TOKYO  Titanic sailed in Japanese movie history by becoming the No. 1 film at the nations box office with a record gross of 18.35 billion yen ($135 million), Fox said on Monday.

The Japan box office high is one of the more than 50 revenue records set by Titanic.

Titanic surpassed the previous Japanese box office champ, Princess Mononoke, on Sunday. Princess, from acclaimed animator Hayao Miyazaki, took in 18.25 billion yen ($134 million).

Titanic was released in Japan Dec. 20 and was the No. 1 film for 22 consecutive weeks and weekends. The James Cameron epic was first shown to the world at the Tokyo Intl. Film Festival in early November and is still going strong in Japan.

It took Princess about 15 years for to topple E.T. The Extra Terrestrial as the box office champ in Japan. It took Titanic about five months to dethrone Princess.

-- Dan Draghici (ddraghic@sprint.ca), May 20, 1998

Answers

The Japanese have excellent taste in film, 22 weeks at #1 that beats the US # WEEKS AT #1. Go out and see Titanic this weekend!

-- michael pitt (xrrg10b@prodigy.com), May 20, 1998.

At first I appreciated Michael's enthusiam for "Titanic". More and more, however, I am having trouble dismissing the thought that he might be a shill for Fox or Paramount.

-- Cynic (foo@bar.com), May 20, 1998.

Glad to see that Japan loved the movie. I hope to watch the japanese version soon since i speak it.

-- Steve Bruce (anime1973@hotmail.com), December 21, 2002.