Millennium director

The Japanese film market has basically not changed much over the years.

When Wu Yuan's "Your Name" was released in Japan, there were more than 500 cinemas and more than 3,000 screens in Japan.

Now, more than ten years later, the number of cinemas in Japan is still 581, and the number of screens is 3,634.

In comparison, when "Your Name" was released, there were only one or two thousand cinemas in China, but now there are more than 8,000 cinemas in China, and the number of screens has exceeded 30,000!

However, don't think that the Japanese market is not worth mentioning just because there is a big gap in the number of cinemas and screens between the two.

As an old developed country, it is normal for the number of cinemas and screens in Japan to remain stable all year round. The number of screens in Europe has not increased much in the past ten years, just because the number of cinemas is saturated.

In 2016, Japan maintained its position as the third largest film market in the world. Although it was surpassed by the Chinese mainland, the Japanese film market is still very large.

In 2015, Japan's box office revenue was 217.119 billion yen (about 12.1 billion yuan), which is only one-fourth of the Chinese market, but Japan's population is less than one-tenth of China's!

In 2015, the number of mobilized audiences in Japan was 166.63 million. If this number is averaged, it means that every Japanese person watched at least one movie last year.

Of course, the average is unrealistic. In fact, there should be a large number of movie fans in Japan who watch movies at least 5-8 times a year, which is why there is such a high number of mobilized audiences.

In other words, the Japanese film market is already a very mature market and the most important film market in Asia.

But unfortunately, except for "Your Name", most of Wu Yuan's previous films only achieved mid-level box office results in Japan.

His Hollywood films are better, and can achieve 3-5 billion yen box office in Japan. For example, the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series can even break 10 billion yen, but his Chinese-language domestic films, except for "Your Name" which created a miracle of 20 billion yen, the box office of other films is around 2 billion yen.

Perhaps this box office was very good for a Chinese-language film ten years ago. After all, the Japanese yen exchange rate was high ten years ago, and the mainland film market was small. The box office of 2 billion yen would even be higher and better than the domestic box office.

But it is different now. Now the box office of 2 billion yen is only equivalent to the box office of 100 million yuan, and it has to be divided with the local distributor, and the total amount is only 20 to 30 million yuan, which is not very important for the domestic market.

It is impossible to say that Wu Yuan does not feel sorry. After all, he has always regarded the Asian market as his own private land, and has been working hard in the Asian market for ten years.

And Japan is the top priority of his business. So far, seven or eight of his films have been introduced to the Japanese market and released. Wu Yuan is also one of the most famous foreign directors in Japan.

But since "Your Name", his films have never made a big breakthrough in Japan.

Until

the appearance of "Ready Player One"!

As we all know, the Japanese film market is not very interested in Hollywood superhero movies. Whether it is DC or Marvel, their movies are successful overseas, but they have always received mediocre responses in Japan.

There are many reasons. The main reason is that Japan has its own hot-blooded youth comics, and special effects dramas such as "Kamen Rider" and "Ultraman". They have their own "hero" culture, and there is really no need to flatter Hollywood superheroes.

Hot-blooded comic movies such as "One Piece" and "Naruto", as well as special effects heroes in "Kamen Rider" and "Ultraman" are exciting enough and more in line with the preferences of Japanese fans.

However, this does not mean that Japanese fans don't like to watch science fiction movies.

Although the market acceptance of science fiction movies in Japan is only average, there are also some science fiction movies that have performed well at the box office in Japan, such as "Inception"!

As long as the subject matter and the story itself are attractive, Japanese fans can still accept it.

And the movie "Ready Player One", from the content to the plot, is very interesting to Japanese fans!

First of all, the plot of this movie itself is a very Japanese "adventure journey of several high school students". The oldest of the protagonists is only 18 years old, and the youngest is only 11 years old.

Secondly, Japan is not unfamiliar with themes like this virtual world. The "Sword Art Online" which is very famous throughout Asia is a work of similar themes. It is also an adventure in the virtual world, and Japanese fans are very receptive to it.

At the end of the movie, the protagonist calls on all the players in the server to resist together, and then everyone comes to the battlefield to support the protagonist. It is also very "hot-blooded", very in line with Japanese aesthetics, and also has the meaning of "the lower overthrows the upper", after all, the villain in the play is the "boss".

The most important thing is that a lot of Japanese pop culture is integrated into "Ready Player One", mainly the culture of anime, movies, and special effects dramas. In the final battle, not only did players drive Gundam to support, but there were also players who took out the transformation device and transformed into Ultraman and Kamen Rider on the spot.

It can be said that whether it is from the plot or various Japanese cultural easter eggs, it is very much to the appetite of Japanese fans, and it can even be said that this movie is a local Japanese movie.

There is no way, Wu Yuan just went with the flow. After all, in the past two or three decades, Japanese anime and special effects films have been a very dazzling part of Asian popular culture, including most Chinese people who grew up watching Japanese anime, comics and special effects dramas when they were young.

At least this is the case for those born in the 80s and 90s, and this group of people is the main audience of "Ready Player One". Wu Yuan naturally had to consider them and incorporate a lot of Japanese anime and special effects drama Easter egg elements into the movie.

As a result, once "Ready Player One" was released in Japan, it triggered a large number of moviegoers, and then the movie quickly broke the circle in Japan.

What happened in China happened again in Japan. After watching the movie, a large number of Japanese netizens shared their own Easter eggs on the Internet, and then looked at what others found, and then went to the cinema to try to confirm and find more Easter eggs.

As mentioned before, Japanese movie screenings are not like those in China. A movie can only be screened for one month. As long as there is box office revenue, Japanese movies can be screened for most of the year.

If Japanese fans like a movie, they will watch it more frequently. The most exaggerated case is that some Japanese fans go to the cinema to watch a movie more than ten times.

Previously, the box office of "Your Name" was 20 billion yen because a large number of fans watched it more than ten times during the six-month screening period, which created such a high box office.

After many years, Wu Yuan finally brought another Chinese-language movie that Japanese fans are willing to watch countless times in the cinema!

"Ready Player One" conquered the Japanese movie market again! (End of this chapter)