‘Soul’ Shines In Korea Debut; ‘Master’ Blast Encourages India Biz; Japan’s ‘Demon Slayer’ Topping $350M – International Box Office

Japanese public broadcaster NHK, via its business arm NHK Enterprises, has acquired local rights to Sherlock: The Russian Chronicles. The 8x52’series will air in Japan on AXN Mystery beginning Sunday, Feb.

Discuss: does director David Leitch have the best cast of 2022 with “Bullet Train”? Because on top of starring Brad Pitt and a slew of interesting, top-shelf actors, the action thriller just added Sandra Bullock to the cast.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Boonie Bears: The Wild Life,” the latest feature-length instalment in a long-running Chinese film and TV franchise, is set to open in Japan and Australia.

Netflix has picked up international streaming rights to Chinese fantasy feature The Yin Yang Master, one of the major titles set for release during China's upcoming Lunar New Year box office bonanza. The film is an adaptation of the popular Chinese role-playing game Onmyoji, which is itself based on the blockbuster fantasy novel of the same name by Japanese author by Baku Yumemakura.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefPixar animation “Soul” and Japanese anime “Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train” held station at the top of the South Korean box office for the second successive weekend.Still heavily under the influence of COVID conditions, nationwide overall takings remained anemic.

Disney/Pixar’s Soul continues to shine overseas with a $96.2M cume after seven frames. In 11 markets this session, the Pete Docter-helmed original added $6.9M to its international box office kitty with No. 1s again in Russia and Korea. In China, it has surpassed Incredibles 2 to become the market’s 2nd highest-grossing Pixar title ever.

Also Read: 'Bring Your Own Brigade' Director Says Climate Change Isn't the Only Reason Wildfires Are Worse (Video)Lindström added, “He said, ‘I made sure no one could listen to these songs.’ And then when we came to Japan and talked to people, they all said, ‘He sings such perfect Japanese,’ and he just started to like them.”Petri said it was an important moment for Andrésen, who was finally able to “reclaim his experience and the place of Japan as another way, as an adult.”Also Read: 'A Glitch

Joe Otterson TV ReporterNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) will air on the Roku Channel in the U.S., U.K., and Canada under a new television deal, Variety has learned.The professional wrestling promotion will air a one-hour weekly series on the Roku Channel beginning Feb. 11 and will air every Thursday thereafter beginning at 5 p.m.

Davide Abbatescianni Swiss sales outfit Lightdox has acquired Julien Faraut’s documentary “Les Sorcières de l’Orient,” taking part in the Big Screen Competition of the Rotterdam Film Festival.The film follows the former players of the Japanese women’s volleyball team. Now in their 70s, they used to be known as the “The Sorcerers of the East” because of their seemingly supernatural powers on the courts.

With international buyers unable to travel to Germany to scout movies at year’s Berlin International Film Festival, the event will instead bring a selection of titles from its program to them through new initiative ‘EFM goes global’.

Naman Ramachandran In today’s Global Bulletin, Korea’s IU joins the cast of Kore-eda Hirokazu’s “Broker”; Bertelsmann sells Groupe M6; Red Arrow takes series “Blackout”; Shorts festival sets dates; and ITV commissions game show “Moneyball.”Lee Ji-eun, the popular Korean singer-actor better known as IU, has joined the cast of “Broker,” Japanese auteur Kore-eda Hirokazu’s debut Korean-language movie.

So Nic Cage is a bank robber sprung, naked except for a sumo-nappy, from a lengthy stint in jail by the white-hatted, black-hearted Governor (Bill Moseley) of a fake Japanese cowboy town populated exclusively by caged Geisha prostitutes, one of the favorites of whom, Bernice (Sofia Boutella, being bafflingly good again despite the material) recently escaped, so The Governor straps Cage into a leather suit rigged with explosives on the arms, neck and testicles that are primed to explode if they

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefPixar’s “Soul” was joined by Japanese hit sensation “Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train” at the top of the box office rankings in South Korea over the weekend to Jan. 31.

PlayStation 5 console restock caused chaos.The Akihabara branch Yodobashi Camera – one of the biggest electronic retail chains in japan –  was intending to sell the consoles via a first-come, first-serve system.As detailed in a report on PSU, most retailers in Japan are using a lottery system at the moment in order to try and deter scalpers from profiting off sales of PlayStation 5 consoles.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentTheatrical box office takings in Japan fell by 45% in 2020, compared with the previous year, as coronavirus took its toll on cinemagoing. But that makes Japan one of the most resilient major box office territories.Data published Wednesday by the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (Eiren) show that total box office was $1.37 billion (JPY143 billion) 45% down on 2019’s $2.5 billion (JPY261 billion).

The Japanese box office plummeted more than 45 percent in 2020 after the novel coronavirus pandemic briefly shuttered cinemas in the country and weighed on moviegoing throughout much of the year. Total ticket sales revenue clocked in at $1.38 billion (143.3 billion yen), down from $2.39 billion (261 billion yen) in 2019, which had set an all-time record.