Japan movie box-office revenues plunge 17.9% in 2011

I don't fully understand why they say that the March disaster is the main reason that the revenues went down almost 18% because movies are scheduled and made before 2011. In my opinion they just failed to make enough quality movies and didn't promoted the cinema's good enough. What do you think that they can do to lift up the revenues? I think having a monthly pass might help the movie industry, and maybe more money can be put into certain movies. It also makes me wonder how ofter you actually go to the cinema?
I for myself love going to the cinema but find it expensive with 2000 yen (there are moments that it only is 1200 yen, but I have things on those moments).

[h=2]Japan movie box-office revenues plunge 17.9% in 2011[/h]A scene from "Kokurikozaka Kara" (From Up on Poppy Hill). ((c)2011 Chizuru Takahashi - Tetsuro Sayama – GNDHDDT)
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Movie box-office revenues in Japan last year plunged 17.9 percent from an all-time high in the previous year to 181.2 billion yen due to the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan, a film industry body said Thursday.
The number of movies released in Japan came to 799, up 80 from the previous year, but there was no blockbuster, the association said, adding that the number of viewers also dropped by 30 million to 145 million, the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan said.

read the whole article on mdn.mainichi.jp

Click to expand...

TSUTAYA DVD rental hit the record high in 2011. TSUTAYAﾂ、窶扼ﾅ?ﾃ妊VDﾆ椎槌停?愴耽ﾆ停?ｹ窶凪?｡ﾂ絶?昶?堋ｪ窶ｰﾃ溪?ｹﾅｽﾂ催?坂?壺?堙?窶ｰﾂｭ4224窶毒凪?凪?｡窶堙 | ﾆ値ﾆ鍛ﾆ暖 | ﾆ筑ﾆ辰ﾆ段ﾆ池ﾆ男ﾆ停?ｦﾂーﾆ湛

Culture Convenience Club Co, a franchisor of TSUTAYA entertainment package goods outlets, announced that its DVD rentals, including Bluray, VHS) reached 742.2 million rentals, up by 6.9% from the previous year, and marked the record high. It also said during April - June, many new release of movie was postponed due to the 311 disaster, and most of TV programme focused on news related to the disaster, as a result, customers shifted to DVD rentals.

Thanks astroboy, that makes it clearer.

I still go to the movies but only when it is something I definitely want to see on the big screen. Dinner and a movie for two plus snacks etc really adds up nowadays just to kill a couple of hours.