2008 statistics

[drainer at mpinet.net]

That should be positive in any case, as 160 million would indicate greater 
attendance than population as a whole :)


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Aaron Gerow" <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2009 12:39 AM
Subject: 2008 statistics


> Some of you may have seen this elsewhere, but the Motion Picture 
> Producers Association of Japan released their statistics for the film 
> industry for 2008.
>
> http://www.eiren.org/toukei/
>
> The results are great for Japanese film, but not so much for cinema  as a 
> whole. Total box office went down 2.8% to 195 billion yen, with 
> attendance declining 2.7% to 160 million. Japanese films clobbered 
> foreign films at the box office 59.5% to 40.5%, again taking the lead 
> after winning in 2006 and losing in 2007. Japanese film has not had  that 
> kind of lead since 1970. The box office for Japanese films rose  22.4% 
> from 2007 to 116 billion yen. The total number of films  released slightly 
> declined, but the number for Japanese films  slightly increased. The 
> average ticket price declined by 2 yen (what  a savings!), while the 
> number of screens continues to increase.
>
> 15 Japanese films earned more than 20 billion yen at the BO, the same 
> number as 2007 and 2006. Of the top 15 films, 11 were distributed by 
> Toho, with Gake no ue no Ponyo, Hana yori dango Final, Yogisha X no 
> kenshin, Pocket Monsters, and Aibo being the 5 to top 4 billion (all  were 
> Toho except for Aibo). The fact that business as a whole is not 
> consistently growing, that the average BO per screen continues to 
> decline, and that Toho retains its almost monopolistic dominance, 
> continue to be signs for concern. Eiren also noted that sales for  DVDs 
> and videos went down about 10%. One wonders if most businesses  are really 
> making that much money.
>
> But then again, Japanese cinema's take of 115 billion yen is the  highest 
> ever. When the shacho of Toho wrote me over the summer, he  quipped that 
> he hopes the Americans get their act together and become  more 
> competitive. When not just Ponyo but Hana yori dango beats  everything 
> Hollywood has to offer, you can understand his confidence.
>
> Any comments?
>
> Aaron Gerow
> KineJapan owner
>
> Assistant Professor
> Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
> Yale University
>
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