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The story
It’s been reported that ‘First Voice,’ the Haruka Ayase-starring film that opened on October 2, had a rough start, pulling in just ¥13 million at the box office on its first day. The film is a work of fiction inspired by Japan’s first harassment lawsuit, which took place in 1989, and reportedly scored a high 96.7% satisfaction rating in audience surveys — yet that praise never translated into actual ticket sales. On 5ch’s Entertainment/Sports News+ board, posters pointed out that the marketing leaned too heavily on the cast’s bubble-era fashion, creating an image disconnected from the film’s actual content, while others questioned whether Ayase herself still has real drawing power as an actress. The thread also touched on the broader structural issue of how films not distributed by Toho tend to struggle.
Haruka Ayase’s starring film shockingly underperforms — doing worse than a Daiki Shigeoka movie — as “hits are tough for anyone but Toho” becomes a harsh reality
“First Voice,” the Haruka Ayase vehicle that opened on October 2, is struggling at the box office.
The film is a work of fiction inspired by Japan’s first-ever harassment lawsuit, which took place in 1989 at the height of the bubble economy.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Audience surveys recorded a 96.7% satisfaction rate and a 95.6% word-of-mouth recommendation score, and it's scoring well on review sites too (around 4.0 on sites like Eiga.com).
But the marketing pushed the cast's bubble-era fashion so hard that people got an impression totally disconnected from the actual content, and that scared audiences off.
To really get this film you need to understand the social atmosphere of the time and how hard life was for women back then — and the movie actually captures that beautifully.
This is a complete marketing failure, plain and simple.
If only hardcore fans are watching it, of course all you'll get is praise — the real red flag is that there's no range of opinions at all.
Apparently there's data on this that the ad agencies never make public.
it's NHK two-hour-drama-tier stuff.
Yeah, exactly this.
Back in the day, the film industry and media used to say "idol movies don't make money."
Sorry to say it, but in the film industry Haruka Ayase's reputation is still just that of an "idol-type actress."
Old Kadokawa films starring Hiroko Yakushimaru or Tomoyo Harada were also "idol movies," but those worked because Kadokawa had Yakushimaru and Harada turn down all TV appearances, running a "if you want to see Harada or Yakushimaru, come to the theater" strategy — and it paid off.
Ayase's agency Horipro has no strategy like that, so unfortunately there's no way a movie starring an "idol-type actress" is going to pull in an audience.
I had no idea what they were going for with First Summer Uika's makeup in this.
If they wanted to cast First Summer Uika, they should've skipped that makeup.
And if she can't appear without that makeup, they should've just cast a different actress.
Her makeup wasn't this heavy in the NHK historical drama, was it?
And the subject matter isn't exactly hit material either.
Might be good content, but…
I'll just catch it on regular TV lol
So Haruka Ayase's biggest hit is…
Uniqlo?
Maybe they should hand out limited-edition acrylic stands of Ayase on a weekly rotation? (picking nose — a dismissive, "yeah right" gesture)
Nagasawa's just a weirdo who genuinely likes that kind of thing.
You can tell from her Kincho (insecticide brand) commercials.
Way to phrase it (lol)
How many theaters was that one even playing in?
Feels like it's not really a fair comparison.
That guy's a newcomer, so it's understandable for him.
But for someone treated as basically a "national actress" to end up nearly the same as him? That's embarrassing.
Kind of cheap that Re: #1 doesn't even mention that Toei movie, huh.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
“First Voice” is inspired by Japan’s first harassment lawsuit, which took place in 1989 during the bubble era, and its release scale and distribution setup differ from a major Toho production. The ¥13 million opening-day figure itself can look very different depending on how many theaters it played in, so it can’t simply be written off as a flat-out “flop.” Where the thread split was over whether to blame the struggle on the marketing approach (overemphasizing bubble-era fashion) or on Haruka Ayase’s own drawing power as an actress. The 96.7% satisfaction figure from the audience survey comes from the distributor’s own announcement — the article doesn’t specify the sample size or methodology, and it’s worth noting that it’s a separate metric from actual attendance numbers. The industry theory that “idol movies don’t hit,” illustrated with examples from Showa-era Kadokawa films, also has its limits when compared directly to today’s distribution and marketing environment.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “[Entertainment] Haruka Ayase’s starring film shockingly underperforms a Daiki Shigeoka movie… struggles with a ¥13 million opening-day gross, as “hits are tough for anyone but Toho” becomes a harsh reality.”
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