Asian Cinema Scene: 'Good Bad Weird' Does Good, 'Ponyo' Not As Good
Filed under: Action, Animation, Foreign Language, Box Office, Cinematical Indie, Western
While The Dark Knight dominated the weekend box office here in the US -- with a little love spared for Mamma Mia! and Transsiberian -- in Asia things looked a little different. The Good, the Bad, the Weird , which was just picked up by IFC for the US, opened in its native South Korea to outstanding returns, according to Variety.
The film, a salute to Spaghetti Westerns with a modern twist, is expected to surpass 2.2 million admissions over the weekend, which would make it the fastest to hit that mark this year, beating out police comedy Public Enemy Returns. Its opening day returns put it in the company of previous monster smashes D-War and The Host. We should hear more about The Good, the Bad, the Weird when it plays at Toronto in September.
The news is not as good in Japan, where master filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki's latest animated achievement, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, was expected to dominate. Opening on a record number of screens for a local picture (481), Ponyo is said by its distributor to have earned 83% of the total made by Miyazaki's blockbuster Spirited Away, which sounds good. But as reported by Mark Schilling in Variety, those numbers may be misleading.
For one thing, Spirited Away opened on fewer screens and took nearly a year to make its record haul. For another, some blog posters have reported empty seats at screenings -- unheard of in the recent past for a Miyazaki picture. Ponyo is competing with Boys Over Flowers, which is drawing heavy teen crowds, as well as the latest installment of Pokemon. Time will tell, but this should not affect the eventual release of Ponyo in the US, though no release date has been announced.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-21-2008 @ 6:15PM
Christopher Campbell said...
Well, no matter how it's doing in Japan, I can't wait for Ponyo to hit the States.
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7-22-2008 @ 12:07AM
Peter Martin said...
That reminds me, Chris -- I can't wait either! (Forgot to mention that in my post.)
7-21-2008 @ 8:47PM
Cian said...
Ponyo will be so awesome.
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7-21-2008 @ 9:13PM
MIND DANCER said...
As always ... when I see a post covering THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD ... I have to shout with glee and commit to my excitement surrounding this film! I'm ready to see it in the states and hearing good numbers in Asia boosts my intuitive confidence about this flick.
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7-22-2008 @ 12:09AM
Peter Martin said...
This is one of the few times that I will agree with that sentiment for a movie I haven't seen, Cian. Miyazaki has an amazingly consistent (and outstanding) track record with his work.
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