Any movie fans here? I wonder if someone could explain to me what actually the issue is with movie releases in Japan. I’m genuinely interested in understanding how this publishing process works and why Japan is often relatively late with big movie releases.
I know that Oppenheimer brings this political/historical point to the issue and most news focus on the potential issue that the movie could be banned by officials. However, nothing official about the release in Japan was announced (at least that I am aware of) just yet.
To boil it down to questions, why is Japan often late compared to the rest of the world with big hollywood releases? Is it an agency that needs to approve suitability for the japan market that is notoriously slow in doing so? Like, who is deciding (has the power) to prevent Oppenheimer (or any other movie for that matter) to enter Japanese cinemas? I know cinemas can just decide on their own not to show movies (obviously) but that seems not to be the case in this situation, so I am clueless.
And another question, is there any legal way to watch Oppenheimer or other movies on world release or do we need to leave the country? Like are there independant cinemas that dont follow the consensus or something like that?
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Historically, the timing of releases didn’t matter. You saw the movie when it came out, you talked about it amongst your Japanese friends who saw it at the same time as you. Now with global media and buzz, there’s an incentive to watch it at the same time as the rest of the world.
The number of screens hasn’t kept up with the number of releases, and unlike the US, a typical theater needs to regularly screen both domestic and foreign films. If they want to generate a certain amount of revenue, they want it to screen for a certain length of time. And there’s the issue, also seen in the US, of not wanting to have big tentpole movies compete with each other at the same time. This crowds the screening schedule and ends up causing delays.
In scheduling, domestic releases are prioritized because they tend to make more money. The highest grossing foreign film last year was Top Gun: Maverick, at #4. Moreover, they’re produced by the same companies owning the movie theaters, much like the old studio system of Hollywood. As a result, there’s less money flowing outwards and it’s more profitable to screen domestic fare.
With foreign films being less popular/profitable than domestic films, they need to rely more on promotion to bring in an audience. The release delay allows tactics like using success in the rest of the world (“No. 1 in the US box office!”) and flying in movie stars into Japan who might not otherwise be available if they were promoting it at the same time as the rest of the world.
> And another question, is there any legal way to watch Oppenheimer or other movies on world release or do we need to leave the country? Like are there independant cinemas that dont follow the consensus or something like that?
The distributor has/pays for the rights to distribute a film in a region. They dictate the release. If they don’t do a limited release among smaller cinemas, you’re not going to see it there.
It’s all about money. Big titles cost tons of money to acquire screening rights, and in order to recover the cost, they need to run them in lots of theaters, and often it’s not easy to secure because distributors and theaters tend to prefer Japanese movies, which cost less and are more lucrative. And in the case of Oppenheimer, there’s a good chance that it won’t sell well in Japan, so the distributor has to be extremely cautious.
As for how to watch Hollywood movies legally before their official release in Japan, I think watching them on streaming sites using a VPN is the only way. It could be against the site’s rules, but it’s not illegal.
I think movies are just in general released later. IIRC, even Super Mario was released like 4-6 weeks later than North America.
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> is there any legal way to watch Oppenheimer
It will be showing in Korea from August 15th. If you buy roundtrip tix now, they’ll be pretty cheap. You can do a day trip just to watch the film.
Did that to watch Mission Impossible, was totally worth it.
I would echo what others have said here. I think they are being cautious. First off, I think it would have been too insensitive to release it at the same time as other countries, a mere week after the Trinity test and only two weeks before the Hiroshima bombing.
The other reason for the delay is that this summer belongs to Tom Cruise and Mission Impossible. No other film wants to compete with that. Once New Years rolls around (or more likely spring break) and Oscar buzz has hyped things up, that will give some cover to the distributor for any flack from the controversial subject matter.