Foreign films retake majority

[Tokyograph News]

The Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (Eiren) published its movie industry data for 2007 on Thursday. While the so-called "hoga boom" of 2006 led to domestic films comprising the majority of the industry's revenue for the first time in 21 years, that trend reversed last year.

Total box office receipts fell 2.2% from about 203 billion yen to 198 billion yen, while admissions dropped by only 0.8%. Domestic films accounted for 47.7% of the revenue, down from the 53.2% share in 2006. Still, the percentage was significantly better than the decade before the "hoga boom."

The top three foreign films were all franchise flicks: "Pirates of the Caribbean: World's End" (10.9 billion), "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (9.4 billion), and "Spiderman 3" (7.1 billion).

Meanwhile, the top three domestic hits were "HERO" (8.1 billion), "Dialga VS Palkia VS Darkrai" (5.0 billion), and "Always: Zoku Sanchome no Yuhi" (4.6 billion). With the exception of "Love and Honor," distributor Toho released all of the top 10.

The complete data can be found at the Eiren website (in Japanese).

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