Forum - View topicNEWS: Miyazaki's Ponyo Slips to #13 with US$2 Million
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crazychild
Posts: 79 |
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Ponyo just opened in my town on Friday, and I was the only person in the theatre when I saw it at the first showing. Granted, it was 2:45 so most kids were still in school, but there were at least a dozen other college-aged people when I went to see Coraline under the same scenario.
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Kyogissun
 Posts: 676 |
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It finally opened up here too...
But I've gotta go see The Final Destination. >_> Priorities this time are fandom to an awesome thriller/gore series over animu. |
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giascle
 Posts: 157 Location: Denver |
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Ponyo. All the good parts of the Final Destination series are, of course, gone in the new movie. |
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The Ramblin' Wreck
 Posts: 924 Location: Teaching Robot Women How To Love |
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You know, it IS a Ghibli children's movie. I still don't see why Disney didn't at least ADVERTISE for it and shoot for a wider release.
True, the real money is probably in DVD sales, but still. |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4547 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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I enjoyed Accidents Caused by Loose Things and Spilled Liquids: The Movie #4, I mean The Final Destination, but I like the formula, and it's pretty much just the exact same movie as the previous films with different freak accidents. It wasn't as good as the third one, but the third one had Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Ponyo's weekend-to-weekend drops have been on a very gentle glide slope, so I don't think a final domestic tally of around $15 to $17 million is out of the question, though that depends on how many theatres it'll lose in coming weekends. |
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2488 Location: United States |
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I saw this 2 days ago with my dad and we liked it a lot.
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care2care
 Posts: 36 |
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I'm surprised it passed Spirited Away in gross earnings....
but that's probably because Disney was advertising like a madman who just snorted crack-cocaine walking into a huka bar at 1 am about a Jonas and a Cyrus being VAs in the film. They knew that's where the money's at.....those bastards |
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sdhd
Posts: 169 |
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I would go watch the movie with friends and family if the anime was available at my local theater. I am waiting for the anime to come on dvd or BD.
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icomeanon6
Subscriber Posts: 116 |
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I am SICK of hearing people bad-mouthing Disney for using Jonas and Cyrus. Big news, people: Studio Ghibli does the same freaking thing. A lot of the Japanese voice actors in their movies are pop stars. Disney has put more into Ponyo and the other Ghibli films than anyone would call economically smart, so quit your complaining about how greedy they are. They're doing this because they love Miyazaki, not because they want to leach off him. If using actors like Jonas and Cyrus is the best way to get young children to see this wonderful film, then I'm glad they did it. Having watched the movie, I have no problem saying that those two did a tremendous job with their roles. I think it's downright despicable how much crap they're getting from anime fans just for being the younger siblings of high-profile pop stars. I couldn't be happier with how Disney is handling Ponyo. When I went to the theater to see it most of the audience was comprised of young children who probably had no clue of who Miyazaki was. Those kids might not have gotten to see Ponyo if it weren't for Disney localizing it and getting it into so many theaters. If it weren't for Disney, Ponyo would have been just as obscure as all the other anime movies that aren't Pokemon or Yugioh. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14889 |
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They did advertise Ponyo, even on TV (if you watch TV - a lot of anime fans don't much), particularly children timeslots since that's its target audience (older folks who know about it are obviously already anime watchers). Many parents in the theaters also heard about it from Disney's e-mailing lists and promos for families (they had not known anything about the movie beforehand). And Ponyo's per-theater average on its opening weekend was just OK, not spectacular, so a wider release would not had helped it (sure, it may earn maybe a million $$ more, but at $100 per theater - meaning the theaters are losing money every time they screen it, thus making them more reluctant about releasing more Ghibli films in the future). |
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GATSU
Posts: 15574 |
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I'm just surprised that the theater count is roughly unchanged for the weekend. Does this mean Disney likes the numbers for Ponyo?
Ramblin': They did advertise it. The problem is they didn't advertise it to the right demos. And for an anime theatrical release in the U.S., this is wide. ico: I think the reason they don't like the idea of Jonas and Cyrus is that they're not even the ones who are popular or successful, but their siblings. (Though they probably hate the real singers, too.  ) As for Japan, I do admit there's also some disdain in American fandom for random idol singers being used to voice characters, regardless of actual talent. Though I think the real issue is that the movie is being sold on the names of the actors here, while in Japan, anime at least gets promoted based on the directors, too. But in this case, the "directed by Miyazaki" thing wouldn't matter here.
Still, I liked Jonas and Cyrus, and unlike other Disney dubs, it doesn't end up being the actors playing themselves, rather than their characters. Besides the dub, though, this might be the only once-in-a-lifetime chance to see any anime feature on the big screen in your effing neighborhood. No company is going to step up to the plate like this again any time soon, because it's just not profitable, and because there's a greater chance of it being torrented than there is for the fans to cough up the cash for even a friggin' matinee ticket. |
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2324 |
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I still need to go see it. Maybe next weekend?
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MetatronM
Posts: 281 |
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5th place for Ponyo would be a very successful result if that's where it ends up. That would put it at the top of the list of Miyazaki films in the US and the highest grossing anime film not based on a video game or toy cross media franchise.
That said, it has a very very slim chance of reaching Pokemon 3's total, depending on how its legs are and how long it stays in theaters. I don't think it will do it, though. I'm thinking 14-15m is probably around where it ends up. But at least it has a shot, which is not something I would have expected it to have before. |
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The Ramblin' Wreck
Posts: 924 Location: Teaching Robot Women How To Love |
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At that rate, a theatrical release is just an expensive ad campaign for the DVD. I don't watch children's programming, so I guess I missed the ads. Glad to see it was "more than nothing". And, to echo an above poster, Anime studios utilize pop-star talent all the time, so it's kinda hard to fault Disney for following suit. It's young people comfortable in the studio and with trained voices. It works more often than it fails. |
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Teriyaki Terrier
 Posts: 5689 |
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Ponyo does look like a great movie and even Time magazine said this was a great movie. I've watched almost every movie Miyazaki has made, so I know I'd probably enjoy this.
But I am a bit leery of the voice actors, but only because I know the two main characters probably haven't done anime voice over's before. But I do know this, at least the actors can't be any worse than the Dragon Ball Evolution cast. |
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