Shopping Guide
In the midst of gathering huge attention, director Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animated film The Wind Rises finally began screening on July 20. The movie is a large-scale release, playing in 343 theaters and on 454 screens across Japan, which embodies the breadth of anticipation for the film.
It seems that the turnout during the morning of the movie’s first day was in response to such anticipation. According to figures released by the film’s distributor, the box office earnings of The Wind Rises on day one by 1 p.m. totalled 127% of what Miyazaki’s last film, 2008’s Ponyo, made on its first day.
When considering that the final box office earnings for Ponyo were 15.5 billion yen, the likelihood of The Wind Rises surpassing 10 billion yen seems extremely high. From the current trends among the movie industry, a film to surpass this mark is quite rare. Recent movies that did surpass this were all hugely talked about mega-hit works including Toy Story 3 (2010: 10.8 billion yen), Alice in Wonderland (2010: 11.8 billion yen), and Avatar (2009: 15.6 billion yen). The Wind Rises is looking to join the ranks of these monumental works.
The fact that the film has become a culminating work of director Miyazaki’s similar to what producer Toshio Suzuki expresses as being “Hayashi Miyazaki’s testament” is a main reason for its success. The movie has received passionate responses from general screenings and high praise from media screenings. On the movie’s opening day, many could be seen in theaters in the city from early in the morning, including middle-aged men, women, and families, and from the afternoon, this extended to many couples in their 20s and 30s and groups of boys in their teens. Many theaters successively sold out. Also, this work has been evaluated as an “adult Ghibli,” meaning that there is favorable demand for late shows as well. It is anticipated that the daytime showings during the week will be dominated by those from middle to old age.
According to Suzuki, a producer at Studio Ghibli, “I received a call awhile ago from Miya [director Miyazaki] saying, ‘It was a new experiment, so I am relieved that moviegoers are coming to see it.’ I’m glad that he seemed relieved.”
Source: AnimeAnime
© 2013 Nibariki Co. Ltd., GNDHDDTK
