"Detroit Metal City" closes in on ¥2 billion at the Japanese box office

by Chris MaGee

Ever since its August 23rd release Toshio Lee's big screen adaptation of Kiminori Wakasugi's manga "Detroit Metal City" has been locked into the top ten at the Japanese box office, but now it looks like it's going to start breaking records. Variety Japan is reporting that "DMC" is closing in on last year's summer blockbuster "Crows Zero" directed by Takashi Miike. That films ended up pulling in ¥2.5 billion during its theatrical release, a feat that will soon be rivaled by DMC that is nearing ¥2 billion (roughly $20.1 million CDN) in ticket sales.

Both last year's "Crows Zero" and this year's "Detroit Metal City" come from the people at Toho, a company who's riding a major wave of success. With the release this year of Hayo Miyazaki's "Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea", Koki Mitani's "The Magic Hour", "Hana yori Dango: Final" and the latest "Pokemon" animated film Toho is having a stellar year. According to Variety Asia Online Toho's taken in ¥35.8 billion ($359 million) between January and July of this year, but now with "DMC" and the upcoming releases of Tetsuya Nakashima's "Paco and the Magical Picture Book" and Shinobu Yaguchi's "Happy Flight" it's almost certain that Toho will come out the big box office winner for 2008.