With admissions increasing to 152 million, Japan’s box office revenue in 2022 increased by 32 percent over the previous year to $1.64 billion (213 billion yen), driven by anime and a comeback in Hollywood’s market share.
Figures issued by the Motion Pictures Producers Association of Japan show that earnings are still much behind the pre-pandemic 2019 box office high of 261 billion ($2 billion at current exchange rates) (MPPAJ).
Top Gun: Maverick, the only live-action film to surpass the $77 million (10 billion) barrier that is the standard of a blockbuster hit in Japan, led Hollywood’s offerings with 31.2 percent of the box office last year.
While the share for imported films was up by around half over the previous year, it too was well below the 45.6 percent recorded in 2019.
With $151 million (19.7 billion), One Piece Film: Red from Toei topped the box office charts, with three other anime filling out the top five. The other foreign films to get it into the top ten were Jurassic World Dominion ($48 million), Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore ($35 million), and Minions: The Rise Of Gru ($34 million).
In 2022, 1,402 films were released overall, up from 1,143 the year before, and 509 of those were foreign productions.
The number of screens decreased for the first time in ten years, very little, to 3,634. As theatres increased their promotions to get customers back, the average ticket price fell slightly to $10.75 (1.402).
The current MPPAJ head and director of Toho Cinemas, Yoshishige Shimatani, claimed that more over 50% of Toho’s box office earnings was once again attributable to anime.
Shimatami predicted that “Godzilla and Ghibli will be this year’s key words,” noting that Hayao Miyazaki’s final anime film, How Do You Live?, as well as a new domestic Godzilla film, Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong 2, and Apple TV’s Godzilla and the Titans series, are all scheduled to be released this year.
