Japan Today – January 28, 2016 – TOKYO — Box office revenue in Japan for 2015 was the second highest on record largely due to success of animation movies, according to the Motion Picture Producers Association (MPPAJ) of Japan.
The MPPAJ said that movie theaters across the country earned approximately 217.11 billion yen in 2015, up nearly 5% from the previous year and achieving the 2nd highest figure since the association began tracking the records in 2010, Sports Nippon reported.
The highest-grossing movie for the year was “Jurassic World,” which earned 9.53 billion yen, followed by the Disney animated film “Big Hero 6,” (released in Japan under the title “Baymax”) with about 9.18 billion yen.
Among Japanese movies, animation topped sales with “Yo-Kai Watch,” the movie version of a popular Japanese anime series, which brought in 7.8 billion yen. The second top earner was “Bakemono no ko” (The Boy and the Beast) with 5.8 billion yen.
Total box-office revenue largely soared by the increasing number of theaters equipped with IMAX and 4XD movies systems that require extra charge, the MPPAJ said.
Of the 1,136 movies released in Japan throughout the whole year, 55.4% were Japanese, hinting at a gradual shift away from foreign movies that had been predominant in the Japanese cinema market since 2011.
The total number of theater visitors stood at 1.67 billion.