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NEWS: 2019 Doraemon Film Opens at #1 at Japanese Box Office




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Madzack



Joined: 30 Oct 2013
Posts: 36
PostPosted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 7:15 pm Reply with quote
There's so much to unpack here such:

Why isn't Alita doing well in Japan compared to other Asian countries?

Is it the same Pacific Rim situation where supposedly what we assume is popular in Japan isn't really otherwise?
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OjaruFan2



Joined: 09 Jul 2018
Posts: 659
PostPosted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 7:32 pm Reply with quote
Congrats to Doraemon! Smile

Madzack wrote:
Why isn't Alita doing well in Japan compared to other Asian countries?

It could be for a variety of reasons. Maybe the overall publicity for the movie isn’t as big over there.
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Mojojotaro



Joined: 17 Mar 2017
Posts: 12
PostPosted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 7:44 pm Reply with quote
Madzack wrote:
There's so much to unpack here such:

Why isn't Alita doing well in Japan compared to other Asian countries?

Is it the same Pacific Rim situation where supposedly what we assume is popular in Japan isn't really otherwise?



Westernized Japanese media are generally ignored in Japan. However, foreign movies and animations with non-domestic origin are generally more popular than their own product. There are some outliers last year like Code Blue , Conan and Doreamon, but overall Japan loves foreign films.
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Đại Nguyễn Đăng



Joined: 04 Mar 2019
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 8:00 pm Reply with quote
Doraemon franchise's 39th film, sold 645,000 tickets for 157 million yen.
757 million not 157
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Amethyst Alchemist
Former ANN Editor


Joined: 02 Jan 2007
Posts: 312
Location: where it's always a good morning
PostPosted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 8:15 pm Reply with quote
Đại Nguyễn Đăng wrote:
Doraemon franchise's 39th film, sold 645,000 tickets for 157 million yen.
757 million not 157


The typo has been fixed. Thanks!
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shabu shabu



Joined: 25 Jan 2019
Posts: 79
Location: Tokyo
PostPosted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 8:35 pm Reply with quote
Madzack wrote:
Why isn't Alita doing well in Japan compared to other Asian countries?

Is it the same Pacific Rim situation where supposedly what we assume is popular in Japan isn't really otherwise?


Japanese audiences have never cared for Americanized versions of manga or anime properties. These types of films always do poorly here. Simply put, they're unwelcome here. We'd rather read the manga, or watch the anime. Hollywood always misconstrues these works and downplays their Japanese culture and heritage.
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CastMember1991



Joined: 06 Feb 2012
Posts: 857
PostPosted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 8:46 pm Reply with quote
shabu shabu wrote:
Madzack wrote:
Why isn't Alita doing well in Japan compared to other Asian countries?

Is it the same Pacific Rim situation where supposedly what we assume is popular in Japan isn't really otherwise?


Japanese audiences have never cared for Americanized versions of manga or anime properties. These types of films always do poorly here. Simply put, they're unwelcome here. We'd rather read the manga, or watch the anime. Hollywood always misconstrues these works and downplays their Japanese culture and heritage.


Hopefully, Detective Pikachu is one of the few exceptions. It has so much potential.
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Changeman



Joined: 06 Jun 2018
Posts: 220
PostPosted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 9:18 pm Reply with quote
Mojojotaro wrote:
Madzack wrote:
There's so much to unpack here such:

Why isn't Alita doing well in Japan compared to other Asian countries?

Is it the same Pacific Rim situation where supposedly what we assume is popular in Japan isn't really otherwise?



Westernized Japanese media are generally ignored in Japan. However, foreign movies and animations with non-domestic origin are generally more popular than their own product. There are some outliers last year like Code Blue , Conan and Doreamon, but overall Japan loves foreign films.


I would say that they are equally popular, you will always have Japanese movies or anime among the 10 biggest box offices there along with foreign films. Last year as you yourself said, no american animation surpassed doraemon, much less came close to Conan, hell, even Infinite War lost to Conan. Among the films released this year, Masquerete Hotel is the most popular in Japan. I believe that in general this is the case in Asian countries, China and South Korea also value their films a lot.
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Jose Cruz



Joined: 20 Nov 2012
Posts: 1767
Location: South America
PostPosted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 9:26 pm Reply with quote
shabu shabu wrote:
Madzack wrote:
Why isn't Alita doing well in Japan compared to other Asian countries?

Is it the same Pacific Rim situation where supposedly what we assume is popular in Japan isn't really otherwise?


Japanese audiences have never cared for Americanized versions of manga or anime properties. These types of films always do poorly here. Simply put, they're unwelcome here. We'd rather read the manga, or watch the anime. Hollywood always misconstrues these works and downplays their Japanese culture and heritage.


Thing is that Alita is the first time ever that Hollywood did a good job in adapting a manga. I would say it felt like watching a 200 million dollars OVA done in live action rather than a "Hollywood adaptation".

Also, we must wait for the Japanese box office data to come out over the next months to check how popular it will fare. Usually the Japanese film market tends to be very different from other countries in that big successes in Japan are movies that gross 20-30 times the value of their opening weekend. Alita's opening weekend suggests that the movie might fare much better in Japan than in North America by we must wait a long time to see how much it will eventually gross.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4785
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 12:15 am Reply with quote
I don't know how popular Alita is in Japan but I wonder if it's the case that the Alita manga might simply be more popular in the US than it is in Japan. Before the movie came out, it always felt like Alita was more of a niche title compared to other big name sci-fi classics like Ghost in the Shell and Akira.
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