Sat Aug 30, 2008 — by Robert Greenberger

'The Dark Knight' Not Wowing them in Japan

Batman may be too Dark

Apparently, Japanese audiences are more interested in the works of Hayao Miyazaki than Bob Kane and Bill Finger. The Dark Knight is performing under expectations in Japan with just $8.7 million in box office receipts after three weeks based on figures at Filmjunk.com.

Compare that with the $93.2 million Miyazaki’s Ponyo on the Cliff has earned in just four weeks.

Film critic Chika Minagawa suggests, "The story is very pessimistic. It has a dark and gloomy texture that Japanese movie fans do not find appealing in a ‘comic hero’ film… Japanese movie fans expect such films to be fun and action packed, for the hero to be attractive, for the villain to be loud and outrageous, and for the movie itself to be easy to understand and light."

The Dark Knight will break the $900 million worldwide gross receipts benchmark over the weekend and is likely to break the $500 million domestic mark in September, although possibly fall short of the $550 million Warner Bros. estimated.
 

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