Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! - Abnormal Activity 2
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poonk
 Posts: 1490 Location: In the Library with Philip |
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starvtwalker
Posts: 12 |
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I just wanted to address this a little bit. There is a huge difference between the Dragonball movie and the Speed Racer movie. The Speed Racer movie was actually a quality movie, and Speed Racer is not associated in the American mindset with Japan as much as Dragonball. I bet you most Americans not familiar with anime think of Speed Racer as an American cartoon. Dragonball bombed because it sucked. Speed Racer suffered because its fans just did not give it support like pretty much all geek films: http://www.cracked.com/funny-4739-scott-pilgrim/ This isn't just a problem with anime and manga; geeks in general just do not support the products they want. It could be because they are pirating, it could be because they are lazy, or unhappy with the way it turned out, but it seems to be the case that none of these flicks are money makers (in case you did not click on the article Scott Pilgrim, Serenity, Kick-Ass, Snakes on a Plane all bombed while Indiana Jones 4 made bank). I don't think the Westerness of the show matters at all. Quality is certainly an important factor, but the biggest factor has to be timely support. Sure it's great if you buy the DVDs a few years down the line; I for sure know that I do not have the money in the present to support every show I want to support, but that is really the problem. In many respects, we are a younger audience than can afford these things. College and high school students have more free time to watch shows but less money, while adults have less free time and more money. Plus there is always a trade off as well, even if you have the money. I have yet to buy Deadwood or Paranoia Agent, so why would I spend the money on Scrapped Princess, even if I enjoyed it, for example? For that matter, it's not only Western shows that are competing with the money and attention of your average geek. I am sure there are anime/manga only fans, but for the most part I think we like to partake of many different genres. I consume American TV/movies, Japanese, European cinema, British TV, manga, American comics, video games, regular old fashioned books, youtubers that post regularly, board games like settlers of catan, Go (board game), and all of these things cost time, if not money. Do you know why Avatar and Indian Jones 4 and American Idol have millions of viewers and make millions of dollars? Because the average viewer of those things does not consume much popular culture. Sure, "the Internet" hated Avatar, but that only represents the vocal minority that took the time out of their lives to actually gain knowledge in these things so that they can look at Avatar and say "the effects are nice but this story is rehashed and not even rehashed well; i wasted my time on this". The same thing can be said about Twilight (there are people out there that were insulting Stephen King for criticizing Twilight by saying that he was jealous of the amount of money that Twilight made...when I say these people do not consume popular culture I mean they have no idea). So if these things are really going to succeed, then you need a concerted effort from a group that divides its time among a million different things for it to succeed. And those things that divide our attention are growing all the time. Cowboy Bebop came out in 1998. Good American TV was scarce at the time, but HBO pretty much changed that around in the last decade, and so for me at least anime has fallen a little on the wayside as I have to catch up on all of these amazing shows. Think of it this way: Caprica just got cancelled, Arrested Development was cancelled, The Wire went on purely out of HBO love since it definitely did not have the viewers, BSG went on because it captured a surprising amount of female viewers and had a slight resurgence in the 3rd and 4th seasons (a total miracle) and it was the only show on SciFi that gave it any credence among critics and awards, Deadwood was cancelled. At least most of the anime shows you get to experience actually get made. That was kind of a ridiculously long rant. I'm not really angry, just a little frustrated because I feel like anime fans and critics complain about this all the time, but this is not an anime only problem. The fact is that there are not only plenty of reasons why these shows have low viewers, but that it is a problem across the board for shows that target the experienced consumer. It is just easier to make a Jersey Shore or American Idol or your latest Shonen than another Ghost in the Shell because the money isn't there and I cannot blame the companies for doing that. Most of you think it is so easy for them to make quality shows and people will buy them, but we fans have proven time and time again that we do NOT buy these shows, or we buy them way down the line when they have already been cancelled due to no one watching them. I am sometimes surprised that quality shows still get made because clearly the companies are not benefiting that much from them as opposed to their money maker cookie cutter types. It's something to be thankful for. |
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edzieba
Posts: 704 |
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starvtwalker
Posts: 12 |
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That may be true; I cannot tell. I mean it really depends on what we are defining as a niche market. Is a Coen brothers movie a niche market? It feels like it to me, but then again their movies make over 100 million regularly and they are certainly not your average cookie cutter movie. You could argue X-Men, Batman, Spiderman are all not niche markets so they do better than Kick-Ass for example. But Lord of the Rings, Juno, District 9, Babel all made over 100 million, and I would say none of them are exactly cookie cutter (District 9 and Juno a little bit more so, but still not really). All of those geek films made 30 million. 30 Million is nothing. Think of it this way, if the price of a ticket is estimated at 10 dollars and the U.S. population 15 and over is around 240 million. 30 million is 1.25 percent seeing the film while 100 million is 4.16%. LOTR RotK made over a billion which comes to over 40% of the population going to see it in theaters (assuming people did not see it twice, which they probably did despite it being a 3 and half hour long movie). Sure, geeks are a niche market, but are you really telling me we cannot go from 1.25 to 4.16 percent of the population to go see these movies? I think there are other reasons besides niche market for the failure of these movies, like lack of support. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Have the "odds" increased in our favour by such a degree? When last I heard, our friendly and not at all unfair comrades at HMRC were being vigilant with imported packages.
Would you recommend YesAsia for such items? Though their prices are equivalent to the amounts one would pay in Japan, one need not worry about any fees local to our own isle. |
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doctordoom85
 Posts: 2092 |
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 You REALLY can't figure out why more people would go see Batman, Spider-man, Lord of the Rings, and only a few people would see Kick-ass or Scott Pilgrim?
Batman, Spider-man, Lord of the Rings, etc. are definitely NOT niche. Not even close. My god, Lord of the Rings is like the 2nd or 3rd book in terms of different language translations around the world, and Bats and Spidey are probably amongst the most universally recognizable icons. Kick-ass and Scott Pilgrim? The first would have most people going, "you mean the adjective?" and the second would have people asking, "that some sort of singer or something?". Coen Brothers definitely do not make that much all the time. Big Lebowski made $17 million. O Brother Where Art Thou made $71 million (probably most because George Clooney was in it). |
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starvtwalker
Posts: 12 |
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Umm, I did mention that Spiderman and Batman are not niche markets. Lord of the Rings is not really niche, but it still resonates with Geek culture, and I was going under the assumption that it is an old book at a time when reading is down; fair enough though, not really niche. But come on, Babel?
As for the Coens, No Country and Burn After both made more than 150 mil, while A Serious Man did 30 mil. so two out of their last 3 broke the 100 mil barrier. But no, you're right, let's quibble over the tiny details and ignore the main point. |
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edzieba
Posts: 704 |
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Blackwolf0925
 Posts: 67 |
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When I first read this question my immediate thought was Grave of the Fireflies. I first saw this a few years back with my dad. I can honestly tell you this, I cried throughout the whole movie. All I knew about the movie was that it was a war movie. I did not know the impact would have on me. Seeing this movie made me realize how horrible war really is, to this day I cannot go through a second sitting watching this movie, even thinking about it is bringing me to tears right now. If my old history teacher would ask me what kind of movie he could show to his class as a lesson on the effects of war, I would point him straight to this movie right away. And to be honest I have no second or third movie to think of, this one just really affected me hard.
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