Titanics weekend box office in Japan hit nearly 1 million due to a special holiday in Japan,that is a nearly 57% rise in its box office. The total international gross is now up to 1.89billion with only slightly more then 10 million to go to hit 1.2billion. Titanic should hit 600 million in the US by the end of next week! Titanic was NUMBER ONE AT DISCOUNT THEATERS LAST WEEK IN THE US!

-- michael pitt (xrrg10b@prodigy.com), August 18, 1998

Answers

The holiday was the Obon festival. Besides free time, the spike in attendance is (IMHO) because the theme of the festival resonates with viewing the movie (especially the last scene).

Festival of Souls would be a good translation.

Similarly, the best single day for Titanic attendance in North America was Valentine's Day.

-- Thomas M. Terashima (titanicshack@yahoo.com), August 19, 1998.