StriderSubzero wrote:Are these typical film gross numbers for Japanese movies? I'm not naive and I know that American movies are way higher budgets, and gross much, much more, but I'm not sure why that is exactly. Can anyone clear this up a bit?
You can compare them to the top earners for the year as a starting point:
http://www.tohokingdom.com/box_office/r ... olders.htm
General rule of thumb for the post Showa films:
- Godzilla vs. Mothra, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah and GODZILLA did great at the box office.
- The Return of Godzilla, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah and GMK did good.
Everything else? Meh to not so hot. Biollante got a lot of flack for its under performance for example, but the movie did better or on par with almost all of the Millennium films.
Pkmatrix wrote:True, it's just harder for me as an American to grasp how much money was made considering the differences in how US Dollars and Yen are denominated. ^_^() It IS interesting to look at the ticket sales, though. The steady fall in ticket sales from the '50s/'60s to 2004 is a little depressing, although I do understand that's in part due to the gradual overall fall in Theater attendance over that time.
Japanese theater industry in general collapsed in the 1970's. What allowed Toho to have the iron fist grasp on the theater market in the country they have today as well. Japanese productions were really, really hurting there for a long time but are making a recovery now (it's more common to see a Japanese film top the box office for the year for example). That said, yes, the Godzilla films have really dropped in their box office, so it's not hard to understand why Toho hasn't done anything with the property lately. Throw in the fact that the King Kong remake and latest Gamera movie disappointed, and it looks like the country as a whole is kind of over the kaiju genre. Or so it seems... get our first test with Pacific Rim and the new Godzilla for the new decade if that is still the case.
Yeah I really wish there was MORE data out there for box office in Japan. A lot of modern films are getting more reporting, which is awesome, but there isn't much out there for the older ones. Hell, even for modern films finding the budget for a production is often hard.
If it bites... don't mess with it!