Nowhere to see a movie!

[drainer at mpinet.net]

I don't know the figures, but I am sure they count many tiny little theaters 
in Tokyo as multiplexes...
Not quite sure how many there are in Chiba; but it would be safe to say that 
there aren't more than 5-10 outside of Ichikawa/Funabashi/Makuhari.

-d


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Aaron Gerow" <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>
To: "KineJapan" <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 8:26 AM
Subject: Nowhere to see a movie!


> An article that just hit the wires confirms that not everything is rosy 
> when it comes to seeing movies in Japan. Those who live in Tokyo or Kansai 
> enjoy a large variety of movies, but when you move out of those areas, 
> sometimes it takes hours just to get to the closest theater.
>
> The article said the last movie theater in Maebashi City in Gunma 
> Prefecture will close on the 29th, making Maebashi the first prefectural 
> capital without a movie theater. Luckily, a multiplex is scheduled to open 
> in April, but until then this city of over 300,000 people will not have 
> one single movie screen. Currently, there are four other cities in Japan 
> with populations over 300,000 that have no theaters.
>
> The number of screens in Japan hit a low of 1743 in 1993 (after a peak of 
> 7457 in 1960), but has risen to 2926 at the end of 2005 with the spread of 
> multiplexes. I would suspect, however, that the number of actual theaters 
> is now actually lower than 1743 (anyone with figures on that?).
>
> Aaron Gerow
> KineJapan owner
>
> Assistant Professor
> Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
> Yale University
>
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