"Ponyo" cracks the ¥10 billion mark at the Japanese box office

by Chris MaGee

I wasn't going to post anything about this originally, but I thought everyone would like to know: Hayao Miyazaki's latest film "Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea" has cracked the ¥10 billion mark at the Japanese box office making it the highest grossing Japanese film since 2004. What film, you may ask, did such huge business back in '04? Why Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle" of course!

And there's the reason why I wasn't originally going to report on this. Please, don't get me wrong! I'm a huge Miyazaki fan, but reporting that his latest film has made box office history in Japan is like reporting that the sun came up again today. Now, if "Ponyo" (or any future Miyazaki film for that matter) didn't make box office history... well, then that would be real news.

For the fiscally minded check out Mark Schilling's full report at Variety Asia Online.