Part of the reason Hollywood movies release later in Japan? The audience doesn’t penalize it.

35 comments

1. It’s frustrating sometimes. I got John Wick 4 on bluray before it was out in the cinemas here. That was an especially long delay for Japan though.

2. It is so much better than it used to be. Movies in Japan would come out 6 months after the U.S. release. Movies would often be released on DVD in the U.S. before they were released in Japan.

3. It probably helps that movies are not pirated much here

4. I thought Oppenheimer wasn’t releasing *at all* in Japan, due to relatively understandable reasons.

   What about Blue Beetle though? I know DC hasn’t exactly been lighting the world on fire lately, but Japan loves superhero movies, it has good reviews, and I can’t think of an obvious reason that it *wouldn’t* even get a Japanese release.

5. I’m guessing it doesn’t matter because Japanese audiences aren’t likely to be spoiled, and there’s no real FOMO because of how isolated it is here.

   If British audiences had to wait 6 months they’d probably be spoiled by Twitter, YouTube, American friends, whatever.

   I can’t speak for how well connected the French might be to the English internet, but surely moreso than the here, right?

6. I always thought the delay was mainly due to the need for dubbing and subtitles for the Japanese market. When streaming services brought in an online video boom the guild that handled translations in Japan couldn’t keep up initially.

   I think at least part of the problem with [Oppenheimer has to do with the public protest](https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230803/p2g/00m/0na/066000c) over the theme of the movie and the way the studio promoted it. Japanese people don’t have a sense of humor when it comes to atomic bomb memes. When Bethesda released Fallout 3 the version of the game that was released in Japan eliminated the option to detonate the dud atomic bomb that was in the middle of the town Megaton.

7. Coming from Australia, which also has random release delays, I’m used to it.

8. I think it could come down to the fact that domestic audiences in Japan just don’t really care. I’ve noticed a lot of Japanese people don’t really pay attention to these sorts of things. I can imagine many don’t even realize they’re getting lengthy delays on releases.

   Spoilers don’t really matter since very few Japanese people browse English language sites.

   Foreigners however are very closely tuned to foreign language sits. We notice it far more.

   Honestly, there are times when I tune out of the entertainment scene outside of Japan, and I feel the same way. Couldn’t care less that John Wick is delayed. I’ll see it eventually, won’t get spoiled, and have other things to do in the meantime.

   As such, there’s little pressure, and it allows distribution companies to time their releases so as to maximize profit and exposure.

9. Sometimes we don’t even get movies depending where you live in the country. My little city in Ibaraki didn’t get the D&D movie, while I know Tokyo did.

10. Well, they obviously delay it so they can keep showing the 96th anual Conan movie for the 350 days straight.

11. I wonder if saw X (9/29 in the us) will be released here, and if yes, when.

12. A friend of a friend in the industry told me the below;

    “The film and entertainment industry is insanely conservative and truly believes beyond a shadow of a doubt that Japanese audiences are special, different, and unique. They are terrified of foreign movies flopping and want to be beyond certain that they will be domestically successful. So they delay the releases and base the release schedule on the overseas performance. This also helps them with forecasting the number of theatres to release to, etc.”

    He went on to say that

    “It’s the same reason that mega monster hit movies like Marvel, Star Wars, etc. DO release at the same time or earlier, because they are a lock in Japan and are guaranteed to be commercially successful due to high demand.”

    Not sure how true it is, but was an interesting conversation.

13. All the hype about “Everything Everywhere All at Once” back in March 2022 sent me to the seas because there was no Japan release date for months. It even came out in Ukraine before it apparently hit Japanese theaters in March of 2023.

    It was a pretty good movie but not “wait a year” good, especially after all the praise ppl were giving it.

14. Two main reasons:

    1. Too many movies fighting for too few screens. Japan has about 3500 screens for over 1000 titles per year. In the USA, it’s about 40,000 screen for about 700 titles, and that’s pre-COVID. Number of releases is even lower now. Movie have to wait their turn to get shown in Japan and when they do, it’s for a relatively short run.
    2. Japanese movies make more money per title on average than Western ones so they get preferential treatment not only to screen slots, but to release dates and run time as well. Western movies have to wait again.

15. I would venture it also relates to the promotion schedule. The big actors always tended to come to Japan and do loads of interviews to promote the movies. These days it seems Japanese movies are much more popular at the box office.

16. They want to see how movies do first. They also move movies around so they don’t compete with eachother (like I think Venom pushing back Spiderverse 2). They did pretty good with the marvel films and harry potter films on releasing on time. But overall I think its all some racket so that they can make as much money as possible. Japanese people tend to not care.

    I was pretty angry about Spiderman 3 getting months long wait and everything was spoiled. Sony is the worst at doing this.

17. Opposite question: why do anime movies are released in the other world half of a year later after release in Japan?

18. Here’s virtually no piracy here, so they don’t care. If people were torrenting movies that take long they’d cut the crap quickly.

19. Heard a few different reasons but it’s likely due to gauging overseas performance so they can plan how long films will stay in theaters.

    They will always prioritize locally produced content first so it comes down to scheduling.

    Also heard that Japan only has one regulatory body for subtitling that all foreign movies have to go through and companies have to pay extra to get their works to the front of the line or something, and only Disney can afford it.

    I don’t really believe it because every now and then we get some small thriller film day and date with the US like Don’t Breathe 2.

20. Is it possible that with (for example) “Oppenheimer” (which I haven’t seen BTW), or indeed any movie, they have to record a special extra feature for the Japanese market in which every single member of the cast and crew has to be interviewed about their favourite Japanese food? I mean, that’s quite an undertaking.

21. Why is it an issue again?

22. They have a robust local movie scene, I don’t think they’re all waiting for all the Hollywood releases.

23. I remember Spider-Man 3 came out in Japan before the US. My buddies and I were so stoked to go see it, but just felt like “huh…” after we watched it aha

24. It is just Japanese movie companies wanting the best time to release their movies and want less competition. I want to watch TMNT Mutant Mayhem !

25. I really want to watch Oppenheimer. Any news on release date?

26. Probably because they somehow need to promote those other ten low budget shot like TV dorama boring ass Japanese movies too, otherwise the western movie market will overshadow it

27. As others have mentioned, the main reason is that they like to use “#1 hit for X weeks” and such in the advertising, using the overseas box office to help promote the film and build excitement in Japan.

    Another part of it is that they like to bring the actors over for the premieres, and it’s easier to schedule the actors to come to Japan if it’s released after the press tours in the west are finished.

    Different school holiday schedules is a factor as well in juggling the timing of releases.

    I have noticed a lot of films coming out closer to the rest of the world recently, though if I want to check the Japan release date the easiest way to find it (usually) is still just to hit the “end” button to scroll to the bottom of the list.

    And every once in a while, there’s something that will come out earlier in Japan. Some of the Spider-Man movies, for instance, were out in Japan before the US release dates, though not by a whole lot. The movies that come out here first are usually a combination of a sure thing and produced by a Japanese company (such as Sony with the Spider-Man films).

28. >we can see that there is no statistically significant relationship between when a movie releases in Japan and how well it performs at the box office, with an r2 value of only 0.012

    You said correlation does not imply causation, but then use the above logic to prove your point.

    In a scenario where less-likely-to-succeed movies are released in Japan more quickly, you’d see exactly what you saw in your graph: Early movies grossing less than later released movies.

    Your analysis stopped way too short to reach a valid conclusion.

29. I’ve moved to watching stuff on streaming anyhow. I mean, I have an awesome theater nearby, with inaka-level crowds, which means that an English showing has basically 5 people with their own massive corner of the theater, but I’m dreading looking to see what the price has been bumped up to.

    I generally don’t get spoiled, and care a lot less if I do. Very few movies are things I am geared up to see specifically anymore.

30. Japan has its own thing going on, and a lot of people aren’t really interested primarily in American culture (I understand many people are, but most people are inward-looking). That being said, I don’t know how big of a hit *Oppenheimer* is going to be here.

31. I remember when Frozen came out in the US, and then Frozen came out just before summer in Japan. That was wild.

32. Could It be that many other places just pirate/download them if release takes too long, and can deal with English without needing subs, whereas Japanese don’t torrent and are reliant on the industry doing subs for them?

33. I wonder why Dune was released in Japan before America though.

34. I’m just thankful that marvel movies are released at the same time. No way I’d be able to avoid spoilers. Some movies only come out a few weeks after, but a ton of blockbusters still don’t get released until months after. As a movie lover, it can be a little disappointing. I’d rather watch critically acclaimed foreign movies rather than Detective Conan 12059 the movie. Don’t even get me started on the amount of Doraemon movies there are.

35. The world is not centered on America. Hollywood movies are not that popular in Japan. Simple reason.
    Japanese movies are not even released in America.
    It is because there is no demand.