Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Can't Anime Get A Wide Theatrical Release?
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Eri94
 Posts: 220 |
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Justin I like how you say matter-of-factly that no rational person blindly hates anime in the west and then you go on to explain in detail how most westerners do exactly that.
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CandisWhite
Posts: 282 |
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This happens to supposedly mainstream live-action films, too, regardless of advertising. I saw 'A Monster Calls', a movie starring Felicity Jones, Sigourney Weaver and Liam Neeson, being advertised ad nauseum on TV and online: Despite living near a large Canadian city, we had to go to a smaller city to catch one of its few screenings. During a supposedly wide release. Cineplex wasn't even willing to risk precious screen time on a serious, Carnegie-book (England's Newberry) based, movie, despite critical praise and heavy advertising. A decision which society sadly justified: The movie's domestic box office thus far is $3.7 million. 'Why Him?' sits at $56 million. Ouch.
Not always so. My above example is a white-as-snow western movie and was not exactly a psychedelic film; It was in the vein of 'Bridge to Terebithia' (book), if the ending was the whole story. The sad reality that seems to be on display is not racism but the stereotypical and perpetual ignorance of the sort of people described by Justin; A group of people who do not care to have a sophisticated, varied, and expanding, palette but simply wish to stick to safety, often in the lamest definition possible. There is no one stripe for people who behave in such a way and no one is completely immune from doing it, myself included: There are people who don't think, people who don't care, people who like parts of films, people who do genuinely enjoy some garbage, in spite of themselves, and people who display any of the aforementioned traits in different situations. This leads to a problem when good films don't get made or seen( Yes, that aspect is important to society) because "the chart says" crap is what sells; Good independent and foreign works tend to get nailed by this. It's not like anime is automatically wonderful material because it is from Japan; No one country has a corner on their artistic works being quality or junk. But this does keep anime in a niche category and that is heartbreaking. I would love to see a more discerning movie-going public but lay the blame for it generally not being so at the feet of intellectual coasting, not ethnocentrism. Remember, there is a LOT of western animation that doesn't get full, or any, releases either. Last edited by CandisWhite on Fri Jan 20, 2017 10:30 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Americans at large don't care about 2D animation. That's why every big American animated movie is 3D. Anime won't ever be beyond a niche audience in America. Luckily though, there are several Asian and European countries outside of Japan which still value traditional animation (and where Your Name will perform very well)
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L'Imperatore
 Posts: 828 |
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Strangely enough, they did care... at least until Atlantis: The Lost Empire. |
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AsuraTheDestructor
Posts: 466 |
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^ Because Shrek happened.
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2025 |
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I work at a movie theater, and all the anime screenings here have all actually done, very very well. Spirited Away had a sold out show of 320+ people, and couple more with 100+ each. Princess Mononoke had two shows with 200-250+. The Digimon movie had like 50 (a lot for a slow night in Fall), and almost every screening of the two recent DBZ movies had over 100. We're also gearing up to show the Sword Art Online movie. I know these films are playing for limited screenings at fewer locations, but I'd say there's definitely an audience. It doesn't even seem to matter if it's dubbed or subbed. Anime fans turn out here in full force regardless.
I've seen some of the overall numbers too. Some of these releases performed much better financially than actual wide releases, like recent flops Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, Shut In, Bleed For This, Edge of Seventeen, Max Steel, Morgan, Denial, Miss Sloane, Rules Don't Apply, and JEM & the Holograms. At my theater, those films were all lucky to have 5 people in the theater at any showing. Last edited by PurpleWarrior13 on Fri Jan 20, 2017 10:31 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Lord Oink
Posts: 876 |
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Disney is also at the point of remaking their classic 2D movies as live action because they feel kids won't watch old 2D movies like Beauty and the Beast or Cinderella anymore |
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Posts Sometimes
Posts: 38 |
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That why everyone says 2D animation is dead in America, but there isn't really a lot of evidence to back up that claim. It's not like there have been very many 2D animated movies getting wide releases lately to prove things either way. Princess and the Frog is usually cited as the obvious case of "2D = Obvious flop", but even that was a decent success and only disappointing by Disney standards. And if nobody in America cares about 2D animation, why are all the most successful American animated TV series 2D? Even ignoring long-running series that have been running since before 3D was an option, most of the successes are 2D. |
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yuna49
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I'll also mention that American audiences rarely watch foreign live-action films outside of a few urban centers. Here are the top grossing foreign movies in the US and in Japan. Titanic and Frozen each grossed well over $200 million in Japan. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon tops the American list at $128 million, though the population of the US is almost three times larger than Japan's.
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epicwizard
Posts: 420 Location: Ashburn, VA |
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Too animated? What do you mean by that? |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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No. None of those were HUGE hits in theaters, or even slight hits. Ponyo and Spirited Away might have even lost money considering how much effort Disney put into them. The Wind Rises had a smaller run, and I don't remember much marketing for that, so it might have done a tad better overall, as far as profit-to-loss, but it also only made 5 million compared to the the 10 million of Spirited Away and the 15 million of Ponyo. None of those are hits. I don't think Your Name will do more than a few million here given its release size, but it should make money for Funimation, and that's what is important.
He's not describing hate. He's describing a lack of interest and sometimes ignorance. Any business person who is worth their salt doesn't hate something that will make them money. Hate for anime is not the reason that anime isn't shown in theaters, it's because the people running the big companies don't see enough profit potential. And they don't see potential because audiences have not been shown to be very interested in it. Last edited by relyat08 on Sat Jan 21, 2017 3:35 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Jayhosh
 Posts: 972 Location: Millmont, Pennsylvania |
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It may be "an exception to the rule," but Your Name sure as hell isn't "niche" over in Japan or many other countries it's already released in. That alone, to me, is proof of the potential of the medium. So the optimist in me wants to deny that everything said in the article is a set in stone, unspoken law that will never ever change. And with the worldwide market for anime being much bigger today than it was for Spirited Away back when that was making gangbusters in Japanese theaters, I'm holding out hope that Your Name's probably limited US release will at the very least set a new standard for such. It just kind of baffles me I guess, this idea that any animation of SPECIFICALLY Japanese origin is somehow "niche" by its very nature, even the stuff that appeals to practically everybody (everybody I've introduced Studio Ghibli's films to have loved them, and some Hosoda films were thrown in there as well). I think it has more to do with the fact that the wider American market doesn't really want to watch foreign films, animated or not. That's why no one's ever heard of those nominees for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars most of the time either.
A man can dream, can't he? I say it's better than just begrudgingly sticking to the idea that Japanese animation will NEVER grow any more than it already has. I mean, did any of us think we'd have all these streaming platforms airing simulcasts within a day of the shows airing in Japan, US co-productions funding new projects, a booming manga market that takes up an entire isle at Barnes and Noble, among other things around 15 years ago? I guess what I'm trying to say is, never say never. Wishful thinking be damned. |
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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^I'm with you. I think the problem is that, as a business person, you have to be fairly certain your movie will be a big draw in order to invest the type of money required to get a large release. I think Your Name. has potential to do great numbers, theoretically, but this requires it to be widely available, and being widely available is way more expensive than Funimation or their distributor can afford to be. The best they can do now is hope the 200 theaters they've got fill like crazy and they are able to add more locations. That's really the only way for it to happen. I doubt we'll ever see a 1500+ theater opening for an anime movie, like Arrietty, anytime in the near future.
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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In a country where in order for something to be even get a glance from normies it has to be live action, I'm not getting my hopes up. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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The problem is that the last 2D films to come out from both Disney and Dreamworks really underperformed. When you factor is things like merchandising, home video sales, and TV rights, they likely made money. However, that's not what either company is looking for. They want hit movies that make a profit at the box office. All of the big animated hits over the past decade have been CGI, so it makes sense that they would stick with it. The other companies and Hollywood studios that have entered the animation game have seen the success of Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks CGI films and have sought to emulate that. None of them are taking a risk of a traditional 2D animated film because there haven't been any successful ones in recent memory. Until someone takes a risk and widely releases one that makes some serious cash, it's unlikely that it will see a come back at the box office. Also, there is a huge difference between 2D animated movies and 2D animated shows. It's far easier to get people to tune in to a TV show when they just have to flip the channel, or open up Netflix or Hulu. It's not quite as easy to get them to drive the whole way across town. Not to mention, there has been a marked increase in the number of CGI shows done over the past decade, particularly when looking at young children's programming. Now that CGI is more affordable and can be created more efficiently and easily, it's been getting used more and more widely. Not to mention, technology advances have allowed it to look much better than it has in the past. Even something like Doc McStuffins on Disney looks leaps and bounds better than ReBoot or Beast Wars. You should also keep in mind that many successful 2D animated shows are geared towards adults, like South Park, The Simpsons, Family Guy, etc. Not only did many of these shows begin their runs before the CGI "revolution" was in full swing, but their target audience is also more familiar with traditional animation. Unfortunately, the same people that will happily watch those shows won't often drive to the theater to watch a 2D movie from Disney. In short, it's a lot easier and cheaper to sell a 2D show than a 2D animated movie. Even though there have been some very successful 2D animated shows for children and teens lately, like Adventure Time, that doesn't change the fact that 2D has fallen out of favor for films, and we are seeing early signs of it doing so on TV. I've been both surprised and disappointed by the amount of CGI animation that is premiering on, or planned for Nick, Cartoon Network, and Disney. |
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