Anime Spirited opening for Japanese animation on Korea

Spirited opening for Japanese animation on Korea

Robert Mitchell in London 05 July 2002



Hayao Miyazaki's record-breaking Japanese animated hit, , received astrong reception in South Korea and its capital city of Seoul at theweekend which could see it becoming one of the biggest Japanese successesever in the country.

The film had to settle for second place in the Seoul chart behind fellowopener, local title Champion - which showed greater strength in SouthKorea as a whole ($4.2m) than in the capital. However Spirited Away,distributed by BVI, sold 75% of its available seats in Seoul grossing$752,000 from 35 screens and a mighty screen average of $20,500. Thiscompares to Champion's 54% of seats sold at 60 screens in the capitalwhere it grossed $1.3m for an average of $15,720.

This performance puts Spirited Away in with a decent chance of breakingthe record set by Love Letter in 1999, which remains the most successfulJapanese release in Seoul to date (see chart below). The opening weekendadmissions (134,849) alone for Spirited Away out-performed the totaladmissions of 2001's best-selling Japanese film in Seoul - My NeighbourTotoro (123,100 admissions).

In South Korea Spirited Away grossed $1.5m in four days from 270,196admissions. This puts it well ahead of Disney's Monsters, Inc. whichopened in December 2001 to the tune of $707,000 (135,982 admissions). Incomparison to Miyazaki's film Monsters, Inc. sold 62% of its availableseats in Seoul on opening weekend and claimed $403,000 from 77,532admissions at 33 screens - an average of $9,700.

Of course as a fantasy title Spirited Away, as well as all the filmscurrently on release in South Korea, could be heavily impacted by nextweek's release of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones.

Spirited Away is now the fifth highest grossing animated filminternationally having surpassed Toy Story 2's $240m. The four positionsahead of it are filled by Disney titles: The Lion King ($459m), Aladdin($285m), Monsters, Inc. ($267m) and Tarzan ($264m). It also stands atnumber 17 in the top 20 worldwide animated chart despite having yet toopen in the US where the 16 titles ahead of it all performed well.Spirited Away takes its North American bow on Sept 20.

The Japanese animated fantasy owes this success to a phenomenal run in itshomeland of Japan last year when it grossed over $230m (Y30bn), althoughit has also seen 1,227,357 admissions after 12 weeks in France (equivalentto $6.4m) where it is distributed by Gaumont Buena Vista International,and $3.3m in Hong Kong for Intercontinental Films. It launches in Spain inAugust.

TOP TEN JAPANESE FILMS IN SEOUL

Title (Release date) Total Seoul Admissions1 Love Letter (Nov 11, 1999) 645,6152 Bayside Shakedown (July 22, 2000) 300,7673 Shall We Dance? (May 13, 2000) 300,1694 Samurai Fiction (Feb 19, 2000) 224,2565 Poppoya: Railroad Man (Feb 4, 2000) 219,3276 Pokemon 2000 (Dec 23, 2000) 185,2927 April Story (Apr 8, 2000) 161,4238 Empire Of The Senses (Apr 1, 2000) 141,1159 Spirited Away (June 28, 2002) 134,849*10 Ring 2 (July 29, 2000) 128,521

* Figures for four days on release only.Source: KOFIC