Japan My Neighbor Totoro returned 11.1× its production cost, earning $41.0M against a $3.7M budget — one of the highest-return Japan films in our catalog.
Synopsis
となりのトトロ
Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.
Audience Engagement
7,124 audience reviews — more than 100% of Japan films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 95th percentile among Japan films.
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #423 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (91st percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +1.2 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Fantasy productions specifically: #198 of 1,274 (top 16%).
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 1h 26m runtime, production spent $43K per minute on screen and earned $477K per minute back.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with My Neighbor Totoro. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Studio Ghibli
Fantasy + Animation in Japan
1095 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Fantasy and Animation genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding My Neighbor Totoro itself).
The 1987–1989 Japan Window
Among 104 Japan films we catalog from this window, My Neighbor Totoro places #6 — near the top of its class.
The 1980s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1980s in Japan, 280 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when My Neighbor Totoro premiered alongside 32 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 32 other Japan films in 1988.
The 739th 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 My Neighbor Totoro, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- new neighbor · 2
- leave · 1
- new home · 1
- magical creature · 1
- rural area · 26
- hospital · 23
- mother · 14
- anime · 711
- super power · 61
- village · 46
- sibling relationship · 38