"When Marnie Was There" earns less than half of "Arrietty" in first weekend 

Studio Ghibli\'s Latest Film "Marnie" Earns Less Than Half of "Arrietty" in 1st Weekend

Producer Suzuki says, "The future of Ghibli depends on the results of Marnie."

directed by 41-year-old Hiromasa Yonebayashi opened in Japan with 461 screens on July 19 and earned a very disappointing 379,000,000 yen (about US$3,734,000) with 285,200 ticket sales in its first weekend. It took third place in the weekend box office following

in 2nd. The result was only 42% of his first feature film

, which made about 900,000,000 yen with 680,000 tickets in its opening weekend on July 17-18, 2010, in 447 screens.

For the past couple of weeks, it has been strongly rumored that Toshio Suzuki, Ghibli\'s producer and co-founder, is now seriously considering the closure of the anime production division of the internationally acclaimed studio, after the retirement of his long-time colleague Hayao Miyazaki. In the

latest episode of his "Ghibli Asemamire" podcast posted on June 27 before the release of the film, he

actually said that the future of Ghibli depended on the results (both box office and critics) of

when marnie was there, studio ghibli, box office

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