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Four Anime Among Top-10 Japanese Movies
posted on by Mikhail Koulikov
Four anime features (and one live-action adaptation of a manga) were among the top 10 in the Japanese Motion Picture's Society's list of the top grossing Japanese-language films released in 2006. Studio Ghibli's Tales from Earthsea was the number one Japanese-language motion picture, fourth in the overall Japanese box office ranking.
According to figures released by the Japanese Motion Picture Society, Tales from Earthsea was the most popular Japanese film of 2006, with a box-office gross of 7.65 billion yen (~US$65 million).
Other anime that reached the top ten were Detective Conan: The Private Eyes' Requiem (at number 10: 3.03 billion yen/$26 million), Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur (3.28 billion yen/US$28 million, at NUMBER 8), and Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea (3.40 billion/US$29 million, number 7). The second live-action Death Note movie placed fifth, at 5.20 billion yen/US$44 million.
Although it led the Japanese films, Tales from Earthsea was not the top grossing movie at the Japanese box office. Overall, Earthsea was 2006's fourth most popular film, behind three foreign movies; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and The Da Vinci Code.
For comparison, in 2005, the top-ranking movie overall was Howl's Moving Castle, at 19.6 billion yen. The next film on the list, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, grossed 11.5 billion (US$98 million). And, although Howl's Moving Castle was released in November of 2004, it also took the number one spot in 2004, with 20 billion yen (US$170 million)
Source: Japanese Motion Picture Society
