Japan’s box office sales in 2022 grew 32 percent to $1.64 billion (213 billion yen) over the previous year, with admissions rising to 152 million, driven by anime and a rebound in market share for Hollywood.
Revenues are still well below the pre-pandemic 2019 box office of ¥261 billion ($2 billion at current exchange rates), an all-time record high, according to figures released by the Motion Pictures Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ).
Hollywood’s fare took 31.2 percent of the box office last year, led by Top Gun: Maverick with $104 million, the only live-action film to top the $77 million (¥10 billion) mark that is the benchmark of a blockbuster hit in Japan. 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.
Related Stories
One Piece Film: Red from Toei was the box office king with $151 million (¥19.7 billion), with three other anime rounding out the top five. Jurassic World Dominion ($48 million), Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore ($35 million) and Minions: The Rise Of Gru ($34 million) were the other imports to crack the top ten.
A total of 1,402 films were released in 2022, up from 1,143, with overseas films up to 509 from 469.
The number of screens fell very slightly to 3,634, the first drop in a decade. Average ticket prices all decreased slightly to $10.75 (¥1.402) as theaters offered more discounts to lure audiences back.
Yoshishige Shimatani, director of Toho Cinemas and current MPPAJ head, noted that anime had again accounted for more than 50% of Toho’s box office revenue.
Looking ahead for Japan’s biggest studio and distributor, Shimatami said, “This year’s key words are Ghibli and Godzilla,” noting that Hayao Miyazaki’s final anime feature How Do You Live? is due out this year, along with a new domestic Godzilla feature, Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong 2 and Apple TV’s Godzilla and the Titans series.
