"Letters from Iwo Jima" weekend result

As I reported yesterday, Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" started at the top of box office last weekend, and the actual result is on Eiga.com.

Through Saturday and Sunday, attendance number was 373,000, and gross was 493 mil. yen.  The result is 86% of "The Last Samurai" (2003, final gross 13.7 bil. yen) and 263% of "Flags of our Fathers".  The number is the best so far among the holiday movies this season, according to Eiga.com.

Warner Brothers' Japanese market strategy seems to be working here - both "The Last Samurai" and "Letters" not only take up a Japan theme, but also is considered to be paying respect to Japan-side point of view, therefore are strongly supported by Japanese moviegoers (compare them with "Memoirs of a Geisha", for example).   Another example "DEATH NOTE" series is the first successful case of a Hollywood studio directly produces a Japanese movie (in partnership with NTV) for the local market.

Source:  Eiga.com