The Greatest Japanese Box Office Story Ever Told

In the final installment of my box office trilogy following "What Will 2007 Bring?" (Jan. 22) and "Of Box Office and Blind Men" (Dec. 6, '05), it's now official -- 2006 was the most successful year in Japanese film history. The Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (Eiren) (Shadan-hôjin Nihon Eiga Seisakusha Renmei, 社団法人製作者連盟) released their annual report this evening. Here are some of the key facts:

In 2006 Japanese films earned $884.48m (Y107.75b)*, a 31.8% increase over 2005, and by far the most successful year in the industry’s history.

Japanese films grabbed a 53.2% share of the market, a huge 11.9% increase over 2005’s 41.3%. It marks first time since 1985 that local films have gained the majority share.

Overall box office reached $1.66b (Y202.55b), a 2.2% increase over 2005, ranking as the third best year ever. Total admissions were 164.3 million, versus 2005’s 160.5 million. It did crack 200 billion after all.

417 Japanese films were released theatrically, versus 404 combined foreign titles, marking the highest number of local releases since 1971, and the first time since 1987 that homegrown films have represented the majority.

Even factoring in the increase in titles, local films earned an average of $2.12m (Y258.4m), second only to 2001's results. Plus, the success was shared among many more titles than years with gargantuan Ghibli releases (Ghibli still had the top local film in 2006 with Tales From Earthsea).

After writing about box office for a year professionally and sometimes on here, I'm glad to see most of the early analysis panned out. The good fortune is continuing with the first big hit of 2007, Dororo (see Hoga Central's report), which everyone now knows has been picked up by over 20 countries, including Hollywood's Universal Pictures. Imports will have to try harder in 2007 to balance things out and raise the condition of the entire industry.

If you happen to subscribe to Screen Daily, you can read my full article from earlier today here. A much longer overview will run online as well.

It was fun being here to witness such a hot year, but this will pretty much be the last I write about box office on the blog until the end of 2007. This year will be much more about...content.

* $1 = Y121.8