Japan Box Office Recovers in 2022, Anime Strong, Hollywood Recovers – The Hollywood Reporter
Japan’s box office receipts in 2022 jumped 32% to $1.64 billion (213 billion yen) year-over-year, with views rising to 152 million, thanks to anime and Hollywood’s recovery in market share .
The revenue is still far below the pre-pandemic 2019 box office receipts of 261 billion yen ($2 billion at current exchange rates), an all-time record high, according to figures released by the Association of Filmmakers. Film Production Japan (MPPAJ) announced.
Hollywood movies accounted for 31.2% of the box office last year, led by Top Gun: Maverick with $104 million, the only live-action film to hit the $77 million mark (10 billion yen), which is the standard of a blockbuster hit in Japan. Although the share of imported films has increased by about half year-on-year, it is also much lower than the 45.6% rate recorded in 2019.
Movie One Piece: Red Toei’s was the box office king with $151 million (19.7 billion yen), with three other anime making the top five. Dominate the Jurassic World (48 million USD), Magical Creatures: Dumbledore’s Secret ($35 million) and Henchmen: The Rise of Gru ($34 million) are other imports that made the top 10.
A total of 1,402 films will be released in 2022, up from 1,143, with foreign films increasing from 469 to 509.
The number of monitors dropped very slightly to 3,634, the first drop in a decade. Average ticket prices all fell slightly to $10.75 (1,402 yen) as theaters slashed prices further to entice returning audiences.
Yoshishige Shimatani, director of Toho Cinemas and now head of MPPAJ, noted that anime once again accounted for more than 50% of Toho’s box office revenue.
Looking ahead for Japan’s biggest studio and distributor, Shimatami said, “This year’s keywords are Ghibli and Godzilla,” noting that Hayao Miyazaki’s last anime was How. Do you live? coming out this year, along with a new locale monster Features, Legend Godzilla vs Kong 2 and Apple TV Godzilla and the Titans series.
