Frozen helps Japan box office rise 6.6%

According to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (Eiren), the country recorded its highest take since 2010’s JPY220bn ($1.87bn).

At JPY207bn ($1.75bn), Japan’s box office in 2014 was the third highest since 2000, with 2004 clocking up JPY210.9bn ($1.79bn) .

Despite a controversial tax hike in 2014, Japanese theatres recorded 161.1 million admissions, up from 155.8 million in 2013.

An average ticket cost JPY1.285 ($10.9) in 2014, up from JPY1.246 ($10.6) the year before.

Disney animation Frozen was the biggest hit of the year and the third biggest of all time, taking in JPY25.5bn ($216m). All of the other foreign film releases put together made JPY60.5bn ($514m).

Local films took 58.3% of the market, down from 2013’s 60.6%.

In rankings, Frozen was followed by Toho’s Second World War kamikaze film The Eternal Zero (released in December), which took JPY8.76bn ($74.4m), while the company’s Stand By Me Doraemon took JPY8.38bn ($71.2m).

In fourth place, Disney’s Maleficent took JPY6.54bn ($55.5m), followed by Warner Brothers’ Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno, which took JPY5.22bn ($44.3m).

Cinemas saw 615 local releases, up from 591. Foreign film releases went from 526 the year before to 569.

Japan had a total of 3,364 screens, up from 3,318 in 2013.