'Jumbo' leads the way as Indonesian films flip the script on Hollywood
Two months later, "Jumbo" became the No. 2 most-viewed film in Indonesian theaters of all time, behind only "Avengers: Endgame," a 2019 Hollywood production. It toppled previous runner-up "KKN di Desa Penari," an Indonesian horror movie released in 2022.
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SoraNews24
12 hours ago
- SoraNews24
There are now zero Japanese live-action films in the country's top 10 highest earning movies, but why?
The new Demon Slayer anime movie knocks the final Japanese live-action work out of the country's top list. You could be forgiven for not being sure just how big of a hit Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba–The Movie: Infinity Castle was going to be. Yes, the last Demon Slayer theatrical anime, 2020's Mugen Train , is the highest-grossing movie ever at Japanese theaters, but it owes part of its it status to the pop cultural phenomenon momentum it built up as it approached the record, and its mid-pandemic release meant it didn't have a lot of competition at the time, either in movies specifically or entertainment options in general. Also, while Mugen Train itself debuted a few months after the Demon Slayer manga finished, it's now been more than five years since the source material concluded, and in the meantime the hype around the series had quieted down a fair bit. But Infinity Castle , which premiered in Japanese theaters on July 18, has turned out to be an undeniable smash hit. It's broken both Japan's all-time opening day and single-day box office records, and took only 8 days to surpass 10 billion yen (US$67.57 million), also a Japanese record. After just 17 days, it's total earnings reached approximately 17.64 billion yen, and Infinity Caslte has now ascended into the top 10 highest-grossing movies ever in Japan. ▼ Preview video for Infinity Castle In reaching the top 10, Infinity Castle has pushed 2003's Bayside Shakedown 2 , part of the Odoru Daisosasen franchise, down to number 11 on the list. Bayside Shakedown 2 is a police story, but more significantly, it's a live-action film, and it was the final Japanese live-action movie in the top 10 earners at Japanese theaters. With Infinity Castle now taking its place, the 10 highest-grossing movies at Japanese theaters are all either anime or foreign films. Since Infinity Train still sits atop the list, Demon Slayer now commands 1/5 of the top 10 list, Studio Ghibli accounts for another 30 percent, and the One Piece franchise and director Makoto Shinkai each one representative too. Disney also has a spot, and the remaining two movies, both non-Japanese productions, are Titanic and the first Harry Potter . ● Highest-grossing films at Japanese box office 1. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train: 40.75 billion yen 2. Spirited Away: 31.68 billion yen 3. Titanic: 27.77 billion yen 4. Frozen: 25.5 billion yen 5. Your Name: 25.17 billion yen 6. One Piece Film: Red: 20.34 billion yen 7. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: 20.3 billion yen 8. Princess Mononoke: 19.7 billion yen 9. Howl's Moving Castle: 19.6 billion yen 10. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba–The Movie: Infinity Castle: 17.64 billion yen Not only are there no longer any Japanese live-action movies in the top 10, there are only three in to the top 50: Bayside Shakedown 2 at number 11, 1983's Antarctica at number 38, and the original Bayside Shakedown movie, from 1998, at number 47. Filtering out the non-Japanese films in the top 50 leaves 21 Japanese productions, with anime occupying all of the top 7 spots and 17 of the top 19, with the first Bayside Shakedown bringing up the rear. ▼ It's also worth noting that though Antarctica (titled Nankyoku Monogatari in Japanese) is live-action, in the eyes of many Japanese fans it's the dogs that are the real stars of the picture, not the humans. The lack of domestically made live-action works amongst the top 10 highest-grossing movies in Japan isn't necessarily a sign that Japan has no interest in the format, so much as a reflection of market and societal conditions that make it difficult for Japan to produce live-action blockbusters or epics. In the modern era, Japanese moviegoers have never had any widespread aversion to foreign films, and the difference in market sizes mean that Japan's live-action movie industry generally can't compete with Hollywood studios in terms of budgets and production values in crafting fantasy realms or sci-fi worlds for live-action movies. As for grounded movies set in the present day, Japan's low crime levels and generally peaceful, stable day-to-day life don't lend themselves to thrilling action and suspense. Pumping out big-screen spectacles, the sorts of movies that pull in record-setting-size crowds, is a tall order for Japanese live-action studios, and so creators and producers looking to make blockbusters generally turn to the anime format instead. In contrast, live-action studios more commonly focus on lower-key character-driven stories, which often bring in more modestly sized audiences. It's also interesting to note that of the top 10 highest earners at Japanese theaters, nine of them are fantasy movies, with Titanic the only outlier. Meanwhile, the top 10 list for theaters in the U.S. and Canada is dominated by the science-fiction genre (assuming we include superhero movies in the category), with four Marvel movies, two from the Avatar franchise, one each from Star Wars and Jurassic Park , and the list rounded out by Top Gun: Maverick and Titanic , the latter being the only movie on both the Japan and U.S./Canada lists. ▼ Making the iceberg one of the most hated movie villains of all time It remains to be seen if Infinity Castle will have the legs to pass Mugen Train , but it's already selling tickets as a faster pace than the previous Demon Slayer did, and with its seat-jacking promotion helping it along, it just might end up becoming Japan's biggest movie ever. Source: Oricon News via Livedoor News via Jin Top image: YouTube/アニプレックス チャンネル Insert image: Pakutaso ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
Metropolis Japan
2 days ago
- Metropolis Japan
Elio
By Don Morton Little sign of intelligent life The title newly orphaned space-fanatic kid hopes and prays for aliens to abduct him so he can escape his sad, Earthbound life. They do. (Not a spoiler because it's the movie's whole schtick.) He goes off to meet a lot of cute, colorful aliens and gets involved in their politics. Or something. This is reportedly Pixar's biggest box office bomb, so I went to see why. It's nothing if not frenetic, with myriad characters and thin, convoluted plot lines appearing and vanishing at warp speed. It will lose little kids, maybe even frighten them. It never quite clicks and fails to stick the landing. The best Pixar films make blending humor, wonder and spectacle seem effortless. This one offers plenty of light, sound and motion, but it's trying too hard, and nothing really resonates. Don't be expecting Toy Story or Finding Nemo. The Disney subsidiary certainly knows how to put the dazzle on the screen, but there's little narrative coherence to back up all the visual inventiveness. And when it tries to leaven the action excess with emotion and empathy, it shamelessly slides into button- pushing territory. Great score, though; loved the Talking Heads needle drop.
SoraNews24
2 days ago
- SoraNews24
Giant Disney characters appear in the night sky of Japan's Tochigi Prefecture【Photos】
Disney's Magic in the Air show partners with Ashikaga summer fireworks festival. Every year the town of Ashikaga in Tochigi Prefecture holds a fireworks festival. It's one of the biggest events of the summer in the region, with total crowds estimated at roughly 500,000 people, but it just so happens that our Japanese-language reporter Masanuki Sunakoma has a buddy who lives in Ashikaga and has a view of the fireworks from his apartment balcony. Accepting his friend's invitation, Masanuki made his way up to Ashikaga on August 2. He wasn't the only houseguest that day, as his friend also had friends visiting from the U.S., a married couple and their son. As the adults sat around the dinner table chatting while the sun went down and they waited for the fireworks to start, the kid stepped out onto the balcony, and after a while Masanuki heard him shout, 'Wow, it's Mickey Mouse!' Japanese fireworks festivals do sometimes have fireworks shaped like popular children's characters, but this wasn't any momentary Mickey-shaped flash of light. Stepping out onto the balcony to see for himself, Masanuki was greeted by… …an absolutely gigantic Mickey Mouse, floating in the night sky! That's because this year's Ashikaga Fireworks Festival festivities included Magic in the Air, a Disney-themed drone show. This wasn't a little fan art sideshow either, as it was organized and implemented by Oriental Land, the company that operates Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea. Oriental Land doesn't do anything by halves when it comes to spectacle and pageantry, and for Magic in the Air their digital artists have a fleet of 15,000 drones to work with. Mickey, obviously, was the first character for them to form, but before long the drones reconfigured themselves into The Little Mermaid's Ariel and Flounder… …Toy Story's Little Green Men aliens… …and a number of other Disney characters from works such as Frozen, Tangled, and Peter Pan. Masanuki had heard ahead of time that there was going to be some sort of Disney drone display as part of the festival, but he'd assumed it was going to be some tiny-scale thing that you'd have to be sitting near where the fireworks were being launched from in order to see. He hadn't expected the characters to be so huge and easily visible from this far away. Because of that, he didn't have his camera ready to go when the Disney stars started to shine in the night sky, and he only managed to snap off a few good photos. However, that doesn't mean he, or you, missed the last chance to capture some great shots of Magic in the Air, thuogh, because the Disney drone show has two more performances planned this summer, with the next one scheduled for the Kumagaya Fireworks Festival in Saitama Prefecture on August 9, and the final one at the Akagawa Fireworks Festival in Shizuoka City on August 16. Just make sure you've got your camera ready, since Japan's drone shows really can be amazing. Related: Magic in the Air schedule Photos ©SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! [ Read in Japanese ]
