×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
NEWS: Alita: Battle Angel Film Earns US$8.7 Million on Opening Day in U.S.


Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3  Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Mr. sickVisionz



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 2171
PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 1:04 pm Reply with quote
I hope it does well. It's not mindblowing or anything like that, but it's a fun sci-fi action movie.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 1:16 pm Reply with quote
Honestly, this is about the best you can expect from an anime/manga adaptation. Nothing was westernized except Daisuke turning to Dyson, and maybe Yugo becoming Hugo, the story stayed true true to the sources, because it clearly took from the OVA as much as it did from the manga. Above all, it was sincere about itself, not a hint of irony or being oddly smug about what it draws from. I can't believe Jim did it.

Jim needs to hold Avatar sequels for ransom unless he gets funding for Alita 2 and 3. If this is his passion project, he should need to sacrifice his all, because I want it too. See this in IMAX 3D, take your friends.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Spawn29



Joined: 14 Jan 2008
Posts: 550
PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 1:45 pm Reply with quote
My theater was packed when I saw it and had to sit in the front row when I saw the movie. The movie is doing better than expected and will do well overseas similar how Pacific Rim did. People say that the movie will bomb because it is based on an anime & manga and assume it will be like Ghost in the Shell 2017 all over again.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Johan Eriksson 9003



Joined: 27 Oct 2014
Posts: 281
PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 2:37 pm Reply with quote
So...a lot better than expected but probably not enough to not be a "bomb"? Shame, I just saw it and it is kind of awesome.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Kruszer



Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7981
Location: Minnesota, USA
PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 2:52 pm Reply with quote
I saw it Thursday, it was pretty good actually spoiler[for something that's only half a story. Definitely needs a sequel.].
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Psajdak





PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 3:50 pm Reply with quote
It is such a shame that there wasn't more Alita anime...

Alita could have been one of the most recognizable roles for legendary Miki Ito if she had voiced her in more than just that one OVA.
Back to top
jdnation



Joined: 15 May 2007
Posts: 1994
PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 3:55 pm Reply with quote
I'm still aching to see it. But getting people together to go is always a waiting period until everyone's schedules clear up.

Glad to hear it made over (low) expectations. Hopefully it has legs and it'll pick up.

Otherwise I might just go on my own for Ultra AVX 3-D.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DangerMouse



Joined: 25 Mar 2009
Posts: 3980
PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 4:13 pm Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
Honestly, this is about the best you can expect from an anime/manga adaptation. Nothing was westernized except Daisuke turning to Dyson, and maybe Yugo becoming Hugo, the story stayed true true to the sources, because it clearly took from the OVA as much as it did from the manga. Above all, it was sincere about itself, not a hint of irony or being oddly smug about what it draws from. I can't believe Jim did it.

Jim needs to hold Avatar sequels for ransom unless he gets funding for Alita 2 and 3. If this is his passion project, he should need to sacrifice his all, because I want it too. See this in IMAX 3D, take your friends.

Agreed, I wish he would, that was freaking awesome, I really want them to be able to make a sequel so bad.

Psajdak wrote:
It is such a shame that there wasn't more Alita anime...

Alita could have been one of the most recognizable roles for legendary Miki Ito if she had voiced her in more than just that one OVA.

Right, I always felt that was so strange. I loved that old OVA back when it first came over to the US and always hoped for more.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Jose Cruz



Joined: 20 Nov 2012
Posts: 1767
Location: South America
PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 5:47 pm Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
Honestly, this is about the best you can expect from an anime/manga adaptation. Nothing was westernized except Daisuke turning to Dyson, and maybe Yugo becoming Hugo, the story stayed true true to the sources, because it clearly took from the OVA as much as it did from the manga. Above all, it was sincere about itself, not a hint of irony or being oddly smug about what it draws from. I can't believe Jim did it.


My impression is that Alita is the first genuine manga adaptation done by Hollywood.

Previous movies that claimed to be adaptations were just original stories that borrowed the character's names and some superficial visual clues from the manga they claimed to be adapting.

Alita is an actual manga-adaptation: it is a movie that adapts the story of the original manga into a 2-hour live action movie format. It has done several changes but it is the sort of change you expect when adapting a manga into a 2-hour movie (it was like Miyazaki's own adaptation of Nausicaa into a movie). Compare that to the Speed Racer and Ghost in the Shell movies which were Hollywood movies that shared a limited and superficial resemblance to the original franchises.

Still, I had a few problems with the Alita movie although I think overall it was a great action science fiction movie, in fact, I thought it was the best Hollywood sci-fi action since The Matrix from 1999. The first problem is that the movie felt a bit too fast as they tried to compress too many scenes and plot elements of the manga into 2-hours while adding their own twists into the mix.

The second problem spoiler[was that used Nova as a kind of supervillain, which made the movie a bit weaker since the original manga was not a story about conflict between a hero and a villain but the story of the struggle of Alita in living in a harsh post-apocalyptic world. For example, in the movie's final scene where Hugo is killed by the cleaning thingies on Zalen's tubes, in the manga it was an accident that reflected the harshness of the world Alita lived in, in the movie it was the conscious decision by Nova to try to kill Alita and Hugo. The movie gradually turned Alita's story from a "super harsh post-apocalyptic slice of life manga" into a generic Hollywood superhero story. ]

Quote:
Jim needs to hold Avatar sequels for ransom unless he gets funding for Alita 2 and 3. If this is his passion project, he should need to sacrifice his all, because I want it too. See this in IMAX 3D, take your friends.


I think Avatar is also a passion project of his. I think James Cameron is one of the best directors in Hollywood and one of the very few that make blockbusters that are still artistic, in the sense that his blockbusters are a reflection of his own artistic expression.

Avatar, for example, was a science fiction movie that he wanted to do without any franchise backing it up, so it did not have record-breaking opening weeks but word of mouth kept the movie strong in the box office for several months. I guess that if Alita turns out a profit it will go like Avatar: growing stronger in the box office instead of shifting into the background after 2-3 weeks as it happens to the generic superhero movies.

Alita's box office performance will certainly have a distinct dynamic from established franchise movies like Marvel's, DC's and the Star Wars movies, which generated all their profits from the pre-release hype. Alita will be profitable if it manages to generate positive word of mouth among the few people that show up to watch this unknown franchise movie in the first weeks and continues to generate ticket revenues for far longer than typical for Hollywood blockbusters. Therefore, one should not think it will be a flop just because its first few days were not very profitable because its box office dynamics does not operate under the same rules as superhero movies do.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
ninjamitsuki



Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Posts: 589
Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology)
PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 5:54 pm Reply with quote
Going to go see it tomorrow.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
db999



Joined: 23 Dec 2017
Posts: 299
PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 6:27 pm Reply with quote
Alita doesn't actually seem to be doing too badly so far. It's currently made around 52 million dollars and with its budget at $170 Million it looks like it will make 1/3 of its production budget back in the first weekend. For comparison Crimes of Grindlewald made 62 million its first weekend and it eventually made a profit and its budget was higher and had much worse reviews than Alita does. I know that using this film might not fully work for this comparison as it was the least profitable in the franchise and Harry Potter is a series everyone in the world knows about but for a franchise that has much less exposure worldwide, Alita seems to be doing pretty well. It was originally only projected to make around $29 million (not sure if this projection was just for us or worldwide) in its first five days, but it's already made nearly double that. I fully expected this to be a big flop, but given these facts, I think it's way too soon to count Alita out as a box office bomb.

Edit: Also I am aware that the marketing budget likely puts the money it has to make back in order to break even much higher than the $170 Million production budget, but I'm still cautiously optimistic it could break even or even more surprisingly make a profit.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Heishi



Joined: 06 Mar 2016
Posts: 1314
PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 7:47 pm Reply with quote
Just saw it yesterday and I was quite better than I thought it would be.

Nice job, Rodriguez and Cameron!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
rtil



Joined: 22 May 2005
Posts: 93
PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 9:55 pm Reply with quote
haha, ouch. i guess james cameron's gonna have to shell out more of his avatar money to bankroll a sequel.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
prime_pm



Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 2333
Location: Your Mother's Bedroom
PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 2019 12:06 am Reply with quote
I'm busy all this weekend so I'll go watch it the following. I only finally got around to seeing Into the Spider Verse last weekend.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
-SP-





PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 2019 3:33 pm Reply with quote
Can't say I'm surprised, this is what happens when you make a live-action film.
Back to top
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3  Next
Page 2 of 3

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group