MUMBAI: The American influence on Japan continues. While staying local, Japan‘s box office collections ballooned mainly on account of Hollywood 3D blockbusters that took the top three spots.

Japan‘s theatrical collections touched a new high, surpassing the previous record of 2004, as it rose 7.1 per cent to 220.7 billion yen ($2.7 billion) in 2010.

Though feeling the tremors, the local Japanese filmmakers ruled their den. According to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan data, local Japanese movies fared better than imported movies in overall market share for the third straight year. But their share of the total market slipped three percentage points from 57 per cent in 2009 to 54 per cent in 2010.

The rise in box office figures can be primarily due to the premiums charged for 3D viewing, which generally adds about 300 yen per ticket.

Significantly, the top three films at the 2010 box were all foreign and 3D movies. Twentieth Century Fox‘s sci-fi blockbuster Avatar was the year‘s top grossing film with 15.6 billion yen ($190 million), followed by Walt Disney Co‘s Alice in Wonderland and Toy Story 3, both smashing the 10 billion yen mega-hit mark.

The Borrower Arietty, the top Japanese film and No. 4 overall, raked in 9.25 billion yen. The animated movie was followed by 3D flick, Umizaru 3: The Last Message and cop action thriller Bayside Shakedown 3, which grossed $98 million and $88.9 million respectively.