Total box office revenue in Japan, the world’s third largest theatrical film market, grew 13 percent to $1.42 billion in 2021, according to a report released this week by the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan. But comparing last year’s sales to 2019, when total revenue was 38 percent higher at $2.29 billion, shows just how far Japan’s cinema sector has to go to fully recover from the pandemic.
Hollywood fare especially struggled in 2021, as imported movies took just 21 percent of the market, down from a healthy 45.6 percent in 2019 and 24 percent in 2020.
Japanese titles comprised nine of the ten biggest movies of the year in the country, with only Universal’s F9: The Fast Saga squeaking in at ninth place with $32 million. Further down the charts, MGM’s James Bond installment No Time To Die was Hollywood’s second-biggest release of the year with $23.8 million, followed by Legendary and Warner Bros.’ Godzilla Vs. Kong at $16.6 million.
Back in the pre-COVID days of 2019, Disney was dominant in Japan, as Frozen 2 earned $117 million, Aladdin pulled in $111 million and Toy Story 4 took $92.5 million.
In 2021, the top three biggest releases were all Japanese anime titles, led by Hideaki Anno’s high-concept sci-fi animated hit Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time at $90 million and followed by Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet at $67.2 million and Bell with $58 million. The top live-action film of the year was a boyband concert film, Arashi Anniversary Tour 5×20 FILM “Record of Memories,” earning $40 million.
Altogether, 959 films were released in Japan in 2021, down from 1,017 in 2020 and 1,278 in 2019. Some 490 releases were local Japanese titles and 469 were imported films. Despite the continued pandemic hardships felt by the industry, the total number of movie screens in Japan actually climbed slightly over the past year to to 3,648 from 3,616 in 2020.
Source: Hollywood
