And that was $6M for the past week there. I don’t think that Wall-E will ever reach the level that Ratatouille did, which was much more successful internationally, but it just succeeded this week with passing last years Ratatouille performance in Japan. I had predicted $35-75M. Why didn’t it do better? Is there a recession on in Japan? Cheaper ticket prices? Rey?
Edit: $40.7M. Will Wall-E beat Indy Jones? or its own take in Great Britain?
WALL-E could still be in movie theaters in Japan until the end of March, so it could make a lot more money. Let’s hold our breath?
But, I personally feel the marketing team in Japan pitched WALL-E with a low sales target. I mean if they had seen the marketing of Ponyo, by Hayao Miyazaki, before it opened in theaters, than anyone with a hungry salespersons mind would have just copied it. But nooo.
In a sentence, the marketing in Japan for WALL-E should have been Andrew Stanton/Pixar are back with a vengeance. That was how Ponyo was marketed in Japan. It was unreal and totally a surprise.
There is no recession in Japan. There are 51 Louis Vuitton stores in Japan in 47 prefectures(states). People will pay money if the quality is there.
Ok, well I saw your post about the value of the dollar vs. yen after the post of mine above. So it looks to me that Wall-E could make around $50M.
If it has been the #1 Japanese movie for 5 out of the past 6 weeks or weekends, or even 4 out of 5, I would imagine the press there has had many articles, front page and in the movie section, about this unique movie. That is quite a record and everyone loves a winner. I read the articles you posted just before the Christmas holiday, from mid-December, but I would think with its continuing success that most newspapers and entertainment magazines would have something extra to say. And there is the word-of-mouth.
Is there some sort of Wall-E or Pixar forum there in Japanese? Just wondering. I know you said that you would look for blogs, but didn’t have great expectations.
You would also have to realize that Wall-e is the number two non-Japanese box office hit movie of the year behind Indy 4, which took in $53 million. Other than Ponyo, there hasn’t been any other outstanding performers at the Japanese box office in 2008. I don’t know what this is indicative of, but in relation to its competitors, Wall-e held its ground in the midst of a global decrease in box office business.
Be ready for some culture shock. You are entering another world.
Here’s a blog search for WALL-E ウォーリー in Japan.
bst.blogpeople.net/search_result … 3%8A%81%5B
Click on red or green or blue Japanese writings to enter into each blog site and look for WALL-E ウォーリー information.
Use the translator below to get the gist of comments or take up Japanese.
freetranslation.paralink.com/ (translates up to1000 Japanese characters at a time)
Here is a Google search for WALL-E forums in Japan ウォーリー フォーラム
google.co.jp/search?hl=ja&lr … art=0&sa=N
Have a happy search. I only go to English speaking forums for Pixar information and I mostly go to Pixar Planet and Upcoming Pixar. Enough said.
Well, WALL-E is still doing very well after seven weekends-January 17th and 18th. It is ranked second to a new Japanese movie last weekend. And, that’s a lot to say because some areas in Japan, like mine, reduced the weekend movie showings from five a day to three movie times. That is a reduction of forty percent and WALL-E is still high up with new movies in their first or second week. Keep going WALL-E! (waves towel)
eiga.com/ranking/
Here is a PIXAR forum ピクサーフォーラムsearch in Google Japan.
google.co.jp/search?hl=ja&q= … =&aq=f&oq=
There is probably some more information about WALL-E.
Gambatte! That’s good luck in Japanese.
pacrim.org/gambatte.htm
WALL・E was up against the ropes last weekend. It dropped from second to seventh last weekend in gross earnings ranking. Four new movies opened last weekend, but I don’t know. Maybe, WALL・E could still be in the top ten ranking again next weekend. There is a happy ending here. WALL・E is very close to making its sales target here in Japan at 50,000,000.000.00yen* or $55,000,000.00 (90yen to the US$1)
eiga.com/ranking/
*Variety Japan
I still think WALL・E should have made twice the amount of projected sales goal here in Japan or more. If the marketing team had just showcased the true, high quality of PIXAR’s new feature film, WALL・E, on street level than it would have made a better sale. I think it was marketed like any other Hollywood movie. We are talking PIXAR, right? Above and beyond the rest. Handmade in the USA. For example, they should have shown popular feature films from PIXAR a week before WALL・E opened nationwide. Not on cable TV. Hype it up to the masses, baby! And they should have shown the making of WALL・E with Andrew Stanton and crew at PIXAR studios on regular TV, here for the Japanese, on the eve of showing WALL・E like NHK did with Ponyo*. So, once the Japanese people know its all quality, then they will buy. e.g. Louis Vuitton. Finally, I wish the sales staff here in Japan had asked Andrew Stanton to do more interviews. This was basically how the Ponyo movie was marketed here in Japan and you know what happened to the sales for that movie. It went through the roof because the Japanese people knew it was all quality, made with the best Japanese hands. Big time opportunity missed.
*http://www.nhk.or.jp/professional/backnumber/080805/index.html
That’s interesting, Rey, thanks for the updates on the numbers. So you think that although WALL-E has done well, it hasn’t reached its full potential? I agree that the overseas marketing for the film was slightly disappointing.
As Wall-E totals from the rest of the world have slowed to a dribble, it seems as if it has stopped playing in Japan after 3 1/2 months. In fact, the box office for there hasn’t been updated since shortly after Feb 22, where it has peaked near $44M. Being a winter release, it had the opportunity to do things not possible during a regular summer. As a final note, and topical for this time of year, is this tidbit:
disneyandmore.blogspot.com/2009/ … all-e.html
Okinawa must be like California. Quite mild for mid-March.
Edit: Wall-E slipped over $44M in sales in Japan this past month, no word yet as to whether its run there, or worldwide, is officially over. I suppose some theaters may keep playing it even if the distributor has sent copies back to the studio.