All articles by Jason Gray – Page 19
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Kadokawa to sell library online through BitTorrent
Kadokawa Group Holdings has announced plans to set up an online pay service in the US offering 200 films from its library beginning this February. The service will use BitTorrent's peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing software to distribute the titles. Kadokawa's stateside subsidiary, Kadokawa Pictures USA, will handle digitisation of the library ...
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Japanese films take 53% share of local box office
As predicted, Japanese films had their most successful year ever at the local box office in 2006, grossing $884.48m (Y107.75bn) for a 53.2% market share, according to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (Eiren). The strong results mark an increase of 31.8% over 2005 when the local industry had ...
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Shochiku picks up Kadokawa's Genghis Khan
Japanese major Shochiku has acquired international rights excluding Asia to legendary producer Haruki Kadokawa's $25m Genghis Khan - To The Ends Of The Earth And Sea. Shochiku will distribute the film in Japan and also handle all international sales, excluding Asia, which will be handled by co-producer Avex Entertainment. Domestic ...
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Death Note 2 passes $40m at Japanese box office
The second installment in Warner Bros Japan 's Death Note franchise, Death Note 2: The Last Name, has surpassed the Y5bn ($41.2m) mark at the Japanese box office from more than 4.15 million admissions. In a movie industry first, the sequel was released on Nov 4, following the first installment's ...
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Sakuran to premiere in Berlinale Special section
Mika Ninagawa's debut feature Sakuran will have its world premiere on Feb 9 as the opening film of the Berlinale Special section at this year's Berlin International Film Festival, distributor Asmik Ace has announced. It will be the only Japanese film to screen as an official selection at the festival. ...
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Universal picks up North American rights to Dororo
Universal Pictures has bought North American rights to TBS' period action-fantasy Dororo which has already sold to 20 countries throughout Asia and Europe. The film is based on a manga created by Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy) in the 1960s, which went on to become a famous animated TV series. The ...
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Revived Yubari film festival to reopen under new name
The Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival (YIFFF), which was forced to suspend operations last July due to the bankruptcy of its host town, is set to re-open under a new name and mandate. The temporarily re-named Yubari Ouen Eigasai (translation: Yubari Support Film Festival) will run from Feb 22-25 and ...
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Production IG lines up live-action Ghost In The Shell
Japanese animation house Production I.G has reached an agreement with local publisher Kodansha to act as an agent in developing a live-action feature film based on popular manga series Ghost In The Shell. Production I.G will represent Kodansha, which owns the rights to the original manga series created by Masamune ...
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Iwo Jima tops Japan 's New Year holiday box office
Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima was the box office champion during the New Year's holiday period (Dec 23 - Jan 8) in Japan, passing the $30m (Y36.7bn) mark by the middle of last week and holding the top spot for five weeks. The Warner Bros release only lost its ...
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Toho box office grosses reach all-time high in 2006
Toho, one of Japan's oldest studios and its biggest distributor, hasannounced that box office earnings for 2006 have broken an all-time record forthe company.Grosses from January untilthe end of November totaled $476.24m (Y55.95bn), with end of year estimates at$502.69m (Y59bn). This beats the previous record of $467.09m (Y54.85bn) set in2001 ...
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Iwo Jima takes top spot at Japanese box office
Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima beat strongcompetition to become the number one film at the local box office over theweekend, earning $4.28m (Y500m) on 400 screens for a screen average of $10,700.Distributor Warner BrothersJapan estimates a final gross of $42.8m (Y5bn), far surpassing companion film Flags Of Our Fathers. ...
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Index Corp restructures to focus on contents business
Japanese conglomerate Index Corpis streamlining its approximately 70 consolidated subsidiaries to focus on itsoriginal core business of mobile contents.Non-core interests such asclothing accessories and electronic product manufacturers will be sold off orconsolidated into other group companies. The group aims to reduce the number ofsubsidiaries by around 30% by summer 2007. ...
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TWC has Nightmare for North America, UK, Australia
TheWeinstein Company has acquired North American, UK and Australian/New Zealand rights to Japanesedirector Shinya Tsukamoto's Nightmare Detective, which recently premiered at the Pusan and Rome filmfestivals.Easternlight is handling international sales on the film which was sold to several otherterritories at the recent AFM. Produced by Japan's Movie Eye Entertainment andKaijyu ...
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Love And Honor beats Bond at Japanese box office
Yoji Yamada's Love And Honor, the final film in hissamurai trilogy, ranked number one at Japan's box office on its opening weekend, beating Bondpicture Casino Royale which it openedhead-to-head against. Love And Honor earned $3.8m (Y437m) over the three-day weekend from 354 screens for a$10,734 screen average, while Sony Pictures' ...
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Mobile giant NTT DoCoMo buys stake in Kadokawa
Japan's largest mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo is acquiring a 3.78% stake in filmand publishing company Kadokawa Group Holdings as part of a tie-up aimed atdeveloping content for DoCoMo cellphone users. NTT DoCoMo will pay $34.45m(Y4bn) for 1.03 million new shares in Kadokawa, making the mobile giant theseventh largest shareholder in ...
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Heaven wins grand prize at Tokyo Filmex
Djamshed Usmonov's To Get To Heaven First You Have To Die was awarded the Grand Prize at the conclusion of the 7th Tokyo Filmex film festival (Nov 17-26). The award carried a cash prize of $8,640 (Y1m). The ceremony was followed by a screening of Tsai Ming-liang's I Don't Want ...
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Heaven wins grand prize at Tokyo Filmex
Djamshed Usmonov's To Get To Heaven First You Have To Diewas awarded the Grand Prize at the conclusion of the 7th Tokyo Filmex filmfestival (Nov 17-26). The award carried a cashprize of $8,640 (Y1m). The ceremony was followed by a screening of Tsai Ming-liang'sI Don't Want to Sleep Alone.The Filmex ...
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Japanese films moving towards 50% market share
The market share of Japanesefilms released in 2006 currently stands at 47% and is fast closing in oncombined Hollywood and foreign releases, according to Japan's leading businessnewspaper, the Nikkei Shimbun.In 2002, local filmsaccounted for an all-time low of 27.1% market share, but the past four yearshave seen year-on-year increases. In ...
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Miike starts shooting English-language spaghetti western
Following months of rumourand speculation, cult director Takashi Miike's Sukiyaki Western: Django is now before cameras. Details of theproduction were announced to the press on location in Yamagata prefecture yesterday.Though set during the Genpeiclan wars of the 12th century, the film is being billed as Japan's first true western. The ...
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Japan cracks down on film piracy
Japan's Strategic Council on Intellectual Property has announced measures to crack down on movie piracy. The council, led by recently-elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will hold a special investigative session on November 17th to discuss issues to be reflected in next summer's Intellectual Property Rights Initiative 2007.With input from the ...