On Tuesday, distributor Toho announced that Hayao Miyazaki's "Gake no Ue no Ponyo" has raked in over 10 billion yen at the box office in the month since its release. More than 8.4 million people have watched the film in theaters.

The last Japanese film to gross 10 billion yen was the 2004 animated feature "Howl's Moving Castle," also directed by Miyazaki. "Ponyo" took only 31 days to so, compared to 33 for "Howl," suggesting that it may eventually surpass the 19.6 billion yen gross of the latter. However, it didn't quite meet the pace of "Spirited Away," which reached 10 billion in 25 days and went on to make 30.4 billion.

According to Oricon's DVD rankings for the week, the success of "Ponyo" has revived interest in older Studio Ghibli works. "My Neighbor Totoro," originally released in 2001, jumped from #22 last week to #8 on the overall DVD rankings, its first top 10 appearance in close to 7 years. Other titles saw similar leaps:

• "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" (#58 -> #31)
• "Kiki's Delivery Service" (#65 -> #35)
• "Princess Mononoke" (#77 -> #44)
• "Spirited Away" (#84 -> #45)
• "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" (#90 -> #58)
• "Porco Rosso" (#109 -> #83)