Forum - View topicNEWS: Howl's Moving Castle Box Office Results
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DragonsRevenge
 Posts: 1150 |
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No, it wasnt. By Miyazaki's standards it wasnt the best-I saw it as a cheaper Spirited Away knockoff. It's a fine movie by most other standards, but by Ghibli's, it really isnt. It's pretty to look at, but it falls flat everwhere else from character designs (I see Miyazaki is falling into the cliche Bishonen rut as far as Howl is concerned) to story to character development. |
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Twage
Posts: 358 Location: North Bergen, NJ |
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You have no idea how much a 2000-screen release costs, do you? Way more than they'd be able to make back on a limited-appeal film like a Miyazaki flick.
Yes, I'm obviously a huge enemy of Ghibli for seeking out and watching every single one of their films and disliking one (or two if you include Cat Returns). Give me a break. I love Miyazaki, I love Takahata. It's just that I can see that not everyone in the U.S. wants to see their movies in theaters. And that doesn't really matter as long as I can see them eventually, somehow. After all, if it doesn't bother Miyazaki that not everyone in America likes him (and he has said over and over that he couldn't care less about the U.S.), why should it bother you? |
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bluechibi
Posts: 137 |
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It bothers me when a movie like this only gets 200 screens. Unlike some fans I want more than just a small number to see Miyazaki movies, I dont fear it becoming popular. I just want Disney to give it a chance like Kung Fu Hustle and it's 2,500 screens.
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lj1958
Posts: 28 |
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It never came to our area, and we're NOT a small market. I'm very disappointed in Disney. If the crowded slate of summer movies was an issue, the film should have been released in the spring or fall, when parents are practically BEGGING for films suitable for their kids.
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samuraiwalt
Posts: 647 |
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The Bollywood film Paheli was only shown in 68 theaters and I saw no commercials for it yet it beat out Howl's Moving Castle. So I don't think the lack of theaters and advertisements is the problem.
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GATSU
Posts: 15364 |
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twage:
That's months after it was removed(more like forced) from theaters when it was one of the higher and consistently grossing limited releases. (It even beat the latest Pokemon movie.) And by the time it won an Oscar, it was so close to to being released on home video that there wasn't any point in seeing it in theaters.
Yes. Losing money on a movie about a talking car which people stopped paying attention to 25 years ago is cost-effective.
Again, I cite Crash.
And apparently on Herbie. |
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samuraiwalt
Posts: 647 |
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Herbie made $3609 per theater and Howl's Moving Castle made $2879 per theater. So they're losing more money on Howl than Herbie. |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4474 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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Nothing. It's performing quite well by anime in domestic theatres standards.
For the most part, yes. Especially when they're animated. Anime is relatively a lot more popular now than it was a decade ago, but it's still far too niche for studios to take a chance with wider releases of anime films not directly tied-in to kiddy mass merchandising tie-in cartoons. They figure that not enough people would turn out for a serious anime film to justify the cost of the prints and advertising of a wide-release.
While I'm certain the tastes of the mass moviegoing audience will change over time, and while I believe that, in the future, there will be periods of time when theatrical 2D animation will flourish again, for the time-being, Americans think of 2D as more of a TV animation medium. People can say, "It's the quality of the story, stupid", but it doesn't explain why Iron Giant, easily on par with the best of Ghibli, bombed (and I thought the stories in Road to El Dorado, Spirit, Treasure Planet, and Brother Bear were much better than a lot of critics gave them credit for, and better than some CGI movies that made a lot more money). And I know some people claim that Iron Giant was underadvertised, but I saw plenty of ads for it at the time. I don't know what the next "big" (by which I mean Lilo & Stitch numbers, not necessarily Shrek 2 numbers) 2D feature not directly tied-in to a popular television cartoon series will be, but it will almost certainly be something that panders to American tastes and will not be anime.
Correctamundo.
Such is the fate of "niche" films in the North American market, that a lot more people will see them for the first time on DVD as the overhead is much lower than for a theatrical wide release and the profits a lot more direct. At least four times as many people in North America got a chance to see Howl's Moving Castle on the big screen than ever got a chance to see Steamboy (and some of the Howl's Moving Castle prints will likely be re-distributed to theatres in some of the smaller markets within the next few weeks). Anyway, Miyazaki has said, repeatedly, that he's astonished that any North Americans like his films and he doesn't particuarly care how big an audience they get over here. As such, 200 screens may feel like a big success for him, not a failure. |
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vherub
Posts: 49 |
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Certainly Howl could have/be doing better in theatres than it is now, whether the blames falls on creators, distributors, adverstisers, or the movie-going public, the above posts have made cases for the responsibility being on each and all make sense.
A point I would like to add that has not been addressed is an underlying feeling of agism. If you look at the majority of popular anime now in America, stories revolving around the elderly are not making any "Best anime ever!" posts. I myself admit to being slightly bummed when I heard the basic outline and then saw the main movie poster. An old woman hobbling up a hill towards a giant mechanical structure just wasn't doing it for my excitement levels. I saw Howl anyway, and the shame of it is that the movie has very little to do with an old woman. I enjoyed it less than other films, though not because of the age of the main character. But the scant marketing and ads that came through made Howl sound like it revolved around age, completely missing the point. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15364 |
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samurai: Considering Herbie cost a lot more than licensing and dubbing Howl, I disagree.
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yoshitoshi
 Posts: 11 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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some of you guys are missing the point.
It actually was shown in theatres! That's awesome. 10 years ago no one would have given it a chance. With producers being a dime a dozen nowadays trying something new, which anime is still new to the U.S., is a huge risk. Hollywood is having a hard enough time just getting people to go to the threatres lately. I got to see Howl at the El Capitan when it premiered and the overall review between me and the other animators who went was that it was good, but not great. I believe children, which Disney would factor as their #1 demographic (not anime geeks), would have a harder time understanding exactly what howl is about, unlike spirited away which was told in a more fairytale way. The good news is Howl will be out on DVD before you know it. |
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linuxguru
Posts: 3 |
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The Disney people I spoke to at the time said that Spirited Away was showing no signs of breaking out of a limited release. A film has to show momentum for that to happen and SA was running out of steam. It wasn't forced from the theaters, they just dropped it because it ran out of an audience. If the film had been showing some legs it would have gotten a wide release in a New York minute. Beating the Pokemon movie wasn't much of a feat since that fad was pretty much over by the time it came out. That fact that DVD sales of the film only did well by anime standards proves that there was no mass audience wanting to see the film. It's easy to say that they should have taken a chance on a wide release but it's not our money on the line. Or jobs. People do get fired for greenlighting wide releases that don't make money. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15364 |
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I think the only way to understand Howl is to read the book. So I'm kind of surprised they didn't try to do something useful, like giving out a free ticket to people who bought the book.
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Silvercat
 Posts: 23 |
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I agree, in Arizona it is being shown in 4 theaters! FOUR  And one of them is the big mall, Arizona Mills.
Ghost in the Shell was just shown at the theater near ASU Tempe where there is a anime club. Spirited Away was only shown in one theater (Can't remember where) and Princess Mononoke was shown only in the theater known for showing Arty and Indy films. I think the process is slow, but anime is slowing getting out there. Hmm, just realized, 3 of the theaters are Harkins' theaters, a home grown, family owned theaters, who dominates Arizona and I know the Harkins' owners kids like anime so for all I know that's why it's in so many theaters *Shrug*. (AMC had it in one theater.) BTW: Read the book, it's great! I read it after seeing the movie, so glad I read it. <3 Miyazaki took the elements of the book and changed them to make it his own and it works both ways. Howl explained more in the book, the movie is just about Sophie. |
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bluechibi
Posts: 137 |
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Okay true but 5 years ago no one would have given a Hong Kong movies a chance, yet we've had several that DID get a big (several thousand screens) release. Okay if they cant give an oscar winning studio 2,500 screens, how about 1500 screens? Okay how about just 1000 screens? Okay how about just 500 screens? No, you get 200 for now, and maybe a couple more if it wins another Oscar. They should give it a chance. okay maybe not 2,500 straight away but a lot more than just 200, atleast 700 would ahve been nice. |
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