Despite lacklustre reviews from the American press, Message from Space endured far beyond what might have been expected, buried in the children’s slots at American theatres, paired on a double bill with Luigi Cozzi’s Star Crash (1978). Message from Space might have sunk below the radar of mainstream film, fading into the background noise of Saturday morning screenings for the next decade, but that gave it an oddly broad footprint with an audience of 1970s and 1980s children.

To put such American numbers in context, the smash-hit Pokémon – the First Movie (1999), was shown on a mere 3,041 screens, although that was a first-run record in the United States. The cross-over hit Shall We Dance? (1997) barely managed 268 screens. Kurosawa’s acclaimed samurai epic Ran (1985) was shown on a mere 30 screens. Unloved and largely unappreciated, Message from Space ultimately ran in over 17,000 theatres, where adults left their kids for a couple of hours’ respite, unaware that they were watching a fantastic swordfight finale between Shinichi Chiba and Mikio Narita, or the height of Tōei’s SFX work onscreen.

From my sleeve notes to Message from Space (1978), released by Umbrella in Australia as part of their Out There by Toei collectors’ box.