Is it really that good?

[Mark Schilling]

Here's a report I filed for Screen International on the Japanese box office
for the first half of fiscal 1998. As Aaron mentioned, Titanic had a big
impact on total BO, but domestic films were also up. 

Mark Schilling (schill at gol.com)



Distributor revenues up 23% in first half of 1998

Tokyo: According to figures compiled by the Nikkei Shimbun business
newspaper, distributor revenues for the first half of 1998 gained 23%
compared with the same period the previous year, to Y41.383 billion ($287.4
million). A major reason for the gain was the record-shattering impact of
Titanitic at the local box office Another is the continuing multiplex
building boom, which has revitalized a once-declining exhibition market. 
    A total of 13 films, seven foreign and six domestic, earned Y1 billion
or more in distributor revenues -- considered the mark of a blockbuster in
the Japanese market. At the head of the list was Titanic, with Y15.0
billion ($104.2 million), followed by Men In Black (Y3 billion or $20.8
million). The share of revenues accounted for by foreign films was 72.4%. 
     Heading the domestic list was a program of three films in the
enduringly popular Doraemon animation series, with Y2 billion (13.8
million). Of the six domestic films on the list, five were distributed by
Toho. Total first half revenues for the distributor were Y6.6 billion
($45.8 million), for a 1.2% gain over the same period the previous year.
Meanwhile, its two major domestic rivals went hitless and watched earnings
fall. Shochiku made only Y1.4 billion ($9.7 million), for a 20.8% drop, and
Toei, Y2.4 billion ($16.7 million) for a 3% decline. 
     Total admissions for the first half were 80.3 million for a gain of
14.8%. Attendance was particularly strong during the New Year's and Golden
Week holidays periods, when recession-hit consumers seeking cheap forms of
entertainment flocked to the theatres.