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.

Thursday 04th September, 12:41 AM JST

Film critic Chika Minagawa, on why “The Dark Knight” has not done as well in Japan as in other markets. Screen International reports that after three weekends, “The Dark Knight” collected only $11.1 million. (Tokyo Reporter)

7 Comments

KissMint at 11:57 AM JST - 3rd September

Oh, boo hoo! Perhaps Japanese just need to grow up.
borscht at 01:46 PM JST - 3rd September

Perhaps those Japanese moviegoers who like comic hero movies like the uplifting and exciting Super/Spider/Four/Incredible variety. But pessimistic, dark, and gloomy describe the endings of a whole lot of Japanese movies - Hero, heroine, child dies of disease, gets run over by a truck etc.
shayouzoku at 03:48 PM JST - 3rd September

strange, when i saw it the theater was almost full. maybe it's not available on enough screens
Pukey2 at 10:18 PM JST - 3rd September

Well, I guess it's Ponyo for me then.
hoserfella at 10:24 PM JST - 3rd September

Kissmint-considering the money this movie has made (half a billion already), Id say that a heck of a lot of adults everywhere need to grow up. I don't understand how anyone over the age of 21 could be sucked into these comic-book crapola movies such as batman, superman, spiderman, iron man, fantastic4, etc, etc.
MeanRingo at 05:34 AM JST - 6th September

Perhaps everyone ventured out and bought pirated copies. Why wait when you can pick it up from your local DVD street peddler? Stupid Japanese movie industry. Aho
Blue_Tiger at 07:18 AM JST - 10th September

I still want to see it, mostly because of what I've heard about heath Ledger's portrayal of the "Joker".