Japan Goes Homegrown
By: Schilling, Mark, Variety, 00422738, 7/31/2006, Vol. 403, Issue 10
Once trundling toward oblivion, the Japanese movie biz has roared back in the past two years, making more pics, scoring more hits and taking more market share away from Hollywood. Is it a bubble about to pop -- or a tidal shift in audience taste, spelling the end of Hollywood's dominance in its biggest international market? More than a few industry observers think it's the latter, and they have the numbers to prove it.
After hitting a postwar low of 230 releases in 1991, the Japanese industry slowly upped production during the next decade. In 2004, the number of titles jumped to 310; in 2005 it hit 356 -- the highest since 1976. Meanwhile, more films were soaring beyond the ¥1 billion ($8.7 million) mark -- 26 in 2005 compared with 20 in 2004.
Also, last year the market share for domestic pics climbed to 41.3%, the highest since 1997, when Hayao Miyazaki's monster hit "Princess Mononoke" boosted the total.
And the hits keep on coming. Starting with "Yamato," a WWII epic that has earned $43 million since its mid-December release, 2006 looks to be the local industry's best year in decades. Of the top 10 B.O. hits released in the January-May period, six are Japanese. Heading the list is sea actioner "Umizaru 2: Test of Trust," which is expected to finish its run with $78 million.
Toho, which distributed all seven of the pics, earned $265 million in this period, vs. $221 million for the five foreign majors -- Buena Vista, Sony, Warner, Fox and UIP -- combined.
Why the upsurge? Faced with a permanent downturn in their core business as viewers migrate from the tube to the Internet, TV webs are seeking alternative revenue streams, beginning with feature films.
"A lot of the hits are from the networks," says film critic and journalist Hiroo Otaka. "They know how to make films audiences want to see, and they're good at publicizing them. They're the big reason Japanese films are doing so well now."
The leader is Fuji TV, whose "Bayside Shakedown" franchise -- four comic actioners about Tokyo cops -- has grossed north of $300 million. Under the direction of uber-producer Chihiro Kameyama, Fuji has crafted hits that are audience- rather than auteur-oriented, made by many of the same young directors and directors who worked on the web's ratings winners.
The other webs also are pumping out hit pics this year, including TV Asahi's comic mystery "Trick 2," TBS' musical drama "Memories of Matsuko" and NTV's two-part horror pic "Death Note."
Together with Fuji TV, they blatantly flog their films on their own airwaves in ways that might raise eyebrows in the U.S. -- but that get the word out effectively to their enormous audience. (The four major Japanese webs face relatively little competish for eyeballs and ad revenue from cable and satellite TV.)
The young core audience, especially the women in their teens to 30s who drive so many trends, are not only being pulled into the theaters by the webs' promotion, but pushed by deeper changes in pop culture tastes. "Four or five years ago Japanese pop music became very popular with young people, far outselling Western pop," explains NTV producer Yasuhiro Mase. "I've been seeing the same thing happen with films over the past couple years -- Japanese films are becoming more popular than Hollywood's."
Language, Mase believes, is a main driver of this shift. "(Music fans) are paying more attention to lyrics," he notes. "For example, Western rap music used to be popular, but now Japanese rap has completely taken over because listeners can understand the words. … In the same way, audiences are more easily moved by Japanese films, because they can understand them directly -- they don't have to read subtitles to get the message."
Also, more Japanese films, such as the 2004 megahit weepy "Crying Our Love in the Center of the World," are successfully grabbing auds by the heartstrings. "Hollywood makes the same kinds of CG-driven films again and again, and audiences are getting tired of them," says critic Otaka.
"What they want are dramas and love stories with a big emotional impact, but Hollywood doesn't make them anymore. The Japanese film industry does."
Finally, the multiplex building boom, which has brought the number of screens from a low of 1,734 in 1993 to nearly 3,000 this year, has proven a boon for the local biz. Japanese films that might once have opened in a handful of major-city theaters now are being released on 200 or more screens, many in small cities and suburbs.
Fans who once rarely made the long commute to a downtown theater now pop over to the local plex -- and buy tickets for Japanese pics. Though they're only occasional moviegoers, they know the stars from popular TV dramas, the pics themselves from all the TV ads and promo shows -- and they're in a familiar language, to boot.
JAPANESE TOP 10
2006 B.O. winners (through July 23)
Legend for Chart:
A - Pic
B - Japan B.O.(*)
A B
1 The Da Vinci Code 76
2 Umizaru 2: Test of Trust(†) 61
3 The Chronicles of Narnia 61
4 Hotel Avanti(†) 52
5 Mission: Impossible III 30
6 Flightplan 28
7 Doraemon(†) 28
8 Detective Conan(†) 26
9 Death Note Part 1(†) 22
10 Trick 2(†) 18
(*) in millions $
(†) local title
Once trundling toward oblivion, the Japanese movie biz has roared back in the past two years, making more pics, scoring more hits and taking more market share away from Hollywood. Is it a bubble about to pop -- or a tidal shift in audience taste, spelling the end of Hollywood's dominance in its biggest international market? More than a few industry observers think it's the latter, and they have the numbers to prove it.
After hitting a postwar low of 230 releases in 1991, the Japanese industry slowly upped production during the next decade. In 2004, the number of titles jumped to 310; in 2005 it hit 356 -- the highest since 1976. Meanwhile, more films were soaring beyond the ¥1 billion ($8.7 million) mark -- 26 in 2005 compared with 20 in 2004.
Also, last year the market share for domestic pics climbed to 41.3%, the highest since 1997, when Hayao Miyazaki's monster hit "Princess Mononoke" boosted the total.
And the hits keep on coming. Starting with "Yamato," a WWII epic that has earned $43 million since its mid-December release, 2006 looks to be the local industry's best year in decades. Of the top 10 B.O. hits released in the January-May period, six are Japanese. Heading the list is sea actioner "Umizaru 2: Test of Trust," which is expected to finish its run with $78 million.
Toho, which distributed all seven of the pics, earned $265 million in this period, vs. $221 million for the five foreign majors -- Buena Vista, Sony, Warner, Fox and UIP -- combined.
Why the upsurge? Faced with a permanent downturn in their core business as viewers migrate from the tube to the Internet, TV webs are seeking alternative revenue streams, beginning with feature films.
"A lot of the hits are from the networks," says film critic and journalist Hiroo Otaka. "They know how to make films audiences want to see, and they're good at publicizing them. They're the big reason Japanese films are doing so well now."
The leader is Fuji TV, whose "Bayside Shakedown" franchise -- four comic actioners about Tokyo cops -- has grossed north of $300 million. Under the direction of uber-producer Chihiro Kameyama, Fuji has crafted hits that are audience- rather than auteur-oriented, made by many of the same young directors and directors who worked on the web's ratings winners.
The other webs also are pumping out hit pics this year, including TV Asahi's comic mystery "Trick 2," TBS' musical drama "Memories of Matsuko" and NTV's two-part horror pic "Death Note."
Together with Fuji TV, they blatantly flog their films on their own airwaves in ways that might raise eyebrows in the U.S. -- but that get the word out effectively to their enormous audience. (The four major Japanese webs face relatively little competish for eyeballs and ad revenue from cable and satellite TV.)
The young core audience, especially the women in their teens to 30s who drive so many trends, are not only being pulled into the theaters by the webs' promotion, but pushed by deeper changes in pop culture tastes. "Four or five years ago Japanese pop music became very popular with young people, far outselling Western pop," explains NTV producer Yasuhiro Mase. "I've been seeing the same thing happen with films over the past couple years -- Japanese films are becoming more popular than Hollywood's."
Language, Mase believes, is a main driver of this shift. "(Music fans) are paying more attention to lyrics," he notes. "For example, Western rap music used to be popular, but now Japanese rap has completely taken over because listeners can understand the words. … In the same way, audiences are more easily moved by Japanese films, because they can understand them directly -- they don't have to read subtitles to get the message."
Also, more Japanese films, such as the 2004 megahit weepy "Crying Our Love in the Center of the World," are successfully grabbing auds by the heartstrings. "Hollywood makes the same kinds of CG-driven films again and again, and audiences are getting tired of them," says critic Otaka.
"What they want are dramas and love stories with a big emotional impact, but Hollywood doesn't make them anymore. The Japanese film industry does."
Finally, the multiplex building boom, which has brought the number of screens from a low of 1,734 in 1993 to nearly 3,000 this year, has proven a boon for the local biz. Japanese films that might once have opened in a handful of major-city theaters now are being released on 200 or more screens, many in small cities and suburbs.
Fans who once rarely made the long commute to a downtown theater now pop over to the local plex -- and buy tickets for Japanese pics. Though they're only occasional moviegoers, they know the stars from popular TV dramas, the pics themselves from all the TV ads and promo shows -- and they're in a familiar language, to boot.
JAPANESE TOP 10
2006 B.O. winners (through July 23)
Legend for Chart:
A - Pic
B - Japan B.O.(*)
A B
1 The Da Vinci Code 76
2 Umizaru 2: Test of Trust(†) 61
3 The Chronicles of Narnia 61
4 Hotel Avanti(†) 52
5 Mission: Impossible III 30
6 Flightplan 28
7 Doraemon(†) 28
8 Detective Conan(†) 26
9 Death Note Part 1(†) 22
10 Trick 2(†) 18
(*) in millions $
(†) local title
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