S.S. Rajamouli’s blockbuster “RRR,” starring Ram Charan and NTR Jr, is racking up the numbers at the Japanese box office.
After an impressive worldwide run, where it grossed $145 million, including $14.5 million in North America, the film released in Japan on Oct. 21.
Keizo Kabata’s Twin released the film in 209 screens and 31 Imax screens in Japan across 44 cities and prefectures, the widest release for an Indian film in the country. Rajamouli, NTR Jr and Ram Charan visited Japan for a promotional tour for the film.
In a week, “RRR” collected JPY73 million ($495,000), making it the highest first week collections for an Indian film in Japan, according to Twin. “RRR” opened at No. 10 and the top nine films were all local Japanese films. “RRR” was the highest grossing foreign film of the week, ahead of “The Bad Guys,” “Spencer” and “Jurassic World Dominion.”
Twin estimates that “RRR” will recover release costs and enter into profit within 10 days of release.
“Muthu,” starring superstar Rajinikanth, remains the highest grossing Indian film of all time in Japan with a box office collection of JPY400 million. “Muthu” was released in arthouse cinemas on limited screens in 1998 and ran for a year. There hasn’t been a significant amount of inflation in ticket prices even though it was released 24 years ago. The average ticket price for “Muthu” was JPY1,800 and the “RRR” ticket price is JPY1,900.
While there is a lack of historical data for Indian films at the Japanese box office due to them being released in arthouse cinemas, distributors and industry insiders in Japan have collated a chart.
In second position on the all time Indian box office list in Japan is Rajamouli’s “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion,” starring Prabhas, with JPY300 million, followed by Aamir Khan’s “3 Idiots” with JPY170 million, Sridevi’s “English Vinglish” with JPY130 million, Akshay Kumar’s “PadMan” with JPY90 million, Aamir Khan’s “Dangal” with JPY80 million and Rajamouli’s “Baahubali: The Beginning” with JPY75 million.
“Director Rajamouli is one of the most anticipated directors and has a solid fan base in Japan because ‘Baahubali 2’ ran for a year in 2017 and grossed JPY300M. Also, the Japanese theatrical market is getting back to normal and audiences anticipate having an exciting cinema experience like ‘RRR,’ ” Twin’s Kabata told Variety.
“Japanese audiences find that Indians films, especially ‘RRR,’ are completely different from the films they normally watch and it has tremendous energy, which makes them feel refreshed,” Kabata added.