Japan Babel returned 5.4× its production cost, earning $135.3M against a $25.0M budget — one of the highest-return Japan films in our catalog.
Synopsis
“If You Want to be Understood… Listen.”
In Babel, a tragic incident involving an American couple in Morocco sparks a chain of events for four families in different countries throughout the world. In the struggle to overcome isolation, fear, and displacement, each character discovers that it is family that ultimately provides solace. In the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, a rifle shot rings out detonating a chain of events that will link an American tourist couples frantic struggle to survive, two Moroccan boys involved in an accidental crime, a nanny illegally crossing into Mexico with two American children and a Japanese teen rebel whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo. Separated by clashing cultures and sprawling distances, each of these four disparate groups of people are nevertheless hurtling towards a shared destiny of isolation and grief.
Audience Engagement
3,427 audience reviews — more than 99% of Japan films in our index.
Review volume (99th percentile) outruns trending popularity (78th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 2h 23m runtime, production spent $175K per minute on screen and earned $946K per minute back.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Babel. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
The 2005–2007 Japan Window
Babel holds position #127 of 364 Japan films in the 2005–2007 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 2000s Japan Landscape
2006 was the decade’s peak output year for Japan — 134 titles released, including Babel. Bars below show how the 2000s stacked up year by year (1020 total).
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 133 other Japan films in 2006.
The 1864th Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Babel, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- deaf-mute · 5
- multiple storylines · 5
- incident · 4
- bullet wound · 3
- nanny · 2
- illegal immigration · 2
- first time · 1
- san diego · 1
- ecstasy · 1
- drug use · 1
- tijuana · 1
- non linear · 1
- gun · 22
- california · 20
- daughter · 17
- morocco · 6
- japan · 454
- tokyo · 78
- loss of loved one · 32
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #1,716 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (63rd percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.3 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Drama productions specifically: #742 of 1,933 (top 38%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| All Production Countries | France, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, United States of America |
| Original Language | En |
| Spoken Languages | Arabic, English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian |
| Production Companies | Babel Productions Inc., Paramount, Paramount Vantage, MRC, Anonymous Content |
| Runtime | 2h 23m |
| Release Date | September 8, 2006 |
| IMDb | tt0449467 |