Shoutout to that random stat about Studio Ghibli movies

I was reading through some old forum posts last night and found out that 'My Neighbor Totoro' originally only sold about 800,000 tickets in its first run in Japan back in 1988. That blew my mind because it's basically a cultural icon now. I dug deeper and found the stat on a site called Box Office Mojo Japan. For a movie that became the mascot for an entire studio, those initial numbers are wild. Has anyone else stumbled on a surprising stat like that from old anime releases?

2 comments

2 Comments

kevin_west14d ago

Kind of reminds me how so many small things that blow up later started out barely getting noticed. It's like the world just wasn't ready for something that good yet.

taylor.sean13d ago

Man that reminds me of this old indie band I saw at a coffee shop back in 2003.