By Mark Schilling
The Incredibles was supposed to be the big film of Japan's holiday season -- certainly for distributor Buena Vista. It's previous Pixar release, Finding Nemo, had grossed Y11.0 billion ($108 million) at the Japanese box office -- far outdistancing Toy Story 2's Y3.45 billion ($33.8 million). It seemed likely The Incredibles would do as well or better.
Then, in response to production delays, Toho moved the release of its big film for 2004, Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle, from July -- the usual slot for Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli films -- to November 20. The Incredibles now had some incredibly tough competition.
Both are out of the ordinary for their respective studios -- Howl's is Miyazaki's first attempt at romantic drama (though his teenage heroine spends most of the film in the body of a ninety-year-old woman), while The Incredibles is Pixar's first film whose central characters are all human.
Miyazaki has won his gamble spectacularly: Just 16 days after its opening Howl's passed the 5 million admission mark -- a record it shares only with Miyazaki's Spirited Away and the first two Harry Potter films -- and is on track to equal or surpass Spirited Away's all-time Japanese box office record of Y30.4 billion ($298 million). At the same time, it could become the first non-Hollywood film to gross more than $300 million in its home market.
Meanwhile, The Incredibles got off to a strong enough start, earning Y749 million ($7.3 million) on 689 screens on its opening weekend. This compares with Y1.12 billion ($10.9 million) on 900,447 admissions for Finding Nemo and Y1.48 billion ($14.5 million) on 1.1 million admissions for Howl's -- the latter an opening weekend record for a Japanese film. "We're hoping The Incredibles will reach Y10 billion ($98 million), said a publicist, with the emphasis on "hoping."
Miyazaki's monster hit is standing in the way of that goal, however. Also, admits the publicist, the Japanese audience is not finding The Incredibles' human family quite as appealing as Finding Nemo's aquatic menagerie. "Those fish were so cute," she opined.
Another problem: the film's superhero references aren't as familar to Japanese as they are to Americans. "We have superheroes in Japan, but the style is different," the publicist explained.
Meanwhile, Miyazaki, who has given no press interviews for Howl's, is lapping the field. "Miyazaki," said the publicist, "is a very big brand in Japan."
----- Original Message -----
From: Patrick Frater
To: mark schilling ; Mark Schilling ; mark schilling ; Liz Shackleton ; Silvia Wong ; Sandy George 2 ; Darcy Paquet
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 11:08 PM
Subject: Gentle reminder about BO copy tomorrow
