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I posted a bit about this in the "welcome" section, but I'm a new member, originally from the UK and now in Japan. Lapsed reader from the 80s 90s who recently subscribed again etc. etc. The movie is out in the cinema here on February 16, and I can't wait. I've resisted watching on the internet or on DVD all this time because of what I read here about it being so much fun to see on the big screen.

Anyway, I just wanted to give something useful back after finding so much useful information by lurking on this forum over the last year or so, not only about the movie, but also about which stories I should catch up on from my years in the (be)wilderness. There seem to be high hopes about the film doing well in Japan, but I have to say that from the evidence I've seen its release here is unlikely to add much to the numbers. Foreign movies don't tend to make a massive amount here unless they're something like Harry Potter, and Dredd will only be shown at 20 cinemas nationwide (out of 3,000 screens).

I got advance tickets for me and my friends at a cinema in Tokyo yesterday and got a free gift of some "Dredd" coasters  The coasters are pretty cheap-looking, like round beer mats with black-and-white photocopied likenesses of Dredd, Anderson and Ma Ma on them. I doubt they had a lot of money to spend on marketing here. I had a quick look at the booklet of advance tickets the woman had and it looked like they'd already sold a fair few - possibly 25 or so. That said, it's highly likely they were all sold to male British expats of "a certain age". I had a few beers with a few Japanese mates and acquaintances later that day and did a quick survey of whether they'd heard anything about the film. None of them had heard of it except for one bloke who's quite a film buff anyway. He said he saw a trailer for it at the cinema the other day. I asked for his opinion about how it looked and he just said something non-commital like, "I was quite surprised to see that there are films about this kind of hero too." Which seems a polite Japanese way of saying he probably won't go and see it.

I guess my conclusion is that I wouldn't expect too much of the Japanese box office. Of course I'll be doing my best and I've already roped in a couple of people to see it with me. If it turns out to be as fun as everyone says it is I might see it more than once, which I haven't done at the cinema since Titanic came out (I was young and stupid back then).

OK, I've had a look around and I'm still not sure how to post in the Dredd topic, so I'll post my thoughts here.

As an anti-trolling measure, new arrivals can only post on certain parts of the forum. You seem like a normal human to me though, so I've bumped you up to a full member and you should be able to post everywhere now.

Thanks - I thought it might be something like that. I'll try to post on the film discussion section if I hear anything new.

Thanks for the welcomes.

One other thing I forgot to mention is that Dredd has an R15 certificate, meaning that you have to be 15 or over to see it. The certificate's usually reserved for gory horror movies.

OK, I've had a look around and I'm still not sure how to post in the Dredd topic, so I'll post my thoughts here.

Firstly, about the number of cinemas showing Dredd. From the official Japanese page, it seems that only 20 cinemas in the whole of the country are showing the film. I looked up statistics about cinemas in Japan and it seems that there about 3,300 cinema screens in Japan, so as you can see that's quite a limited release.

Secondly, I would also like to voice a note of caution about Japan's receptiveness to foreign films. Most films get shown here sooner or later, and everything finds an audience, but the relative popularity of foreign films in Japan has waned massively in the last ten years. In around the year 2001, the ratio of foreign films to domestic films was around 70-30, but now the majority of films shown are domestic. I think there are a variety of reasons for this, including Japanese films becoming more entertaining, the nation becoming more insular in general, and of course, Hollywood films being pretty shite.

Here is a link that could give a clue about what kind of box office performance Dredd might expect:
http://boxofficemojo.com/intl/japan/yearly/
As you can see, the top grossing films were all Japanese, followed by the usual Hollywood suspects. From this and the number of screens showing the film, I would guess that Dredd would be somewhere near the bottom of the list, grossing 5 million or so. I hope it will be more of course, and I will try to get a load of friends along to see it.

Regarding awareness of Dredd in Japan, I would say it's similar to the US in that it's limited to the Stallone film. Most younger people don't even know that. The comic has an almost non-existent presence, as of course Japan has its own thriving comics culture, which is very different to ours. People here tend to prefer "cute" styles of drawing, and the realistic kinds of drawing styles you get in something like 2000 AD doesn't really appeal to them.

Good news is that I did a quick search on Google News Japan and saw a couple of articles about the film. There don't seem to be any reviews as such, but I did read one thing that gave a brief opinion about the film, saying it was non-stop action. It came out with the old chestnut that the plot is similar to "The Raid", but the guy went on to say that it's an old trope of action movies anyway so it doesn't matter. This brings me onto another positive thing. Japanese people tend to be more analytical and reasoned than most, so people are unlikely to react with the kind of kneejerk "it's a copy of the Raid and the original Sly version was better!" reactions you get in the US. I think people will give it a chance, and journalists and writers of blogs will actually get their facts straight about the film without spreading inaccurate rumours.

I haven't seen any posters or anything, and I haven't seen TV adverts, but I don't really watch TV anyway. I've been going on about the film to others enough that they're sure to mention it if they see a TV spot, though.

One last thing: I saw that if I pre-order tickets from one cinema in central Tokyo, I'll get a free gift of some Dredd coasters with Judge Dredd and other characters in the film on them. Definitely gonna pre-order!

Welcome!

You have taken up a weighty task! Hope the film odds popular there, some on the forum seem convinced it will be.

Thanks! I don't want to get people's hopes up too much - I'm just planning to give my (completely unscientific) observations about how it may do in Japan. Actually, I just tried to post in the film section but I couldn't find a way to post in the "Dredd" topic. Is that locked to new users? If not, how can I start posting there?

Thanks! Unfortunately it looks more like a sea of ignorance at this stage, but it's still early days. Of course, I'll do as much as I can to change that. One thing I wanted to mention is that as far as I can see it's on quite a limited release. I'll try to give more details about that later.

Hi, I just joined the forum.

I was an obsessive reader of 2000 AD from 1987 to around 1992, when it started carrying stories about sheep policemen and I started to worry about what girls might think if they saw me reading a comic about a sheep policeman. I now live in Japan and I've spent the last few years ordering various graphic novels to catch up on what I missed before and after my time as an obsessive reader. I dread to think how I'll carry them all if I ever move back to the UK. I subscribed to the prog in September and my only regret is that I didn't do it sooner.

One of the reasons I registered is to try and provide other users with an insight into how the Dredd film is received over here in Japan, so my first couple of posts will probably be over on the film discussion section.

Cheers!