　
スクリーン2 - 188　
スクリーン3 - 150　
スクリーン4 - 188　
スクリーン5 - 170　
スクリーン6 - 188　
スクリーン7 - 402　
スクリーン8 - 150　
スクリーン9 - 322　
スクリーン10 - 188　
スクリーン11 - 114
Total - 2112




Kichijoji Cinemas

Showtimes
7/3: 9:30, 12:15, 3:00, 5:45, 8:30, 11:15, 2:00, 4:25
7/4: 9:30, 12:15, 3:00, 5:45, 8:30, 10:55

Ticket Prices
Regular Adult: 1800yen ($20)
High School and College: 1500 yen ($17)
Junior High and younger: 1000 yen ($11)
Senior (60+): 1000 yen ($11)
Infant (22 months or under): 1000yen ($11)
Disabled: 1000yen ($11)

Specials
Ladies' Day (Wednesday) : 1000yen (for ladies only) ($11)
Late Show (after 8PM): 1300yen ($15)
Over 50 husband and wife (only one partner needs to be over 50 and ID is required) : 2000 yen for two people ($22.50)
Members: 1300yen ($15)

Screen Capacity
吉祥寺セントラル - 246
吉祥寺スカラ座 - 249
吉祥寺東宝 - 224
吉祥寺オデヲン座 - 220
Total - 939

Weekend Admission Rankings, 6/26-27



1 1 → Confessions
2 2 → Kamen Rider Den-O Masked Rider THE MOVIE TRILOGY EPISODE YELLOW
3 3 → Iron Man 2
4 4 → Sex and the City 2
5 5 → The Book Of Eli
6 6 → Outrage
7 7 → Alice in Wonderland
8 8 → Flowers
9 10 ↑ Alone Scalpel
10 9 ↓ Piecing Me Back Together

Confessions increases once again like I mentioned above, but it's admissions and numbers are the only ones available right now. I'll update with anything new during the day.

Alice in Wonderland has been in the top 10 for 12 weeks now, so that's something. Should make it 13.

Nothing changed except for the bottom two films. All the studios avoided this weekend because of Bayside Shakedown 3, which means the only film that will be over 1m among the holdovers above will be Confessions (it might be this weekend since Kamen Rider usually drops 50%+ their second weekend) this coming weekend.

Perfect situation for Bayside Shakedown 3 to open to.

July Release Schedule

7/2 - Repo Man

7/3 - Bayside Shakedown The Movie 3, The Hangover, The Cove, Adele and the Pharaoh Movie

7/10 - Toy Story 3, Pokemon 13, Predators, Bounty Hunter, Torisashi

7/17 - Surely Someday, The Borrower Arrietty, The Last Airbender, Le Grand Alibi

7/23 - Inception

7/24 - Zombieland, Extraordinary Measures

7/30 - Jennifer's Body

7/31 - Salt, Naruto Shipudden Movie 4, Honey Bee The Movie


July is way, way overcrowded this year. A few of these could have been released in May and June. I'm starting to wonder if competition will actually hurt some of these now (the smaller releases are dead before they get a chance). Normally, films rarely hurt one another, but it may just happen this Summer due to screen capacity.

Bayside Shakedown 3 will be just fine, especially out of the gate first opening in a DEAD market, and doesn't need to worry about Toy Story 3 or Pokemon 13. It could top both in it's second weekend if it's as big as it's potential. But the demographics is the difference here.

Now it gets a bit tricky. Pokemon 13 will likely do it's usual yearly business, competition isn't new to the franchise, but Toy Story 3's quite difficult to predict. Here's Pixar stats in the territory:

Toy Story 1.5 billion
A Bug's Life 1.9 billion
Toy Story 2 2 billion
Monsters Inc. 9.5 billion
Finding Nemo 11.0 billion
The Incredibles 5.3 billion
Cars 2.3 billion
Ratatouille 2007 3.9 billion
Wall-E 4.0 billion
Up - 4.7 billion

While it was over 10 years ago, neither of the Toy Story's were that big, but like many are saying, Pixar is a much more well known and appreciated name now. That's definitely true, and some locals are even predicting up to 6 billion (which would be around $65m) for Toy Story 3. But will the shift from December to July, into probably the biggest July ever, hurt it's potential?

Opening just a week later will be The Last Airbender which may be competition for TS3's 3D screens, but the bigger problem is Studio Ghibli's The Borrower Arrietty. Pixar and Ghibli fans tend to overlap a bit, so they might end up hurting one another. I really wish Disney/Pixar would have just went with the December release for TS3.

Also opening just a week after TS3 and against The Borrower Arrietty is Surely Someday. Studio Shochiku's biggest film of the year, and there aim is apparently to match Departures BO ($70m), their biggest film to date. Surely Someday has been very strong on the buzz charts for half a year now.

Then Inception opens just days later, IMAX competition for TS3 (I think) and Last Airbender (I think), not sure what's in IMAX this summer. It'll have to deal with whatever screens are left available and hope for the best.

Finally things get a bit calmer with no significant releases until the 31st - Salt. Jolie is very well liked in the territory, and her films always do quite well. Honey Bee might surprise. I don't know anything about it, but it looks to be fairly popular.

And I didn't even mention any screen contracts some of these releases (Bayside, Toy Story, Borrower Arrietty, Surely Someday) probably have where they can't lost any screens from certain chains from anywhere from 4 weeks to 4 months.


It's going to be an interesting month. If worse comes to worst, all the April-June holdovers can be stripped of their screens leaving just the July releases in release. Which might very well happen if contracts are in place.

They always have to overcrowd some month with tentpole releases. Remember the Shrek 3/Spider-Man 3/Pirates 3 scheduling fiasco?

And why of all years do they release so many IMAX-able movies in the same month? That's just like a self-inflected wound. I wouldn't be surprised if they do like what we do in HK though: allocate a couple of IMAX screens for certain releases but make sure that the most anticipated ones get all IMAX screens.

I'm also surprised they didn't schedule 2 of the tentpole releases to face off against each other like they do in HK. Has that ever happened in Japan before?

It would be more fun if theaters started pulling screens from early July big releases to make room for the late July ones. That should teach the studios a lesson not to schedule so many anticipated movies in a short amount of time.

Also, would a move to August be more profitable for Toy Story 3?

Well, two tentpoles are facing each other twice in the same month. Toy Story 3/Pokemon 13 on July 10th, then The Borrower Arrietty/Surely Someday on July 17th.

All four of them are tentpoles this summer, pretty big ones, Top 5 (or Top 10 with Avatar, Alice and Bayside at the top) of 2010 contenders.

What happened, I think, is Toho decided to be a bit stubborn and not move their films.

Toho is distributing Bayside Shakedown 3, Pokemon 13, and The Borrower Arrietty. Toho is the top dog in the market (they're actually causing many studios to close), and always claims these weekends for their tentpoles. Pokemon always gets released in the middle of July, and so does Studio Ghibli's latest (Howl's Moving Castle is a rare exception). Toho even released Ponyo and Pokemon 11 against each other in 2008. Both ended up huge success anyway though.

It's possible Disney/Pixar wanted to grab a Summer spot for Toy Story 3 and gave it the July 10th release knowing Toho was relasing three of the big tentpoles in the same month, maybe hoping to bump one of them out, but it didn't happen. August would have been okay, July should be okay even, but it's gross may be stunned. December would have been best again for Pixar.

The thing about theaters pulling screens from the early July releases for the late July releases is that Toho operates most of the domestic screens (which is how they get contracts for their major films where they can't lose screens for weeks or months). So the Toho releases should be fine as far as screens go. They currently have Confessions and Flowers in the Top 10, but Confessions is only on 266 screens going into it's 5th week, so they'll take some from it if needed.

If Disney/Pixar really thought that then it's their fault Toy Story 3 will lose out on a lot of bucks because of poor scheduling. I doubt this type of "intense" scheduling has ever happened in Japan before...with the amount of highly anticipated movies that is coming out. I think instead of one film being the odd man out, it looks like every film regardless of its distributor will suffer. Also, even though Toho operates the majority of screens, that is not going to stop theaters from moving a tentpole release out of its biggest screens to the smaller ones when a new movie comes out. While Toho releases probably have contracts stating that they can't be removed, I doubt that they specify that they must remain in X screen for X amount of weeks. They'll probably cut down the # of showtimes and determine which screen it gets depending on the demand. If they do specify it, then Toy Story 3 is fucked.

The only contract is probably for Bayside Shakedown 3. I'm 99% positive it has one because it's usually reserved for their biggest film of the year. Ponyo opened and played on a record 481 screens for 4 months (even when it's pta began going under $1000) before it lost any of them. It's the last film I know of that had a contract like that. Rookies didn't lose any screens for 2 months, it could have been a contract, but I'm not sure on it.

Toy Story 3 will be okay though, it's not doomed, it's overall gross will probably be stunned a bit though.

Also, the exchange rate keeps getting better this summer. Y1000 is getting closer and closer to equaling $12.

So if some of the summer films don't quite meet their potential because of competition, the exchange rate should result in a better than expected USD gross. For example, Alice in Wonderland's Y11.52b Yen total last week was about $127m. This week it's about $129m.

　織田裕二主演の大人気シリーズ「踊る大捜査線 THE MOVIE 3 ヤツらを解放せよ！」の完成披露試写会が6月29日、東京・有楽町の東京国際フォーラムで行われた。

上映前に行われた舞台挨拶には、織田をはじめ柳葉敏郎、深津絵里、ユースケ・サンタマリアといった主要キャストから、新メンバーの伊藤淳史、小栗旬、“復帰”組の内田有紀、そして“スリーアミーゴス”の北村総一朗、小野武彦、斉藤暁ら脇を固める陣容まで15人がずらり勢ぞろい。織田と柳葉は巨大レッドカーペットで相対すると固く握手を交わし、場内を埋め尽くした約4000人のファンは、地鳴りのような手拍子で出迎えた。[The cast greeted more than 4000 fans in Yurakucho, Tokyo, who gathered for the premiere of the latest movie after 7 years]

2003年に公開された前作「踊る大捜査線 THE MOVIE 2 レインボーブリッジを封鎖せよ！」は、実写邦画史上最高となる観客動員1260万人、興行収入173.5億円を記録。織田にとって、青島俊作警部補として公の場に姿を現すのは7年ぶりになるだけに「こんばんは。そして、ただいま」と感無量の面持ちだ。そして、「ワールドカップの試合があるっていうのに来ていただいて、本当にありがとう」とファンに手を振った。[Bayside Shakedown 2 became the most attended local live-action film (second overall behind Titanic) with 12.6m admissions, grossing Y17.35b in 2003.]

エリート官僚・室井慎次に扮した柳葉は、主演作「容疑者　室井慎次」で警視正でありながら広島県警本部刑事部への降格人事を味わった。今回は、警察庁長官官房審議官に昇進してのカムバックに「きょう皆さんに会えることの喜びを……。今回、室井は出来る限り耐えました。出来る限り抵抗しました。そして青島に……、あとは見てのお楽しみです」とあおってみせた。[This time Yuji Oda has been promoted to Chief Superintendent. Later saying he apologizes that fans had to wait so long for a new movie and that it's been an emotional experience]

新メンバーの2人も、その歓迎ぶりに満面の笑みを浮かべた。「僕自身も大ファンだった作品。まさか出られるなんて思っていなかったので、何度も劇場に足を運びたい」（伊藤）、「お邪魔しますという気持ち。こんなに愛されている作品に参加させていただいて幸せ」（小栗）と話し、深々と頭を下げていた。[The cast bowed and said farewell as they wished Japan good luck in today's World Cup game against Paraguay.]

「踊る大捜査線 THE MOVIE 3 ヤツらを解放せよ！」は、7月3日から全国で公開。


EDIT: 織田や深津絵里、ユースケ・サンタマリアといったレギュラー出演者はもちろん、ゲスト出演した小泉今日子や時東ぁみ、小栗旬、伊藤淳史ら23人は、試写会を客席でファンとともに鑑賞。エンドクレジットが流れると、自然と手拍子が起こり、織田が歌う主題歌「Love Somebody CINEMA Version III」をファンが大合唱した。 [With the credits rolling, and Yuji Oda singing the theme song, "Love Somebody CINEMA Version III", the audience joined in for the chorus.]

Distributor Toho earned 4.5b Yen (about $51m USD) in May 2010, for a 2.8% increase over May 2009.

Which is somewhat surprising to me because they only released Trick the Movie 3 (earned about 1.6b in May) and Zatoichi the Last on the 29th, and it was a small opener. Most of the revenue came from Nodame Cantabile Part II and Detective Conan Lost Ship in the SKy from April, though. But still, surprising increase from 2009 which had Rookies open to 1.22b (second biggest opening for a local live-action film) Yen during the last two days.

Toho's Jan. - May total revenue comes in at 25.4b Yen (or about $288m USD). Nodame Cantabile Part 1 and Professor Layton will be added in for the 2010 total figure, which should be about 30.5b Yen or $345m USD not including June.

Toho's July releases include: Bayside Shakedown 3 (7/3), Pokemon 13 (7/10), The Borrower Arrietty (7/17), and Naruto Shippuden The Movie 4 (7/30).