No More Miyazaki in America?

According to an article published by Inside.com, the Disney company has no plans to release any further Hayao Miyazaki or Studio Ghibli films in America, although they have the domestic distribution rights to 11 films including Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, and the current Japanese blockbuster Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi).

“Hayao Miyazaki’s animated feature Spirited Away, is already on track to unseat Titanic as Japan’s highest-grossing film ever. And Disney, which has a lucrative worldwide distribution deal with the director, is uniquely positioned to jump in. Yet the best explanation for Disney’s caution can be summed up with two words: Princess Mononoke. Mononoke, Miyazaki’s last film, also was a smash hit in Japan — taking in a second-best-ever $150 million at the Japanese box office in 1997 — but was a mammoth dud in the States. (Spirited Away has taken in $106 million worldwide at the box office in its first five weeks, the only non-American movie to pass $100 million mark this year.)

According to the article, the dark nature of Princess Mononoke surprised Disney and “the disastrous results of Mononoke’s 1998 U.S. release… changed everything… the film grossed just over $2 million” at the American box office. “That’s kind of embarrassing, to have the most successful film in the history of Japan come to the U.S. and not do that well,” said Steve Alpert, executive representative for Tokuma Publishing, the company that owns Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli.

According to Alpert, “Disney currently has no official plans to release any more of Miyazaki’s films in America.”