- The Japanese box office numbers have come out, though there’s no percentages because there were no numbers from last week. Worth noticing is that no film on the top 10 has a significantly good per-screen average because they are all holdover films. The first major releases of the year are coming this weekend (including Giniro No Season, the new film from Eichiro Hasumi, who last directed the surprise megahit Umizaru: Limit of Love), so things should be more interesting then.

Yesterday, I noted the bouncing back of period flick Chacha. Eiga Consultant has more details on its disastrous opening weekend: On 274 screens, Chacha made only 44 million yen on its opening weekend, which is only 18% of previous year’s O-Oku, which opened around the same time. Some possible explanations for such a disappointing opening (though it’s hanging around long enough to enter the top 10) are: 1) No TV station produces it, 2) The star is not well-known enough, or 3) The production time seems too short, which suggests not enough impressive production values. But period flicks attract older audiences, and they ended up showing up during the New Year’s holiday instead of before it.

- In Korea, the year’s first Korean release manage to make a number 1 debut with over 300,000 audiences, while the holdover Christmas films are still hanging on. It’s damn near inexplicable to see August Rush with over 2 million viewers and counting. The full chart at Korea Pop Wars.