2009 Box office

[Nicholas Rucka]

Since no one has mentioned this yet, Jason Gray posted about the 2009
Japanese Box Office on his blog today. Worth a read.

http://jasongray.blogspot.com/2010/01/japan-box-office-2009.html

-Nicholas Rucka
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Nicholas Rucka
nicholas at mab-pro.com
http://mab-pro.blogspot.com
http://www.midnighteye.com



On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 4:27 PM, Alex Zahlten <Alex.Zahlten at gmx.de> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> > > So I was wondering if anyone knows if this figure includes straight
> > > to video and pink films...
>
> As Aaron already mentioned, these are only theatrically released films;
> it's important to remember that the number of actually produced films is
> much higher、but that many have difficulty of entering the theatrical
> distribution circuit. Nomura Masaaki estimated 2-3 years ago that the number
> of films actually produced was over 700.
>
> Distribution has become an incredibly difficult field right now, at least
> if your company name isn't Toho. Heydays of distribution were in the 60s for
> Pink Film, in the 80s for (more or less) art film on the minitheater circuit
> (also heavily supported by video rights sales) and in the 1990s for
> straight-to-video films. For a few years now, it has become very difficult
> to distribute small films at all (let alone profitably), and it often takes
> 1-2 years after a film's completion until it finds its way into the cinemas;
> this usually means 1-2 years in which the production company and/or the
> company that financed production cannot recoup on their investment. And the
> recent series of bankruptcies by distribution companied shows that there is
> less money to be made for the distribution side as well.
>
> Also, don't forget about Jishu Film. There is a riduculous amount of films
> (short, medium, and feature film length) being produced and financed by
> directors themselves, often shown in inofficial late show screenings or at
> festivals and not counted as theatrical releases.
>
> > Most people agree there is over-
> > production of films, but the reasons for that are not really clear to
> > me yet.
>
> I agree that it is somewhat of a baffling question. It has, however, become
> significantly easier to produce films, and depending on the kind of film it
> has also become cheaper. There was never a lot of money to be made in
> production, but I do think sinking budgets and technological developments
> are big factors here. Take for example V-Cinema: Budgets are a fraction of
> what they used to be. This is largely due to shooting on video, lowering
> production values, and especially to lowering labor costs. The explosion in
> film schools since the 1990s has supplied companies with a wave of young
> filmmakers and technical staff eager to work, and having been raised in
> freeter culture they will often gladly do it for minimum reimbursement while
> working in a supermarket on the side (Nobuhiro Yamashita did this for
> several years and has only recently been able to focus completely on working
> as a director- and he was a pretty well-known director at the time).
> V-cinema at the beginning was f!
>  ull of experienced directors that had difficulty finding work in
> theatrical film (such as Masaru Konuma, for example), and even if they
> worked on the cheap, this was by completely different standards of payment.
>
> This also has led to an incredible amount of films with first-time
> directors; I would have to make a precise count, but I don't think there
> have been as many directorial debut films since the last high point in 1991,
> when there were over 50 directorial debuts (at the time the development was
> largely fueled by the rise of V-Cinema and the so-called igyo (non-business)
> directors, who were often aidoru or actors given a directing job for name
> value; the latter was a symptom of the bubble economy film business, and of
> course this was how Takeshi Kitano originally made his debut).
>
> Alex
>
>
>
>
> --
> alex at nipponconnection.de
>
> GRATIS für alle GMX-Mitglieder: Die maxdome Movie-FLAT!
> Jetzt freischalten unter http://portal.gmx.net/de/go/maxdome01
>
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