2006 Box office top 10 in Japan

Eiga.com reports the top 10 box office films in Japan in 2006.  Animation films are italicized, and for Japanese movies, production studio and TV company combinations are added in <>.  It has been said that J-movies will take over the majority share over foreign movies for the first time since 1983, but according to this article, it is still to see depending on the result of "Letters from Iwo Jima" and "Oh-Oku".  "Hoga boom" is due to the fact that there were not enough hits among foreign movies, and the total market stays the same.

Foreign movies:

1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (11.0 bil. yen)
2. Pirates of Caribbean Dead Man's Chest  (10.01 bil. yen)
3. Da Vinci Code  (8.9 bil. yen)
4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe  (6.86 bil. yen)
5. M:i:III  (5.2 bil. yen)
6. Mr. and Mrs. Smith  (4.7 bil. yen)
7. Flight Plan  (3.12 bil. yen)
8. Chicken Little  (2.68 bil. yen)
9. World Trade Center  (2.4 bil. yen)
10. King Kong  (2.35 bil. yen)

Japanese movies:

1. Tales from Earthsea  (7.65 bil. yen)  <Toho + NTV>
2. Umizaru 2 - Test of Trust  (7.1 bil. yen)  <Toho + FujiTV>
3. Suite Dreams  (6.08 bil. yen)  <Toho + FujiTV>
4. DEATH NOTE  the Last name  (5.5 bil. yen)  <Warner + NTV>
5. Sinking of Japan  (5.34 bil. yen)  <Toho + TBS>
6. YAMATO  (5.09 bil. yen)  <Toei + TV Asahi>
7. Pocket Monster  (3.4 bil. yen)  <Toho + TV Tokyo>
8. Doraemon  (3.28 bil. yen)  <Toho + TV Asahi>
9. Nada Soso  (3.06 bil. yen)  <Toho + TBS>
10. Meitantei Konan  (3.03 bil. yen)  <Toho + NTV>

I was surprised that there is only one foreign animation ("Chicken Little") in the top 10 - neither "Cars" nor "Over the Hedge".  Japanese kids seem to prefer long-seller, traditional Japanese animation series such as Pokemon, Doraemon and Konan, to over-supply of CG-heavy Hollywood animal tales. 

In comparison to last year's top 10 hogas, the top is lower ("Howl's Moving Castle" 19.6 bil. vs. "Tales from Earthsea" 7.65 bil.), but there are more 3-7 bil. films this year.  Last year, "Howl" was the only one over 5 billion yen, while this year, there are 6 of them.

So, all in all, 2006 was an excellent year for J-movies, but how about 2007?  This article lists the following films as big budget hoga hopefuls;  "Blue Wolf", "Saiyuki" (TV drama remake), "Sanjuro" remake, "HERO" (TV drama remake), "Always - Sunset on Third Street" sequel, and maybe "Tokyo Tower - Mom, Me and Sometimes Dad" (TV drama remake).  Hmmm... Looking at what happened in the holiday hogas, I am a bit concerned, because most of them (except for "Blue Wolf") are remakes and TV continuations, just as this winter's flops.  This formula was successful until this past summer, but I guess we need a healthy mix of new ones and low-risk series films. 

Among the ones that are coming up soon, there are some new ones that are interesting.  Manga-based fantasy "DORORO" (Jan. 27) and controversially erotic love-story "Penal Colony of Love" (Jan. 13) are expected to be mass-oriented money makers, while Masayuki Suo's social issue drama "I Still Din't Do It" (Jan. 20) is an interesting wild card to see how moviegoers react to such a serious film.  Let's see how all these will pan out.

Source:  Eiga.com via MSN