From: Ryoko Toyama
Subject: Next Miyazaki film

Yesterday, Ghibli had a press conference to announce the next film by Miyazaki-San, to be released in the summer of 2001. It is tentatively titled as "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (A Thousand and Chihiro's Spirited Away)". It's about a ten year-old girl, Chihiro, whose parents were changed into pigs. She goes to the Land of Spirits and have an adventure. It takes place in today's Japan.

Disney is partially funding the project.

Also, "Princess Mononoke" will be theater released in Japan with Japanese subtitles next year.

You can see an illustration by Miyazaki-San at http://www.zakzak.co.jp/geino/n_December99/g1999121403.html It's very small, but it's Chihiro and her parents. (Note: Click on the image to see a larger version)

I don't know how long this site (a Japanese newspaper) would keep the article on-line.

> It is tentatively titled
> as "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (A Thousand and Chihiro's Spirited Away)".

Forgot to mention clearly, but this is a *tentative* title, and it's likely to be changed.

Ryo

(Reported on the ML by Ryoko TOYAMA)

(Reported on the ML by Ryoko TOYAMA)

(Reported on the ML by Mark Yates)

(It's worth noting that John Lasseter, the director of Toy Story 2, is a Miyazaki fan.)

(Reported on the ML by Michael S. Johnson, Erik Scully, and David Mankins)

OK, this is not a wide release, but it's a full limited release. Not too bad; and reportedly, some of the theaters are "mainstream" theaters, instead of "art-house" theaters.

(Reported on the ML by Wing Fox)

(Reported on the ML by Jerry Hsu)

According to Yahoo ( http://movies.yahoo.com/hv/boxoffice/rank.html) PM made $243,040 with 47 screens, and total sales is $963,310. It is ranked 26th.

(Reported on the ML by Joe Monson)

(Reported by Shun CHAN)

(Reported on the ML by Emru Townsend)

Subject: PM: Prelim box office figures Nov. 5 - 7

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991108/en/film-boxofficeleadall_4.html

"Miramax's animated picture ``Princess Mononoke'' also held up well in its sophomore platform weekend. The minimajor estimates a weekend take of $385,000 on just 38 screens, or about $10,100 per screen. Eight ongoing sites in New York and L.A. dropped about 15%."

According to Nikkan Sports Newspaper, dated Nov. 6, (reprinted at http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~hn7y-mur/mononoke2/monolink06link32.htm in Japanese - thanks, Mohri-San!) PM's box office figure ($144,266 in the first weekend) was 150% of what Miramax had expected for.

Great! :)

The article also says that it will be released in France in January, and will eventually be released in Italy, Germany, and Spain.

However, as usual, this seems to be the information from Ghibli side, and it might not be accurate. (Ghibli tends to release what is just in a planning stage as a concrete fact.)

Ryo

Miramax however scored with the critically praised, re-voiced, animated import Princess Mononoke. The magical fable with more than just kid appeal only opened at eight sites, but with a huge $17,500 per screen, and seems set to blossom big in wider release.

(Reported on the ML by Jerry Hsu)

Update: The exact numbers for the weekend, according to Box Office Guru, are $144,446 total in 8 locations, with $18,056 per theater.

(Reported on the ML by Charlie Tangora)

(Apologies to the copyright holders, but people have to see these quotes!)

(Reported on the ML by "Corneel")

I was discussing Mononoke with the execs at Miramax and they said that fans will be critical to the success of the movie. They are following the "Shall We Dansu?" and "Shakespeare in Love" strategy and are going to rely on support from fans and word of mouth to allow them to move to phase II and do a wide release. If it doesn't take off, then the film will simply become an art house film. So if you want to see it hit America's mainstream market, fans will have to do their fare share and get the word out.

(Reported on the ML by Joe Curzon)

(Reported on the ML by Chun Hei Cheung)

(Reported on the ML by Deborah Goldsmith)

I've created a web page to report on the MH screening at the NY Film Festival with some of the pictures I took. It's at http://www.starleaf.net/~airami/en/nyfest.htm

(Reported on the ML by James Pearce)

(Reported on the ML by Russell Watanabe)

(Reported on the ML by Charlie Tangora, URL reported by Harvey Kung)

Soundtrack

Princess Mononoke Soundtrack, Milan Records (Info)

Books

"The Princess Mononoke: the art and making of Japan's most popular film of all time", to be released this month (Hyperion Books, 1999)

"Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation," (Stone Bridge Press) is the exclusive, fully illustrated, definitive book on the major works of Miyazaki. We should have it in-house September 13, and it will be available in bookstores by the end of September. To read more about "Hayao Miyazaki, Master of Japanese Animation" visit http://www.stonebridge.com/miyazaki/miyazaki.html

For those interested, the full marketing info is available here.

(Reported on the ML by Deborah Goldsmith)

From: Ryoko Toyama
Subject: MH French release in 2000?

Team Ghiblink has been contacted by the webmaster of Gaumont, a French company who has been building the official web site of the French version of Mononoke Hime. (Gaumont has a joint venture with Buena Vista, Gaumont Buena Vista International, which is releasing MH in France).

According to him, the French release of MH has been postponed to January 2000. (It was originally planned in September, 1999).

From: "Kevin"
Subject: Mononoke Trailers

Hi this is Kevin, the theater manager, again. I have some great news... The time has finally arrived! Princess Mononoke trailers (previews) are available to movie theaters. Though it is a limited release, trailers should not be a problem to get for most theaters. However, getting them to play the trailers is one thing. But Miramax will most likely have them put the trailer on one of their upcoming films. If this is required, then the theater should do it.

Look for the trailers in a couple of weeks!!

This is Kevin, the one who gave the bad news about the limited release. Well here's more bad news.

Princess Mononoke (Miramax)
In 10/29
Top 20 markets
Out 7/9
(From Movieline International)

In other words, Mononoke will be released right before Halloween (a good move on Miramax's part) and will only show in the top twenty markets. Which means to start out, it will only be shown in 20 places in the US. "Out 7/9" means that the July 9th release date has been canceled. It should also be noted that Princess Mononoke is off the "Scoreboard". Sorry for the bad news. Please keep in mind that this is a VERY reliable source. They get their stuff straight from the film companies every week.

(Reported on the ML by Russell Watanabe)

(Reported on the ML by Russell Watanabe)

From my telephone conversation with Ms. Robin Jonas, VP of Publicity for Miramax Films, advertising for MH will not appear until June. This makes sense because:

• if advertising started too early, people would get tired of it before the film came out (they'd learn to ignore it)
• if it started too early, it would get buried by STAR WARS advertising

The song is called MUMBAI THEME TUNE by A.R. Rahman. I got it off of the Anokha: Sounds of the Asian Underground disc.

(Reported & quoted on the ML by Ben "Yak-kun" Marquez)

Regarding this trailer, posted on the ML by Nathan Mallory on 4 Feb:

It IS 100% the trailer from the [Japanese Mononoke Hime] LD! It even has the Japanese title preceding the trailer. I was extremely disappointed, as I'm sure quite a few people are, as I was hoping for release date confirmation, as well as possible morsels of English dialogue, but no such luck.

From: "Kevin"
To: ghiblink@nausicaa.net
Subject: [Ghiblink] Mononoke Release and etc.
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 1999 02:04:04 -0500

Hello, I'm a theater manager in Missouri and we have received a "Scoreboard" which tells you everything about the movies coming out. I have information on Mononoke for you that was just posted on it.

As of 4/9/99...

Release:           7/9/99
Lens:              Flat
Sound:             Dolby Digital
Name:              Princess Mononoke
Film Co:           MIR
Rated:             PG-13
Release:           Limited Release   (Unknown for Number of Prints, but I
                                      would guess around 300.)
Running Time:      134 min.  (1 minute more than the original?
                              I guess for the extra credits.)

I know it will break some people's heart when they find out it's a Limited Release, I know I was ticked. But this is, of course, subject to change. Sometimes if the movie does real will for the first two weeks, it goes WIDE with 1000+ prints.

I hope this info is useful to you!

Kevin

(If Miramax is really going to change the title, I would personally recommend "Legend of Ashitaka"...)

"Princess Mononoke" (Miramax) PG-13 for images of violence and gore.

(Reported on the ML by Ryoko TOYAMA)

This week's film trade papers (Variety and Screen International) both run separate ads for Dimension and Miramax, although the first distributor is part of the second. 'Princess Mononoke' is featured in the *Miramax* ad. Dimension is most notable for advertising a continuation of a successful horror franchise - Scream 3 - at the same time as an upcoming spoof of said franchise - Scream if You Know What I Did Last Halloween (working title).

> It's the top grossing non-English film of all time in
> *Japan*. I've never heard anyone say anythingmore, and would be
> personally quite surprised if it were the all time top grossing
> non-English film *ever* anywhere.

Want some proof?
Head to http://us.imdb.com/Charts/intltopmovies
Look down the list 'til you get to #81.

Keep in mind that this list does not include U.S. box office figures, but considering that the top non-English film in the States is still "Il Postino" at a hair over $20 million, you won't change Mononoke's standing even if you factor that in.

It IS the top grossing non-English film *ever* anywhere.

(Info from a Daily Variety article posted on the ML by Shun CHAN)

(Reported on the ML by Michael Arnold)

A Japanese "sports" newspaper, Houchi Shinbun, is currently running a series of articles about Ghibli and Miramax's release of MH. According to it:

1. It took about half a year, started on July 4th, to complete the recording of the English dub.

2. It took about 350 million yen (in $1=Y116 rate, that's about $3 million, though I'm not sure the exchange rate used in this article) to make the English dub.

3. Gillian Anderson (Moro) recorded at LA studio, while Billy Crudap (Ashitaka) did his part at NY studio. Both did a superb job, according to the article. Especially, Billy Crudap worked really hard, sometimes standing in front of microphone 6 hours a day.

4. Miramax held private screenings of MH for Leo DiCaprio and his father three times. They both loved the movie, and since his father is an anime, especially Miyazaki fan, Miramx thought that they could easily get Leo to play Ashitaka. However, the mega-hit of "Titanic" changed everything.

5. Miramax also tried to get Robin Williams to play Jiko Bou, and Williams showed real interest, but the schedule didn't match. Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient), who was offered the role of Eboshi, could not find the time to do the role either.

The animation news site "Stay Tooned" has written a nice little biography about our favorite animator. You can find the article at the following url:

http://www.staytooned.com/profile/miyazaki.html

(Reported on the ML by Shun CHAN and Russell Watanabe)

According to Shukan Sincho, a Japanese weekly magazine (Jan 21 issue), the Museum of Modern Art in New York is *considering* the screening of 11 Ghibli films in this summer.

A publicist of MOMA was quoted in the article, "There are many Miyazaki fans in the US. So we are paying great attention to his works."

The article says that Mononoke Hime is coming to the US in July and this screening is related to it.

Please note, *nothing is official yet*.

Subject: Miyazaki comes back to Ghibli

According to the production diary at Ghibli's official site (http://www.ntv.co.jp/ghibli/, in Japanese), Miyazaki-San has "officially returned" to Ghibli as "Shochou" of Studio Ghibli.

Shochou means the head of "Sho", which usually means office and such. Studio Ghibli already has a "Shasho", the head of Sha (Company) - Toshio Suzuki. Staff members of Ghibli are wondering "where is Sho then?".

Miyazaki-San officially quit Ghibli last January (he used to be an officer), saying that he had to make way for younger people. I guess he couldn't keep himself away from Ghibli after all.