WHO'S MAKING MONEY?

TOHO - the Japanese studio has 10 films in 2006 that have broken the 1 billion yen barrier (about US$8.5 million) which is the "blockbuster" mark for a Japanese film. These include MEMORIES OF MATSUKO, UMIZARU 2, DORAEMON, CRAYON SHINCHAN, STORMY NIGHT, SUITE DREAMS (aka HOTEL ECSTASY), TRICK 2, STAR REFORMERS, and CHEKERATCHO.

THE HOST - advance tickets were on sale for the July 27th opening of Bong Joon-Ho's monster movie, THE HOST, and they sold out in 30 minutes. That's all the advance tickets. On about 100 screens. Totally gone in 30 minutes.

METROSEXUAL - the Thai comedy from Yongyoot Thongkongtoon of IRON LADIES opened to a decent 5 million baht (about US$131,000) on its opening day last Thursday. Distributor GTH has its fingers crossed that it'll make back its US$1.2 million budget theatrically since they need a hit right now after their Laotian soccer movie, LUCKY LOSERS, was protested by the Laotian government and they now need to either scrap it or remake it. You can read a review of METROSEXUAL here.

JAPAN SINKS - the remake of the 1970's disaster movie, THE SINKING OF JAPAN, opened to almost 1 billion yen on its first weekend (actually 981 million yen) and it looks set to hit the 8-10 billion yen mark during its run. This is despite some pretty lackluster reviews.