Highest Grossing Japanese Films

[Oliver Dew]

Hi Rob,

This may not be want you're trying to do, but it might be easier to  
look at the revenues in given distribution territories. For the UK for  
instance, the EDI Nielsen statistics that the BFI library subscribes  
to give box office revenue on a title-by-title basis. Or if you wanted  
similar information for all of Europe the Lumiere admissions database  
is not a bad place to start, although it's a lot less complete than  
Nielsen:

http://lumiere.obs.coe.int/web/search/

I have never been able to find equivalent title-by-title data for  
other release platforms such as DVD though, which would be really  
important if you wanted to establish exactly what audiences are buying  
empirically.

If you look at revenues though, you're more likely to find a foreign  
predilection for Pokemon and Miyazaki Hayao than for J Horror. So it  
becomes a question of whose definition of "Japanese film" you use.

Oliver Dew


PhD candidate
Birkbeck College
London

On 7 Dec 2009, at 18:43, Rob Buscher wrote:

> Thanks Felix for the link, although I'm still looking for something  
> a bit more specific to international revenue gained by Japanese  
> films. I thought it might demonstrate the foreign predilection to a  
> certain genre of Japanese film, (presumably yakuza or J-horror).
>
> If this was the case (to the probable dismay of the bunkacho), I  
> thought it might demonstrate that regardless of national policy  
> regarding film, foreign audiences were still being sold on the so- 
> called 'undesirable' representations of Japan.
>
> Also, I was wondering if there was a list somewhere of the major  
> distributors who own Japanese titles for the foreign market? I'm  
> curious if the majority of foreign commercial distribution is being  
> done by Japanese or foreign owned companies.
>
> Any ideas or comments would be appreciated.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Rob Buscher
> MA Candidate, Japanese Cinema
> School of Oriental and African Studies
> London

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