'Angels' survives swine flu in Japan

Tokyo box office falls 40% as scare hits trade

By MARK SCHILLING

TOKYO -- "Angels and Demons" topped the Japanese B.O. for a second weekend May 23-24, but box office across the territory was hit hard by the swine flu scare.

Tokyo saw a 40% B.O. drop and Western Japan saw a 70% fall compared with the same period last year.

"Angels" took $4 million over the weekend, which lifted the cume to $15.8 million from 1.88 million admissions.

Holding strong at number two was the medical meller "April Bride," which earned $2.7 million last weekend, taking it to the $18 million mark after 16 days on release.

Another local pic still drawing auds is the latest installment of the "Detective Conan" toon series, which pushed its cume to $33.7 million on 2.7 million admissions, after 37 days in the theaters.

Three pics bowed in the top 10 over the weekend: comedy "Baby, Baby, Baby!" from Toei at number six and mystery "Juryoku Pierrot," released by Asmik Ace, at number eight, while Toho-Towa's "State of Play," the only Hollywood pic, clocked in at a weak number seven. None managed to pass the 100 million yen ($1.06 million) mark.

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