JAPAN BOX OFFICE | Demon Slayer breaks all time record for OW

[MonstersandRoy]

Can undertstand a drop in popularity with The Hobbit from The Lord of the Rings, but the drop from LOTR to The Hobbit in Japan is quite incredible really. Whole trilogy earning 50% of one LOTR film is quite odd, can't think of any other countries in the world where the drop has been anywhere near that.

[peludo]

Can undertstand a drop in popularity with The Hobbit from The Lord of the Rings, but the drop from LOTR to The Hobbit in Japan is quite incredible really. Whole trilogy earning 50% of one LOTR film is quite odd, can't think of any other countries in the world where the drop has been anywhere near that.

It is the biggest disappointment BY FAR of the whole trilogy in terms of BO. We could have seen a drop like in other countries, but FOTR and TTT did over $65m and ROTK was close to $100m. It is like if each Hobbit film had done 40-50 million in USA...

[Olive]

Saturday admissions:

#1 - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 26,569

#2 - Ao Haru Ride 25,879

#3 - The Last: Naruto the Movie 24,012

4 chains only.

Hobbit did all right in late shows, it will easily open #1.

Edited December 13, 2014 by Sorcerer Supreme

[Olive]

Uh, hobbit 3 should open around $3M.

Just on par with Hobbit 2($3.1M)

[keysersoze123]

it will finish higher with christmas/new year holidays. But this market has sailed ship for this trilogy for sure.

[Andy001]

It is nt the hobbit , in the past yr has seen a bigger and bigger drop of hollywood movies in japan. They only watch animation nowaday. Young generation they r nt excited for american movies now.

Edited December 14, 2014 by Andy001

[pepsa]

3.6 Bilon yen = 3.1M, that means that the currentcy is weaker than one year ago

[Quigley]

Any news on presales for Big Hero 6? What are the predictions?

[Olive]

Presales for hollywood movies are always not a big thing in Japan, let alone animated movies.

 

Hobbit3  OW 287M yen, $2.45M,  even worse than TH2.

[Elessar]

So what's that about:

 

In a big feat, Five Armies was No. 1 in Japan where there were three local openers. Bilbo and the gang earned an estimated $2.46M with 200K admissions from 644 screens. The results were 35% better than HAUJ and a staggering 95% higher than HDOS.

 

$2.5m is not a lot and it's not like the exchange rate changed so much, so how did they come to that conclusion? It doesn't make sense.

[Olive]

That report was wrong.

AUJ OW $2.7M  Total 19.2M

DOS - $3.1M - 13.7M

BoFA - $2.45M - ?

[lab276]

Such tiny numbers. It's embarrassing.

Edited December 15, 2014 by lab276

[Rsyu]

The lowest opening of the hobbit series? 

 

No foreign studio outside of Disney has seen any real joy in Japan this year. Days of future past being ranked as the 10th highest grossing foreign release with just $9,983,199 is amazingly poor. 

Edited December 15, 2014 by Rsyu

[keysersoze123]

The lowest opening of the hobbit series? 

 

No foreign studio outside of Disney has seen any real joy in Japan this year. Days of future past being ranked as the 10th highest grossing foreign release with just $9,983,199 is amazingly poor. 

 

yes. Almost everything bombed. I had high expectations for interstellar but that bombed big time as well. I guess big hero will do ok but I am expecting WIR rather than Frozen numbers. I wonder how Jurassic world will do next year. I am expecting even Avengers sequel to decrease big time from previous flick. Even Avatar sequel will drop hard for sure.

[TheseDays]

According to the Japanese media, the Youkai Watch movie, which opens at the end of the month and is based on the popular children's anime, has surpassed 1 million tickets in advance sales, meaning it is the best advance sales in Toho's history. Toho is the biggest distributor in Japan. http://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXLASFK14H1H_U4A211C1000000/

 

Promotion has been going on for months now and the Osaka loop line trains are currently wrapped with the show's characters http://news.mynavi.jp/news/2014/12/13/015/. No doubt it'll have a huge opening and, with the huge success of the Doraemon movie, it'll probably be the best year for non-Ghibli/Disney animations in history (and the best year for animations too, right? Given the record-shattering Frozen numbers).

[Mojoguy]

Corpse

 

Weekend Ranking (12/13-14)



01 (--) The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Warner Bros.) DEBUT
02 (--) Ao Haru Ride (Toho) DEBUT
03 (01) The Last: Naruto the Movie (Toho) Week 2
04 (--) Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Drive & Gaim: Full Throttle (Toei) DEBUT
05 (--) Aikatsu! The Movie (Toei) DEBUT
06 (02) Parasyte Part 1 (Toho) Week 3
07 (--) Gone Girl (Fox) DEBUT
08 (03) Fury (Kadokawa) Week 3
09 (04) Interstellar (Warner Bros.) Week 4
10 (07) Miracle: Devil Claus' Love and Magic (Toho) Week 4

None of the openers really exceeded expectations over the weekend, but they all performed well and gave the box-office a much needed boost.

>The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies debuted on top in gross thanks to its high avg. ticket price, but actually placed a disappointing 3rd over the weekend in admissions. The final film in The Hobbit trilogy opened with ¥287,085,500 ($2.5 million) and 195,209 admissions on 640 screens.

The debut is 30% higher than An Unexpected Journey, but 8% below that of The Desolation of Smaug. However, since it's back in December again legs will be much better than the second film and with a nice increase over the first film's opening, it's very likely The Battle of the Five Armies becomes the highest-grossing film in the trilogy. It should be able to reach the ¥2 billion milestone, but it could also just fall short with ¥1.8/1.9 billion. Expect a final total between ¥1.8-2.2 billion ($16-20 million).

>Ao Haru Ride pulled off the weekend victory in admissions, but its low avg. ticket price has it settling for a 2nd place debut. The latest teen romance film from Takahiro Mike grossed ¥243,368,800 ($2.1 million) with 210,497 admissions on 295 screens. The debut is 41% stronger than his Girl in the Sunny Place from last year, and with a December release, expect a gross that should exceed the ¥2 billion ($18-22 million) mark. Legs for these types of films very often approach multipliers of 10 in December, so it and The Hobbit should have a very close race.

>The latest Kamen Rider grossed ¥204,536,600 ($1.8 million) with 166,620 admissions on 307 screens for a 4th place debut. At least it opened above 200 million, but it's still down almost 9% compared to last December's release. The franchise has been on a downward spiral for over a year now, with the Spring/Summer/Winter releases all opening and earning less than their predecessors. This one should still barely break the ¥1 billion ($9-11 million) mark, though, which will make it a success.

>Aikatsu! The Movie was hard to follow over the weekend since its playing on just 151 screens, and the demographic could have really varied. But, it's clear now that the demo for these films should be similar to those of the Pretty Cure releases with its very, very low avg. ticket price. The film earned ¥172,727,250 ($1.5 million) with 156,949 admissions over the weekend, and it should be able to reach the ¥1 billion milestone.

>And finally, Gone Girl opened in 7th place, grossing ¥153,399,400 ($1.3 million) with 118,593 admissions on 321 screens. A 7th place debut may seem very disappointing here, but the gross is quite impressive. And legs are likely to be strong with the solid reviews and being a December release, so it too should be able to exceed the ¥1 billion ($9-11 million) milestone.

[Lordmandeep]

Looking at TF4 performance in Japan, I think even TA2 will fall a bit from The Avengers next year. 

[TheseDays]

Very happy for "Gone Girl". Superb movie. Although, honestly, why the hell did it open on a much bigger number of screens than "Ao Haru Ride"? Did anyone really thought it had any chance of having a superior performance?

 

"Ao Haru Ride" opens a bit better than "Kimi ni Todoke" movie (Y233.9 in 2010)  which was the last shoujo manga with this type of huge mainstream success to be adapted as a movie (well, there's been Hot Road earlier this year but this is based on an 80s manga, not something from this generation). Hope it has better legs than the former though.

Edited December 16, 2014 by TheseDays

[Mojoguy]

Maleficent did really GREAT ($63m) compared to what Hobbit 3 is expect to do ($16-20m). Three times the amount! THAT female audience in Japan is huge!

[Rsyu]

yes. Almost everything bombed. I had high expectations for interstellar but that bombed big time as well. I guess big hero will do ok but I am expecting WIR rather than Frozen numbers. I wonder how Jurassic world will do next year. I am expecting even Avengers sequel to decrease big time from previous flick. Even Avatar sequel will drop hard for sure.

 

Yeah judging from it's terrible OW, there was zero expectations for Interstellar straight from the start. The only sure hits for 2015 foreign releases in Japan is Cinderella, Inside out and good dinosaur (if they release it during 2015 that is). Ted was very popular, but I don't think the sequel will match it. everything else will decrease in my opinion.

 

Why so pessimistic on BH6 though? WiR only did $29 million in Japan.