Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro’s China release is a box office hit 30 years on
- Screening of Japanese anime classic, three decades after its initial worldwide release, ranks second for cinema takings in China over the weekend
- The Hayao Miyazaki film from Studio Ghibli earned more than US$418,000 in three days
For a movie which was first released 30 years ago, My Neighbor Totoro’s rescreening in China racked up big box office returns over the weekend.
Released on Friday, the classic film by Japanese anime maestro Hayao Miyazaki ranked second for box office takings in China after Aquaman, the live-action DC Comics gigantic hit.
Depicting the magical encounters between two female siblings and wood spirits resembling giant chinchillas in post-war rural Japan, My Neighbor Totoro had taken more than 93.6 million yuan (US$418,000) by the end of Sunday. The heart-warming film sold more tickets than four new offerings – The Grinch, Searching, Running to the Spring and Padman.
My Neighbor Totoro is the first of Miyazaki’s film to receive a wide public release in China – it is showing in 6,000 cinemas. While Miyazaki’s films and his whimsical cinematic characters have regaled worldwide audiences for decades, the films have never had a widespread public release in China. A public relations executive for China Jash Film, the promoter of the film, told the Post they were only screened as academic releases before.
“Academic releases means the films are screened in a small number of theatres for cultural exchange [purposes],” she said.
