Eiren

[Mark Schilling]

Re the inquiry about Eiren's 1999 BO figures:

1) No, Eiren does not release the annual BO figures on a website -- they
won't even fax them to you. Instead, you have to schlep down to their
office in Otemachi, bow your head and humbly ask for a copy. At least, that
was the drill until I got smart last year and started asking Kogyo Tsushin
to fax their chart to me. 

2) The following is my 1999 BO wrap, based on Eiren's numbers, that I
recently filed for Screen International. For those interested in more
timely  info, subscribe to Screen's free daily e-mail service. Contact:
<http://www.screendaily.com/> for details. 

Mark Schilling

Eiren releases BO figures for 1999

Tokyo: Minus the Titanic boost that propelled the Japanese box office to
new heights in 1998, film distributors suffered a letdown in 1999,
according to figures released Motion Pictures Producers Association of
Japan (Eiren). Total admissions fell 5.4 percent, to 144,762,000, while
total gross declined 5.5 percent, to Y182,835 million ($1.725 billion). 
	Distributor revenues for foreign films dropped 7.5 percent, to Y56,377
million ($532 million), while domestic films gained 0.1 percent, to Y26,417
($249 million). The domestics also boosted market share to 31.9 percent,
compared with 30.2 percent last year. Meanwhile, spurred by the ongoing
multiplex building boom, the number of screens grew from 1,993 in 1998 to
2,221 in 1999. 
	The biggest box office winner for the year was Armageddon, which earned
Y8,350 million ($78.8 million) in distributor revenues following its
release in December 1998. Second was Star Wars Episode One with Y7,800
million ($73.6 million), followed by Matrix with Y6,000 million ($56.6
million) and The Sixth Sense with Y4,300 million ($40.6 million). 
	The highest earning Japanese film, and fourth-highest overall, was the
second Pocket Monsters movie, which made Y3,500 ($33.0) for distributor
Toho. Second was the Ring 2 and Shikoku double bill of horror films, with
Y2,100 million ($19.8 million) and third was Railroad Man, the Foreign Film
Oscar nominee from Japan, with Y2,050 million ($19.3 million). A total of
six Japanese films earned more than Y1 billion in distributor revenues,
compared with nine in 1998. Meanwhile, thirteen foreign films surpassed
this mark, compared with fourteen the year before.  
	Last year releases of Japanese films rose to 270, a gain of 21 over the
previous year. Most of this increase was accounted for by non-adult
independent releases, which grew from 83 in 1998 to 103 in 1999. Meanwhile
releases of domestic films by the three majors -- Toho, Shochiku and Toei,
held steady at 66, one more than the year before. Shochiku, in the throes
of restructuring, cut releases from 24 in 1998 to 18 in 1999, while both
Toei and Toho added to their slates. Shochiku also failed to propel any of
its films over the Y1 billion mark in distributor revenues, compared with
five for Toho and one for Toei.   
	Under pressure from pay-per-view channels and other movie offerings on
cable and satellite TV, sales by video software makers continued to slide
in 1999, dropping 12 percent to Y201.1 billion ($1,897 million). Video
rental shop sales also fell 8.6 percent, to Y383.3 billion ($3,616
million). The total number of customer rentals, however, gained 0.7% to
734,700,000, indicating rental fee erosion as makers and stores struggle to
keep customer fingers away from the pay-per-view buy button. 


Domestic films earning more than Y1 billion in distributor revenues:

Title/ distributor revenue/ distributor
1. Pocket Monster -- Maboroshi no Pokemon Lugia Bakutan/ Y3.5 b/ Toho
2. Ring 2, Shikoku/ Y2.1 b/ Toho
3. Poppoya/ Y2.06 b/ Toei
4. Doraemon Nobita no Uchu Hyoryuki/ Y2.0 b/ Toho
5. Meitantei Conan Seikimatsuno Majutsushi
6. Fukuro no Shiro/ Y1.3 b/ Toho