Japanese distribs eye boffo summer
Execs hope hot B.O. will make up for soft spring
Majors and local distributors are readying a tsunami of big movies from June through late August to make up for a soft spring.
UIP releases "The Mummy Returns" Saturday on more than 380 screens; Warner Bros. closes the month with the June 30 launch of "A.I." day-and-date with its Stateside debut. Having lined up a record 511 screens nationwide, Warners is backing the pic with an expensive promotional campaign, though nobody's divulging figures. TV spots and print ads are buttressed by special events planned around the Steven Spielberg pic.
" 'A.I.' will be an event and a brand in Japan," declared Warner's William Ireton. Buena Vista Intl. sales manager Ichiro Okazaki has equally high hopes for "Pearl Harbor," which preems July 14 on more than 400 screens. Marketed as a love story to distract from the potentially controversial war themes, the Ben Affleck/Kate Beckinsale starrer may still stir up passions with older Japanese. Meanwhile, Japan major Toho is confident of a lineup it feels hews more closely to the Japanese heart. On July 7, studio will open another installment of the Pokemon movie series; two weeks later, it will bow the heavily advertised animation "Sen To Chihrio No Kamikakuji" by animation vet Hayao Miyazaki on close to 400 screens.
Also competing for screens and auds will be "Dr. Dolittle 2" and "Planet of the Apes" (Fox), "Jurassic Park 3" (UIP) and "Driven" (Shochiku).
The only major Japanese live-action features this summer will be the Ninja-Samurai saga "Red Shadow" from Toei and a movie version of the perennial TV success "Ultraman Cosmos" from Shochiku.
Some major pics won't make it to Japanese screens until autumn because of booking problems. "Tomb Raider" is skedded for fall, while "Shrek" won't show until the end of the year.
This summer "is our chance to overcome a bad spring," confided an executive at UIP Japan. Cinema attendance has tumbled despite the nationwide increase in the number of screens -- expected to approach 3,000 by year's end, compared with 2,524 at the end of 2000.
According to the Motion Picture Producers' Assn. of Japan, 135 million tickets were sold last year, down from 144 million in 1999.
