14[3] The Number of Films Released and Box Office Incomes
Changes in Number of Films Released (2008-2017)
Between 1955 and 2004, the number of films released at theaters has been up and down but roughly
550 to 700 films per year. In 2005, the number jumped to 731, and has mostly kept increasing to 1,187 in
2017. In some years, the number dropped a little, but in 2013, for the first time, the number of films
released was over 1,000, with a combination of more than 500 each of Japanese and foreign films. In2017, nearly 600 Japanese and foreign films each were released.
With digitalization, film production budgets have decreased, more universities and professional
schools have begun to teach film, and a public film production support system has been established.
These are the factors behind the increase of Japanese films released. The number of foreign films
released in 2009 was 314, which increased to 593 in 2017, almost doubling.
The number of screens in 1993 was 1,724, which doubled to 3,531 in 2017. Meanwhile, the theatricalrelease period of each film has been shortened, as the number of films screened by each theater has
been increasing. Outside multi-screen theaters, the programmers have a hard time changing theirfilms so frequently.
Changes in Number of Films Released (2008-2017)

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Changes in Box Office Incomes (2008-2017)
In 2017, the box office income in Japan was
125,483,000,000 yen for Japanese films (decreasing by
23,125,000,000 yen from the year before), 103,089,000,000 yen forforeign films (increasing by 16,189,000,000 yen from the year before),and in total, 228,572,000,000 yen, decreasing by
6,936,000,000 yen from the year before.
In 2016, the box office income in Japan was the largest of
this century, thanks to mega hits like YOUR NAME andSTAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS. The box officeincome in 2017 was not as large as that in 2016, however,such foreign series films showed strong results:
FANTASTIC BEAST AND WHERE TO FIND THEM,DESPICABLE ME 3, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD
MEN TELL NO TALES, ROGUE ONE: A STAR WAR STORY
and RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER. AmongJapanese films, animated films did well, such as
DETECTIVE CONAN: CRIMSON LOVE LETTER,DORAEMON THE MOVIE 2017: GREAT ADVENTURE IN
THE ANTARCTIC KACHI KOCHI and POKEMON THE
MOVIE: I CHOOSE YOU! As a whole, Japanese films in2017 did better than they did in 2014 and 2015.
In 2016, 42 Japanese films had more than 1 billion yenbox office income, far exceeding the 19 such foreign
films. In 2017, 38 Japanese films and 24 foreign films
each had more than 1 billion yen box office income. The
share of Japanese films was 54.9% and that of foreign
films was 45.1%, an increase for Japanese films from theyear before.
The average attendance per film was 137,557 (decreasingby 4,549 from that of the year before), having remained largely

the same since 2014.

Changes in Attendance per Film (2008-2017)

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Films That Made More than 1 Billion Yen Box Office Income/Films That Made Less Than 1 Billion Box Office Income
In 2017, 62 films made more than 1 billion yen box office income (61 films in 2016), occupying 5.2% of the1,187 films released in Japan. The total box office income from these 62 films was: Japanese films
made 77.7 billion yen, foreign films made 84.1 billion yen, and in total, 161.8 billion yen, 70.8% of the total
box office income of Japan.
62 (5.2%) of the films released in Japan in 2017 made 70.8% of the total box office income of Japan. The
other 1,125 films (94.8%) shared the remaining 29.2% (66.7 billion yen). This situation has not changed in thelast 10 years. Among Japanese films, about 40 films were released in more than 300 theaters, andabout 100 films were released in more than 100 theaters (17% of the total films released in Japan). About 370
films were released in less than 30 theaters, which was more than 60% of all the films released inJapan.