Animation and ‘Godzilla’ movie lifts box office receipts in Japan in 2023 – The Hollywood Reporter
“Godzilla minus one”
Toho
Box office receipts in Japan rose 4 percent to reach a post-pandemic high of $1.5 billion (221.5 billion yen) in 2023, driven again by a strong slate of anime films and a steady return to theaters. Hollywood films maintained the same market share of about 31 percent as the previous year, although a very weak yen led to lower profits in dollar terms.
The Japanese currency’s decline toward the 150 level to the dollar means that when converted, annual box office has fallen from $1.64 billion last year despite yen revenues rising from 213 billion yen. Imported fare (676 films) received a total of $452 million, compared to $995 million for 555 local productions.
The figures were announced in Tokyo on Tuesday by the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, which is referred to locally as Eiren.
Topped the 2023 box office rankings First slam dunka Toei-produced anime based on the $107 million hit basketball manga, followed Super Mario Bros movie ($95 million), and the newest anime series in the world Detective Conan Series ($94 million). These three titles were the only ones to surpass the large domestic benchmark of 10 billion yen ($68 million) in 2023, although total takings were second only to the all-time high of $1.77 billion ($261 billion) in 2019.
Hayao Miyazaki The boy and the heron It came in fourth place with $58 million. Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 With $37 million it was the only other Hollywood film to reach the top ten.
The total number of admissions rose 2% to 155.5 million, with the number of screens rising slightly to 3,653.
Unexpected success for Godzilla minus one Its presence in the US market was a hot topic at the announcement event, raising multiple questions from local media.
Hiroyasu Matsuoka, CEO of Toho, the studio behind Japan’s most famous monster, said the film helped the group achieve theatrical profits of 100 billion yen ($680 million) for the first time. Toho also distributes Studio Ghibli films and… Conan series.
“Godzilla minus one It earned more than $55 million in the United States. It recently became the third highest-grossing non-English language film in the US market, surpassing the Oscar-winning film parasite “And we set multiple records such as the biggest opening weekend for a foreign film,” Matsuoka said. “This has given us great confidence in the potential of our films and our intellectual property.”
When asked about the reasons for its success, he added: “Honestly, we didn’t really think it would be such a big hit. In addition to the high levels of name recognition Godzilla had, it benefited from less competition upon release due to the strike in Hollywood.
“The emergence of live streaming platforms has helped make global audiences more receptive to reading subtitles and watching non-English content,” Matsuoka suggested.
Fumio Yoshimura, CEO of TOEI, also spoke about the power of anime and his company’s plans to target further expansion in the global market by leveraging intellectual property such as power Rangers And samurai movies.
