The low-budget Makoto Shinkai-directed

megahit is now the highest-grossing

Japanese film in history.
Makoto Shinkai's body-swapping, time-shifting anime Your Name may have missed out
on an Oscar nomination, but it has been setting records both in Japan and overseas,
single-handedly driving both the domestic film industry and studio-distributor Toho to
record revenues last year. And it isn't finished yet.

Last weekend, Your Name (Kimi no Na wa) returned to the top of the box-office charts in
Japan for the first time in nine weeks, on its 22nd weekend in theaters. While big films
often have longer runs in Japan than in other major markets, regaining the top spot after
more than two months and staying in the charts from August until the New Year is serious
longevity, even by Japanese standards.

The last film to capture the hearts of Japanese cinemagoers to this extent was Disney's
Frozen, on whose third-highest all-time local box office record Your Name is now closing
in. Frozen spent 16 weeks atop the box office in 2014 Your Name is currently at a total
of 13 weeks and finished with a quarter of a billion dollars (25.48 billion). As of last
weekend, Your Name had taken in $233 million (23.56 billion) in Japan. (Converted at
$1=101, the rate when Your Name was first released.)

The highest grossing film ever in Japan remains Hayao Miyazaki's Oscar-winning
Spirited Away (2002), which took 30.4 billion, or $300 million at the same rate used
for Your Name, unadjusted for inflation. But thanks to Your Name's strong performance in
Asia it took more than $80 million in China and more than $20 million in South Korea
it has already surpassed Spirited Away to become the highest-earning Japanese film
ever globally.

The massive success of Your Name is even more remarkable when taking into account
that Shinkai's previous film (The Garden of Words) was released on just 23 screens; the
story is complex; and it was written by the director rather than based on an existing
property.

"Because The Garden of Words took only 150 million yen [$1.3 million], we thought no
matter how hard we tried Your Name could only do 10 times that amount, so the
production and promotion budgets were kept really low, smaller than an average Toho
release," Genki Kawamura, the film's hit-maker producer, told The Hollywood Reporter
in October.

Read More
The Hot Producer Behind Japan's Body-
Swapping Blockbuster

Driven in large part by Your Name's massive success on a low budget, Toho's operating
profit for its first three quarters jumped by 30 percent to a record $370 million (42.53
billion). The megahit also helped push the entire domestic box office to a record $2.09
billion (235.5 billion) in 2016.

"It was the young audiences that recognized the greatness of director Shinkai, spreading
the news about the film at great speed on social media," said Toho CEO Yoshishige
Shimatani at Tuesday's Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ) press
conference to announce last year's box office numbers.

While the film's core audience has been teenagers, many of whom have seen it multiple
times, the hype around it has pulled people of all ages into theaters, though some have
struggled to follow the story's body-swapping and time-shifting elements.

"As it was an anime, I thought it would be kind of silly; I don't watch anime, I've never
even seen one Miyazaki film. But the story of Your Name was really moving and actually
made me cry," Hitomi Mizune, a Tokyo businesswoman in her 50s, told The Hollywood
Reporter.

"The central ideas of fate and that there is a person you are somehow connected to and
destined to meet are ones that Japanese people love. There have been a lot of films using
those themes, but often in a cliched kind of way. They were handled very well in this
film," said Mizune. "But my mother, who is 85, went to see it, and she couldn't
understand the story, even after I'd explained it."

Aya Fuji, another Tokyoite, also pointed out that there had been similarly themed films in
the past, but said the way Your Name depicted and developed the story made her feel it
could happen to her. Fuji took her grade-school daughter to watch the film, but she found
the story too complicated to follow.

An IMAX version of the film was released in Japan on Jan. 17, further boosting ticket
sales. Meanwhile a dubbed English version a rarity in Japan will be in theaters for
two weeks beginning Jan. 28.

Your Name will be released in the U.S., with dubbed and subtitled versions, from April 7.

Read More
Makoto Shinkai on His Anime Hit 'Your Name,'
Being Called the "New Hayao Miyazaki"
(Q&A)

FACEBOOK
TWITTER
EMAIL ME
PRINT

Gavin
J. Blair

THRnews@thr.com @thr

by Taboola
Sponsored Links
From the Web
If you own a computer you must try this game!Vikings: Free Online Game
17 Photos of Melania That Donald Trump Wishes We'd ForgetLifeDaily.com
Cable Companies Furious Over This New Device (SellinTV Frog
Snoring Trick That Works! This new finding reduces thrGoodNiter
From the WebPowered By ZergNet
Pierce Brosnan on
Losing Wife & Now
Daughter to
Ovarian Cancer
Foxnews.com

11 Movies You Need

to See More Than
Once to Really
Figure Out
Moviefone.com

7 Celebrities Who
Have Bravely
Spoken Out About
Suicide
Hlntv.com

Chris Harrison
Breaks His Silence
on 'Paradise'
Scandal
Aol.com

Annecy:

Guillermo del Toro Talks

Creative Freedom With Netflix,
the Future of 'Hellboy'
5:48 PM PDT 6/13/2017 by Rhonda Richford

FACEBOOK
TWITTER
 EMAIL ME
PRINT

Getty Images
Guillermo del Toro

The director also talked possible

'Pinocchio' plans and giving up his

salary for the upcoming 'Shape of Water'
during a master class at the animation
festival.
Guillermo del Toro is still interested in Pinocchio, hasnt had his heart broken by Hellboy
and has found the perfect partner in Netflix. In a wide-ranging nearly two-hour talk at the
Annecy Animation Festival, The Shape of Water director discussed his upcoming projects
and Hollywoods creative stagnation.
Working with Netflix has been creatively freeing, the Trollhunters creator said, noting
that his experience with the SVOD has been much more fulfilling than working with
studios.

Weve had absolute freedom in creating the series and from the beginning they believed
in it, he said. When you have a partner that believes in you any co-production even
your dentist uncle its amazing. And what I can say is that in our experience, it has been
absolutely great creatively."

While Netflix famously doesnt release ratings information, del Toro said Trollhunters is
the most-watched animated show on the platform. It took eight years for the series to get
made after being originally pitched to Jeffrey Katzenberg as a feature, he added. The
streamer has also promoted the show honestly, he said, criticizing many studio projects he
abandoned because of creative differences, without giving names. They put out the show
we made. Ive made movies that are sold as exactly the opposite of what they were. The
show was sold beautifully as what it was and thats fantastic.

His next film, The Shape of Water, set for a December 2017 release, came at a personal
cost and benefit as the director sacrificed his own salary and additional personal funds
for the production. Bigger budgets come bigger discussions about things, he said of the
studio system. Freedom has no price.

Del Toro also said that he is still interested in a Pinocchio film project. Im still looking
at it. If you have $45 million Ill do it tomorrow, he joked. The Pacific Rim director said
his next goal is to direct an animated feature project.

Despite years of trying to complete his Hellboy trilogy, only for the reboot to be
announced without him earlier this year, he says he has no hard feelings.

I dont own Hellboy, Mike [Mignola] does. So, you know, he is the father of the
character and if he wants to reboot it, its perfectly fine. I got to make two - thats two
more than I thought I would get to make So you know, as far as Im concerned god
speed and god bless.

Read More

Annecy
Asia

Animation Festival to Launch in 2019

In contrast, he has passed on many projects over creative vision, he said. Ive had the
most incredible opportunities to say no to big movies, he said, with nothing keeping him
awake at night. Except Harry Potter, he added later. Being part of the boy wizard
franchise is one chance he does regret missing out on.

As for his propensity to announce projects that dont move forward, del Toro said he's
similar to J.J. Abrams in keeping more than one ball in the air, but says his prolific project
list has garnered outsized press attention. I was like the James Brown of fantasy movies
for a while, he joked. But what an announced project means is that you are temporarily
unemployed and working hard, because every project you read about, Im doing the
screenplay, the storyboards, and its heartbreaking.

Del Toro said the inspiration for his longstanding collaboration with Dreamworks Jeffrey
Katzenberg or, as he calls it apprenticeship is his vision of film mutating in the
near future. Movies as we know them are going to disappear, he predicted. And very
soon assets video games, and storytelling is going to start melding. One of the keys to
opening the cell to freedom is animation, he said. Younger generations want constant
access to content, what he termed flow.

He also predicts features will become shorter. Attention span is going dramatically
down, younger generations will want their adventure in and out in one hour ten minutes
at the most, he predicted. Were in the golden age of television less because of
storytelling but more due to viewers control over their access. Its changed in a way that
is more profound than the adjective binge watching can define, he said.

Studios sensibilities are not insulating them from pricey failures. As narrators we
should take a look and see what is not being fulfilled, he said. The sense of safety in
storytelling is completely fake, it does not exist unless youre a brand.

Del Toro added that were on the cusp of a gold rush with VR. Adding: Its a very
interesting time for the bold.