The film premiered in 103 theaters in Japan on August 2, 1986. The final box office record was a disappointing 1.16 billion yen, significantly less than the 1.48 billion yen achieved by Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 1984. When asked about its failure, Hayao Miyazaki surmised it may be "because he chose an ordinary boy who does not have special abilities as the main character."
Although meaningless in Japanese, "Laputa" (La puta) translates to "The Whore" or "The Bitch" in Spanish, which was probably intentional on the part of Swift, who created the concept in Gulliver's Travels. For this reason, in 2003, the film's title was shortened from "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" to "Castle in the Sky" in several countries, including the United States (where Spanish is commonly spoken as a first language by around 10% of the population or as a second language by students), Mexico, and Spain. This change was also carried over to a number of non-Spanish speaking countries, including Britain and France, under Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment label, despite Laputa (La puta) having no meaning in either English or French (however the French La pute is quite close). Curiously, although the word Laputa was removed from the title, it appeared on the rear cover of the DVD, and was used throughout the film, without modification.
La Princesse Et La Pute 1.16
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