1998 at the BO

[Stephen Cremin]

Following Aaron's comments about the effect of dominant players in the 
video rental market within Japan, I wanted to draw a comparison with 
Hong Kong and specifically the distribution of Japanese films in Hong 
Kong.  Seems that a major video rental store closed down there in 
September which meant that, for example, Iwai's "April Story" wasn't 
released on VHS.  With VCD piracy so high, TV not buying and the overall 
annual box office down by about 30-40%, the future of minority films in 
Hong Kong looks bleak.

I also read an article about Japan's box office in this week's "Variety" 
which reported the accumulated box office of "Odoru Daisosasen" at 
US$40m, whereas in the magazine's box office charts it was still just 
under US$18m.  (Hollywood Reporter gives an even lower figure.)  Which 
figure can be trusted?

Stephen Cremin
The Asian Film Library

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