The Queen biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody" is still doing big business in Japan, long after its November release. The movie recently crossed the ¥10 billion mark here, and its impact stretches well beyond box-office stats. Songs from the British band have taken up residence on streaming charts, while affection for the film has been prominent on TV variety and chat shows.
The film's stadium-sized success shouldn't come as a surprise, though. Beyond being a pleasant narrative centered around one of the biggest bands in pop history, "Bohemian Rhapsody" taps into trends that have helped push Western music up in Japan, though it has often lagged behind in recent years.
Over the past decade, music from the U.S. and the U.K. has lost significant sales ground here. It wasn't long ago that artists such as Mariah Carey and Avril Lavigne could dominate the Oricon charts, but in the 2010s success has been strictly limited to the upper echelons of pop royalty. Consumers have opted for Japanese artists, while Korean pop acts have taken the mantle of the top non-Japanese performers in the nation, even with politics threatening to throw a spanner in the works.
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