We have word today that the nature documentary Earth has become the highest grossing doc in Japan over the past decade! We get the scoop from the professionals at Variety:
“Earth,” the feature version of the hit BBC nature docu series “Planet Earth,” has passed the two billion yen ($18.5 million) mark, making it the biggest BO docu of the past ten years.
“Earth” passed the previous top docu of the decade, Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which scored 1,700 billion yen ($15.9 million) in 2004. The take also exceeded that of the hit French nature docu “March of the Penguin,” which grossed 1 billion yen ($9.3 million) in 2005. The pic, directed by Alastair Fothergil and Mark Linfield and narrated in Japanese by Ken Watanabe was released by Gaga Communications on 270 screens in December 1 and hit the 1 billion yen mark after only ten days and the one million admission mark after 16 days.
Planet Earth was an amazing series and one that I recommend to each and every one of you. It pleases me that the feature film version of this series is doing so well in Japan. The project deserves it, and it is refreshing to see such good intelligent work championed by the movie going public.
Nature shows make the best use of digital cinematography. You are able to get such clear and articulate detail, things invisible to the naked eye are now zoomed in for us to observe and discover. In one nature program recently I saw a spider stick his mandibles into the head of a grasshopper, inject venom (that turned the insides to mush), and then slurp out the gut juice from the hole in the head as if it were a giant slushy. Nature has a myriad of fantastic and downright alien happenings that occur right in front of us, and now with the help of modern imagery – we are able to see them close up.
I have yet to see the feature film version of the series, but will be sure to get my hands on it. I hope the success enjoyed by this series results in future works. I love nature shows and would certainly welcome more of this calibre.
