Gaki n Me Is box office everything?

Here is a great article on how the Chinese dislike the big blockbusters made in China, their target being Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige.

A Leap Forward, or a Great Sellout?

Posted June 30, 2007:

Whoa, for the first time, Korea is publishing box office figures in dollar terms/Korean Won instead of just admission. In the past they are worried about the confidentiality of the sales figure but it has been criticized that admissions may not be accurate since some may be free tickets, some are discounted tickets.  So now, I am able to put a figure to the following Korean movies. Read more here.

Korean Box Office

Movie	Admissions	Box office in Won
The Host	13.02 million	W79.1billion
The King and the Clown	12.3 million	W80.5billion
Taegukgi		W72.4 billion
Slimido		W73.6 billion

Posted May 31, 2007:

Time for another box office check. The question is how are Korean films doing in the US market and which are the main markets for foreign films.  The Host which broke Korean box office records at US$65 million was released in the US in March would be remade into a Hollywood movie and that set me thinking why they need to. Of course, it's for the money, but did it not do well in the US? And here is what I found of the sales outside of Korea. The emphasis is of course on the US box office for these foreign films. 

For good measure, I put in a US made film on a Japanese war subject, Letters from Iwo Jima, Kung Fu Hustle, a fantasy film from Hong Kong, and of course for good perspective, the all time box office champion, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Added is Death Note 2,  the most successful film in 2006 for Japan. 

Actually, Japan accounts for 70% of foreign sales for any foreign movies and that is why Japan is the most important market for Asian movies and US movies. But you could see that China is coming up strong in box office figures with its sizable market. It is no wonder that when box office is everything for the filmmakers, then China has to be included in the production in the movie so that the movie could be shown in China outside of the 20 foreign movies each year.  

The information all in US dollars is a bit spotty  this time but you could see the trend in any case.

Movie	Japan	Hong Kong	South Korea	USA	France	Spain	Taiwan	China
The Host	$1,500,000	$252,518	$65,000,000	$2,182,793	$985,000	$1,000,000	$63,124	$1,500,000
Taegukgi	$9,736,556	$374,818		$1,111,061
Old Boy				$   707,000	$760,000
Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter				$2,380,000
Letters from Iwo Jima	$42,911,049	$153,385		$13,756,082	$1,791,628	$1,682,947	$300,921
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon				$128,078,872			$1,259,614
Kung Fu Hustle	$16,512,063	$8,100,201	$5,956,468	$17,108,591	$2,458,493	$1,724,319	$6,525,911	$20,291,436
Death Note 2	$41,171,082	$1,837,633	$3,307,434

Posted September 23, 2007:

When is a movie considered successful? For the film distributors and companies, box office definitely is the indicator.  For me, it's the content.  An art film like In the Mood for Love by Wong Kar Wai would have less revenue than say Pretty Woman because one is an art film, one is commercial fluff. One is made by Hong Kong and the other is made by Hollywood.  The markets are different and the scale of revenue is different. Just because one film makes more money doesn't mean it is memorable for me. Yes, I still remember Pretty Woman, Top Gun, I Robot, The Italian Job but all these movies come and go. For some it may affect them but I see these works as pure 1 hour entertainment without a heart.  Movies with a heart stays with you forever and poor box office doesn't change your mind about how good a movie is.  Brokeback Mountain is one of such movies.

I have drawn up a table of movies that has some Asian representation below.  Many of the following movies do not move me no matter how much they made or how beautifully made they are.  The only ones that tugs at my heart still are 2046, In the Mood for Love, Twilight Samurai, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain.  As a comparison, I have to give you a scale as to what is a box office hit is .  I added a few Star Wars box office figures in even though it does not have anything Asian about it.  Please note also that the first Star Wars was made in 1977 and in real dollar terms, its box office figure really meant a lot more than the finale Episode 3.

Recent discussion at my forum has been about whether the House of Flying Daggers was a successful movie, or even Hero for that matter.  I would say Hero is a bit far fetched but still palatable. House of Flying Daggers plot wise really failed. It might have done well in sales terms but to me, it's one of those movies that doesn't tug.  When my Vietnamese/European relatives come in from Europe, true Asian movie fans, they talk about the pain in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and the great message of Hero (albeit it being a politically correct movie)  but not House of the Flying Dagger, except that Takeshi looks good.  They wow over Infernal Affairs 1, 2 because the plot was intense and Tony Leung was superb.  They love the samurai movies of dying with honor with or without love from Japan.  Box office is not everything.

Source: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/
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