Forum - View topicNEWS: Howl Opening Weekend Numbers
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hikaru004
 Posts: 2306 |
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Well I went to see it at the movie theater that shows independent and foreign films too at 7 PM. There was huge crowd of kids there so I don't think that the misconception that anime is for kids is being dispelled.
spoiler[When Sopie became an old lady, some poor kid screamed in the audience.] Also, Ebert didn't exactly give it a resounding review. In my opinion, he was right about this one. It doesn't compare to Spirited Away. |
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Necros Antiquor
 Posts: 571 Location: Funny in a car crash sort of way |
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But look at Spirited Away. The film was meant to be Miyazaki's masterpiece, the film he would be always remembered for. Some other films may be liked more, but when I tell people about Miyazaki, I don't tell them about Princess Mononoke, I tell them about Spirited Away. You can't expect a person to make their masterpiece, and then follow-up with a film that surpasses "their greatest work." It can still be a good film, but that doesn't mean that it should always surpass his highest of high points. |
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blackjack22
Posts: 10 |
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Well, was "Spirited Away" really Miyazaki's masterpiece and highest point? I think it's subjective and I'm not so sure about that. To me, all of Miyazaki's movies are little masterpieces in their own right and I put them all on the same level. I just like each film so much and they all have that something transcendant and special and that certain irreplaceable charm that permeates his work. But each film has its own strengths and things I enjoyed about it, and I don't necessarily see one as any better than the other's. Granted, I haven't seen them all, but each one I've seen has taken my breath away and enchanted me in the same way. While I thoroughly enjoyed Spirited Away and how it was like a Japanese coming-of-age folk tale with all these mythologies, I didn't think it his best.
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Cheesemon
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Although I didn't like Howl and isn't a good example of Miyazaki's best, it's still sad to see that someone wins an Oscar and STILL can't get a wide release with his next movie. When does that ever happen? Sometimes I wonder if America is still resentful at Japan for Pearl Harbor and Pokemon.
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4469 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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It's a fairly common occurance that niche filmmakers will be recognized by the Academy, especially in the "sideshow" categories. |
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Dagwood
 Posts: 222 |
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I'd love to see it, but the last anime movie that showed itself in my area was Ghost in the Shell,
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LordRobin
Posts: 354 Location: Akron, OH |
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Also keep in mind that the theatrical release isn't nearly as important financially as it once was. Studios make more on the DVD. Disney probably isn't as concerned with turning Howl into a box-office smash as much as raising awareness of the film so they can clean up on the DVD release. Note that the Miyazaki DVDs have been fairly well-promoted, at least in terms of visibility in the stores.
------RM |
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Emil Scherbe
Posts: 49 |
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Someone who makes $100M gross movies should be called as mainstream. |
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angel_lover
 Posts: 645 Location: UK |
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Don't forget the merchandise too, although in this case I'm not sure what exposure, if any, Ghibli-related merchandise gets via Disney in the US. |
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Tenchi
Posts: 4469 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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Not in North America, and the Academy is mainly North American. By North American standards, Miyazaki is "niche". |
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GATSU
Posts: 15306 |
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I think part of the reason for the weaker opening is that fans don't really feel as motivated to rally behind Howl like they did back in the days when Di$ney was screwing over Princess Mononoke, since the Oscar for Spirited Away guarantees a decent dvd release for the rest of the Ghibli library. Still, if you want to look at it another way, Howl has made more money per theater than "Nooooo!"(I mean Revenge of the Sith.) Not that this means much, but considering Sith "borrows" a lot of of settings from Nausicaa, it's pretty impressive that more people would rather see a Miyazaki film that only came out here two years after the last one, while Sith has been over 20 years in the making. In some ways, that makes it a bigger success story than Spirited Away, which did better than most of the Miyazaki copy-cat movies Di$ney was promoting in '02 instead of Sen. Back then, the only R1 Miyazaki dvds were Mononoke and Cagliostro, which did pretty well in an emerging dvd market, but which relied mostly on WOM to sell.
Anyway... cold: Actually, I think Americans are getting tired of Western-style animation. (Or maybe just cg.) Look at the disappointing numbers for Shrek 2 dvds, Robots, and Madagascar. And I think I only heard one or two chuckles during the Chicken Little preview before Howl. Azu: As much as I'm getting bored with his work, I still don't consider it childish. His films never talk down to me, and they don't turn into a toy commercial. |
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Mugen The Great
Posts: 189 |
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That's probably right. CGI has oversaturated the market to a point where I think if a computer-animated film isn't Pixar, Shrek, or is somehow good through other circumstances, it will bomb. "From the Makers of Ice Age" just won't cut it anymore when you have 4 of these cheaper CGI films coming out each year. Anyway, Howl seems to be doing decently for a movie in such limited release. Given that it's picked up $2.5 million now, it'll be at about $15-20 million by the time it ends its theatrical run in November in time for the DVD release. When it beats Spirited Away's $12 million in around September, I bet that Disney will give it a wider release of 700-1,000 theaters. That would raise the final total to about $30-$40 million. A total better than a lot of 2,000+ theater bombs (including a lot of Disney's own) would certainly be a huge feat for an anime movie. Heck, if they really want to streach things out, they could replace Howl's DVD release with the new Totoro dub, pull Howl out of theaters for a while, and then when it wins the Oscar give it a one month rerelease in around 1,000 theaters and make an extra $10 million to add on to the total before the actual DVD release in April. |
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