Forum - View topicNEWS: Tales from Earthsea Opens in Select U.S. Cities Today
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pachy_boy
Posts: 1335 |
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I'm just waiting for the DVD release date.
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cheesechimp
Posts: 12 |
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Man, I was under the impression it was going to be a decent-sized release, not 5 theaters! I wish this information had been a little wider available earlier, finding out it was playing in the Kabuki and only the Kabuki for the entire Bay Area took me way more hassle than I needed. I've been looking for a theater that was going to play it locally for nearly two weeks.
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mudduck454
 Posts: 303 |
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this sucks, living in florida, with disney only 20 miles away, why couldn't they show the movie here, disney has a 24 theater complex at pleasure island, they showed the eureka 7 movie there, so why not a studio ghibli movie, they are the ones who release the movies in america on DVD and blu-ray
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johnmora
Posts: 75 |
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I guess Disney's just releasing it out of contractual obligation.
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kawaiibunny3
 Posts: 534 Location: Houston, Texas |
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Well I would complain that there's not a single release in all of the the Southern United States
but then I remembered I had no interest in seeing it anyway 
I'm so excited about seeing Scott Pilgrim this weekend, all other movies aren't even on my radar. Hope it does well in those theaters though. |
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nagato316
Posts: 306 |
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I'm not saying this to be sarcastic, just as observation: had more than 5 theaters carried this, it _would_ be a decent-sized release, for a Ghibli film anyway. Ten to twelve would have been decent. Even if that didn't include one Chicago-area art house. Arguably, it's understandable why Disney is hesitant to premiere this thing on too many screens. (box-office demographics regarding anime etc. etc.) But here's a thought...why the heck premiere something already relatively low-profile (stateside anyway) on Cinema-geddon, of all summer weekends, up against the three headed monster of Eat Pray Love, Scott Pilgrim and Expendables? Are you trying to make Earthsea lose even more money at the box office than originally projected, House of Mouse? 
In all seriousness, one can chalk this up to "counterprogramming" against the juggernauts...not everyone flocks to the built-up blockbusters. But again I have to question this strategy on a weekend where 3, count 'em, 3 mega-blockbusters are opening up, perfectly evenly dividing the teens/20-somethings, the chick-flick, and the action flick demographics 33.3/33.3/33.3%. Okay, after doing the math, I guess that still leaves 0.1%. But still... |
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vashthekaizoku
 Posts: 261 Location: The House of Rat |
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Pleasure Island also had showed the first Naruto movie, and I think they showed at least the first Death Note live action movie...I saw Ponyo there, and I agree, it makes sense if you live near a Disney-run theater, they're gonna give prime consideration to a film that they invested a crapton of cash into... |
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John Casey
 Posts: 1853 Location: In My Angry Center |
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So I've heard this movie is pretty darn bad....
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GeorgeC
Posts: 795 |
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You're all forgetting one thing or don't want to be aware of this...
The last Ghibli film didn't do well in the US (theatrically -- I don't know about video sales) and WAS opened wider than any Ghibli release prior to it in the US. At least 350-500 theaters played Ponyo and I think it failed to crack $10 million. It got better distribution all right! At least 3 theaters in my area played Ponyo and that's quite a bit more than usual. I'm lucky if ONE theater plays an anime feature and it's usually a Bandai release btw... Most of the other anime features never make it here. Ponyo was based on The Little Mermaid, one of the best-known fairy tales of the West, and it STILL didn't do that well! I can see Disney wanting to be cautious on these releases. 35mm film prints and digital projection (whatever they use now -- I'm assuming they still make film prints even though most theaters seem to be transitioning to digital projection) are not cheap. To make copies -- each one of those is probably a couple grand minimum. Not cheap at all! It's not like they're handing out DVDs, guys. These are far higher-resolution and consequently cost a lot more money. You don't make a bunch of projector copies unless you KNOW the film is going to make money. I suspect Disney probably lost some money on the theatrical exhibition of Ponyo. My guess is that part of their contract with Ghibli/Tokuma might require theatrical distribution of newer Ghibli films. Also, if they want to enter these films into consideration for the Academy Award for Best Theatrical Animated Feature then these films must play in theaters for at least a few weeks. I'm not counting on seeing Tales From Undersea before it gets released on DVD/Blu ray in the US. I probably will wait for the Blu ray if a Japanese announcement gets made soon. Right now, I'm probably looking to get Nausicaa as my next Ghibli purchase when the Blu ray becomes available in the US. That should be be by January, middle of next year I figure. Right now, only two Ghibli features are out on Blu ray -- Ponyo and Nausicaa with Nausicaa probably getting a US release in the next six months after the Japanese street date. |
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Sheleigha
 Posts: 1674 |
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Uhhh Ponyo made more than ANY Ghibli movie released AND became one of the top anime releases of ALL TIME, in 5th place (with only the first 3 Pokemon movies and the YuGiOh movie beating it). I don't call THAT "didn't do well"... http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=ponyo.htm 15 mil domestic is NOT BAD for an anime movie. The only reason why I'm sure Earthsea isn't so widespread, is because even Japan didn't like it. Honestly, I had high hopes for it, and once a subbed version came out, I watched it right away because I didn't want to wait years. Guess what? I was bored... I personally found it dry and bland, but many people did as well. The climax was the only interesting part, and I had to sit through that to get to it :/ So, I'm pretty sure THIS is the reason it won't open very wide... EDIT: One more thing to note: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gedo-senki-tales-from-earthsea/ Every other Ghibli movie on RT is rated at the VERY least, 80%+ (mostly in the 95%+ range...) |
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GATSU
Posts: 15550 |
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chimp: If it does well enough in those theaters, it could always expand.
mudduck: I know how you feel. I live in L.A., and I hate havin' to drive an extra 10-15 minutes down to Pico, when I'd get the Ghibli stuff a lot closer in the past most of the time. [The screening of Only Yesterday being one of the few exceptions.] john: Nah, they want money on it, but the bad reviews make 'em wary of payin' for a bigger release. Christ, the thing's RT score is only slightly higher than that of The Expendables, which I actually am about to see today. 
nagato: Maybe they thought the 'Pilgrim fans would catch it, too? George: Has nothing to do with how Ponyo did. No one knows who Goro is here, nor do they care. Hell, I'm not sure the Japanese even care about him, either. And if they were obligated to distribute certain Ghibli films, then Only Yesterday would be guaranteed at least a home video release. |
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Nerv1
 Posts: 601 |
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I watched a fansub of this a few years back and it wasn't that bad, it just had a really mediocre plot and the main character was whiny as hell. |
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TheTheory
 Posts: 1029 Location: Central PA |
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Thankfully I don't live near any of the "select" US Cities. I'm not sure if I would chose to see it on the big screen or not.
I probably would. And I'd probably feel like I wasted $9. Anyway, I've made it my goal to own every Studio Ghibli related title I can... even purchased a region free DVD player so I could import the European releases (and the random Japanese release) that Disney won't (or hasn't) release. Thus I own the DVD of this. It wasn't QUITE as bad as rumored to be... but certainly ranks as the worst of the Ghibli titles. Not a title I'll watch again for a while. Though if Disney releases a blu-ray version, I'd have to pick that up. |
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Gilles Poitras
Posts: 478 Location: Oakland California |
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It would be nice if the notices stated which theaters are showing the subbed version.
The only way to find out is to go to the theater and ask. |
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koinosuke
 Posts: 274 Location: Fukushima, Japan |
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Earthsea isn't nearly as bad as the anime fans as a whole regard it to be. It has many really well done aspects, not least among them a truly great soundtrack. That said, it is easily the worst Ghibli film. All together it's more than a bit of a mess, and somewhat bland as well as incomprehensible at times. Still, it's much better than the average anime, just not really Ghibli level.
As such I would have liked to support it theatrically in the US, but the theater is a few too many states away. But I encourage people to go see it if they do have one playing the movie close by. Just don't expect Princess Mononoke or Grave of the Fireflies level stuff here. |
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