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biker_brat
Kodama




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Hello everyone. I have just spent a bunch of time compiling all the box office figures for Ghibli films. I received my information from IMDB, www.boxofficemojo.com, www.nausicaa.net, but most of all, from Jiji and Nanashi on the www.onlineghibli boards (very very special thanks to you!). I used the www.xe.com currency converter to change the Japanese and European figures to American currency. So here they are in order of oldest to newest:

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: budget - 1 million, gross - 6.3 million
Castle in the Sky: budget - ?, gross - 8.1 million
My Neighbor Totoro & Grave of the Fireflies: budget - 3.7 million, gross - 5 million
Kiki's Delivery: budget - 6.8 million, gross - 18.5 million
Only Yesterday: budget - 9.8 million, gross - 25.6 million
Porco Rosso: budget - 8.6 or 9.2 million, gross - 34.1 million
Pom Poko: budget - ?, gross - 34.1 million
Whisper of the Heart: budget - 6.8 million, gross - 25.6 million
On Your Mark: budget - 0.85 million, gross - shown with Whisper of the Heart in theatres
Princess Mononoke: budget - 20.4 million, gross - 159.3 million
My Neighbors the Yamadas: budget - 20.1 million, gross - 9.4 million [in opening weekend?]
Spirited Away: budget - 16.2 million, gross - 274.9 million
The Cat Returns: budget - ?, gross - 51.2 million
Ghost in the Shell 2 (Ghibli co-production): budget - ?, gross - 9.6 million
Howl's Moving Castle: budget - 24.2 million, gross - 231.7 million

I would like to add that some, or all of these figures may be incorrect as the only place one can find the true box office and budget numbers would be at Studio Ghibli. I'm kind of iffy about the Yamadas gross in particular. Most places that I have read on the internet have said that it was a flop yet on www.nausicaa.net it said that the film's gross was 9.4 million (1.1 billion yen) as of July 20, 1999 with a release date of July 17, 1999 so could it have made back its budget?

The films' budgets may or may not include marketting costs. Also as the exchange rate may be very different today than it was over 20 years ago and even 10 years ago those appropiate films' box office grosses are likely different from what I have given now.

If any or all of the grosses are incorrect, then I would love to know the true numbers. Also if they are incorrect please don't hurt me, I'm just the messenger

Post last edited by biker_brat on 01.29.2006, 07:29 PM.

01.29.2006, 07:20 PM biker_brat is offline   Profile for biker_brat Add biker_brat to your buddy list
Jiji
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Thanks a lot for your effort in converting the JPY-based gross figures into USD . As for the data in some of my previous messages, they were only compiled from a number of websites.

Regarding the case of Yamada, the production cost is about 2.36 billion yen, according to a French site called Buta-connection. The reason for the high cost is the employment of entirely new techniques and processes for creating the water-colour feel CG environment of the movie. Despite of the refreshing and innovative styles, it was true that the movie failed in terms of box office.

According to Wikipedia Japan, the expected gross was 6 billion, but the figures from Eiren* fall far behind, with a "distribution income" of merely 79 million. I am not sure of the source of Nausicaa.net's first week figure though. Anyway, the result is apparently quite a blow to the studio and its staff, especially Takahata. I wonder if Takahata's semi-retirement is related to this.

*Motion Pictures Producers Association of Japan

Nevertheless, it may be worthy to note that Yamada was not the only Ghibli movie that did not turn out to be a mega-hit. Actually, it was the 1989 Kiki movie that put an equal sign between "Ghibli" and "box-office success." The pre-Kiki Ghibli works, even though are as good as their sucessors, had only relatively mediocre box-office results enabling the studio to barely break even (with the unconidtional support of Tokuma Shoten). Quite some people consider them as box-office failures.


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01.30.2006, 03:13 PM Jiji is offline   Profile for Jiji Add Jiji to your buddy list Send an Email to Jiji Homepage of Jiji
biker_brat
Kodama




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Originally posted by Jiji.
-According to Wikipedia Japan, the expected gross was 6 billion, but the figures from Eiren* fall far behind, with a "distribution income" of merely 79 million. I am not sure of the source of Nausicaa.net's first week figure though. Anyway, the result is apparently quite a blow to the studio and its staff, especially Takahata. I wonder if Takahata's semi-retirement is related to this.-

When it says "the expected gross was 6 billion" does that mean the amount that Ghibli expected it to make. Also what dows "distribution income" mean?

As well, what exactly was Tokuma Shoten (spelling?) before Ghibli?

Post last edited by biker_brat on 01.30.2006, 05:27 PM.

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E_Hakki
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Thank you, its really interesting to see how well each movie did. I'm pretty surprised to hear how badly Kiki's Delivery Service did in the Box Office, in several interviews, the Ghibli staff say that it was this movie that raised the bar for animation quality.

quote:

When it says "the expected gross was 6 billion" does that mean the amount that Ghibli expected it to make. Also what dows "distribution income" mean?



Gross means the total money the movie is expected to make, but excluding all the costs.

I'm not sure about "Distribution income", but I think it may be similiar to 'net profit'. So it would be the profit generated with relation to rent, wages and other costs of production.


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My Neighbours the Yamadas Comic -
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Imouto He Scans -
http://rapidshare.com/files/120625788/Imouto_He.rar.html
Le Roi Et L'Oiseau English Subs -
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=J732GAHR
Original Mononoke Story in English -
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biker_brat
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Originally posted by E_Hakki
-Thank you, its really interesting to see how well each movie did. I'm pretty surprised to hear how badly Kiki's Delivery Service did in the Box Office, in several interviews, the Ghibli staff say that it was this movie that raised the bar for animation quality.-

Actually I think for that time Kiki was a relatively successful anime film.

Originally posted by Jiji
-According to Wikipedia Japan, the expected gross was 6 billion, but the figures from Eiren* fall far behind, with a "distribution income" of merely 79 million.-

Wow so only a profil of like less than a million dollars US! That's really not very good at all considering the success streak that Ghibli had been having. I didn't think that it was THAT bad. Certainly not the best but not the worst either. I wonder, does anyone know the production cost of "I Can Hear The Sea" and the production cost and box office gross of "Castle of Cagliostro"?

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E_Hakki
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I doubt you'll find such information on 'I Can Hear The Sea' (a.k.a. Ocean Waves), because it was a TV movie.


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Jarinko Chie English subs v2 (22/03/10) -
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KX6BECB7
My Neighbours the Yamadas Comic -
http://rapidshare.com/files/119113404/My..._Comic.rar.html
Imouto He Scans -
http://rapidshare.com/files/120625788/Imouto_He.rar.html
Le Roi Et L'Oiseau English Subs -
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=J732GAHR
Original Mononoke Story in English -
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=K8A2YGU6

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biker_brat
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But what about Cagliostro?

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Jiji
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quote:
Originally posted by biker_brat
When it says "the expected gross was 6 billion" does that mean the amount that Ghibli expected it to make. Also what dows "distribution income" mean?

As well, what exactly was Tokuma Shoten (spelling?) before Ghibli?

... I wonder, does anyone know the production cost of "I Can Hear The Sea" and the production cost and box office gross of "Castle of Cagliostro"?



The 6 billion expectation was for the distribution income (source: wikipedia JP). Sorry that I made a mistake and typed "expected gross" (^_^;; ). Anyway I cannot find any information regarding who exactly made such expectation. Wikipedia entries should not be treated too seriously though as no one can guarantee their accuracies.

Distribution income is the total income net of the profit share of the theatres. Traditionally Japan has used the distribution income as a measure of a movie's popularity. It was only until recent years that the box-office has become a more widely-used indicator of a movie's performance.

Tokuma Shoten is a publishing company founded by Yasuyoshi Tokuma. One of its prominent publications is Animage, for which Toshio Suzuki had been working as an editor before he has become the producer of Ghibli. Tokuma had been a parent company of Studio Ghibli until March 2005, when Ghibli gained its independent status. The relation between the Ghibli staff and Tokuma can be dated back to 1983. Tokuma funded Topcraft to produce Nausicaa in that year. In 1985, Studio Ghibli was founded, with a majority of the Nausicaa staff moved under it. During the difficult pre-Kiki years, Yasuyoshi Tokuma, director of Tokuma Shoten, personally persuaded the distributors to release Totoro and Hotaru when everyone thought that they were guranteed box-office failures. Producer Suzuki commented that Ghibli would not be able to survive without his effort. By the mid 90s, Ghibli has become the most profitable branch of Tokuma. Its deal with Disney on the distribution of Ghibli movies saved it from a financial crisis.

Cagliostro was quite an impressive success, with a box-office of 1 billion yen, i.e. even higher than that of Laputa, Totoro, Hotaru, Nausicaa and Yamada. And don't forget that you need to take inflation over these decades into account. As for Ocean Waves, its audience rating was 17.4%. Sorry that I failed to find their production cost data.


quote:
Originally posted by E_Hakki
I'm pretty surprised to hear how badly Kiki's Delivery Service did in the Box Office, in several interviews, the Ghibli staff say that it was this movie that raised the bar for animation quality.


The 1989 Kiki was a great success in terms of both box-office and artistic/techical qualities (the equal sign between "Ghibli" and "mega-hit" ). Indeed it was its success that brought about the nation-wide popularity of the Ghibli canon in Japan, and the the restructure of Ghibli with new employment systems and the construction of a new studio. Since then, every single Ghibli movie (with the exception of Yamada) has secured its position as the highest grossing movie of the year.


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01.31.2006, 03:37 AM Jiji is offline   Profile for Jiji Add Jiji to your buddy list Send an Email to Jiji Homepage of Jiji
nanashi
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Castle of Cagliostro : budget - ?, gross - 0.92billion yen - 7.9million
Ghost in the Shell 2 : budget - 2.0billion yen - 17.1million

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AnIm@ster
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2 much info dudes!

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