Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Isn't More Anime Shown in US Theaters?
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xchampion
 Posts: 370 Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho |
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I don't think that is exactly true. The only reason they even released more Pokemon movies theatrically is because the first one did so well. It made $85 million dollars domestically alone. That is a lot of money. |
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omiya
 Posts: 1826 Location: Adelaide, South Australia |
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I would have thought the change to digital projection would have made screening at arthouse cinemas cheaper.
When Spirited Away was shown at Australian cinemas Madman had a single print that went from cinema to cinema. |
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Hoppy800
 Posts: 3331 |
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Anyone watch Yu-Gi-Oh Pyramid of Light in theaters?
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xchampion
Posts: 370 Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho |
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That must have been a extremely small release because it doesn't show up on boxofficemojo.com which is where I get all my information from. If you still live in Chicago like your profile says, then that is a big metropolitan area so it would make sense that a very limited released like that would have been shown in a theater near you. |
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SpacemanHardy
Posts: 2509 |
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I remember back in 2003, one of my local theaters played the Cowboy Bebop movie, in English, for one week only. They relegated it to the smallest theater they had (we affectionately referred to it as the "broom closet") and they only aired it once a night at midnight. For that one week, it sold out EVERY SHOWING. I was fortunate enough to pre-order a ticket for one of the showings before it got pulled.
We never had another non-Ghibli anime film in a Memphis theater after that until just last year, when we were lucky enough to get both Battle of Gods and Princess Kaguya. Which is a shame, because the anime fandom in Memphis is much larger than many people realize. 
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xchampion
Posts: 370 Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho |
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I thought that movie was awesome when it was released in theaters. I wanted to see it so bad because it came with that limited edition Blue Eyes White Shining Dragon if you saw it opening weekend. I loved that card and then I lost it 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry for posting so much, but here is a link to box office mojo and its list of the top grossing anime films domestically and how many theaters they were originally released it. I think quite a few of you would get some enjoyment from it. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=anime.htm {Merged serial posts. ~nobahn} |
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3767 |
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Don't remember the title but I believe I did. The Philadelphia area hasn't had much luck with the Eleven Arts associated releases. We got the first two Madoka movies and that's it. The closest theaters for the third Madoka film and the Eva Rebuild were in Pittsburgh and New York (Between that and Funi, still waiting on a US release of the third Eva Rebuild film, though from what I hear, it's because of Khara) |
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Herron
Posts: 5 |
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I'm a manager at an independently owned theater and for a short time last year(until we were bought out by another company, yet still independent) we were asked to come up with alternate content for slow nights. I started Anime Monday. Our highest attendance was Sailor Moon Crystal episode 1, where about 200 people showed up. We streamed that from Crunchyroll where I signed up for some anime club thing they had going on. I also partnered with Funimation who has a program called Funimation at the Movies where they send out screener copies of their soon to be released shows.
We did not charge admission, for one that was how we were allowed to show content. We made money off of concessions sales. The unfortunate thing was other then that one episode of Sailor Moon our numbers averaged 20-30 regulars. Even though I had a Facebook page set up for the event that had almost 200 likes, not many actually showed up. Anime Monday ran from July to December in 2014. I wrote a proposal to the new owners to keep it going, but they never responded. Guess it wasn't worth their time, who knows... maybe if there was a better turn out it would prove that there is interest in seeing anime on the big screen. But it seems like anime fans only want to see what they personally want to see rather then supporting anime in general. A handful will show up for what they personally like, but not something they have minor interest in. Not saying that you should force yourself to watch what you don't like, but butts in the seats speak volumes! But if anime fans barely show up for FREE events I can't see them paying 7, 10 or up for an anime movie. Oh and I'm located in a pretty small town located between two big cities. There are fans around, but travel is a hindrance to getting them out. Also regarding Cinemedia we use them for our ads and they actually run through the same projectors that run the movies, each theater is different in that regard. Our old ad company Unique Screen Media had separate projectors for the ads. We haven't signed up for any fathom events yet, but maybe in the future. |
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Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
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I watched it with my sibling years earlier. He received three theater-exclusive cards as a result. We had an awesome time watching Pyramid of Light all the way to its end. 
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vangelionite88
 Posts: 285 |
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pokemon was the first movie i had ever seen in theaters, I guess i was not impressed by it to want to see the second movie or third... but whenever a ghibli movie gets a release I do my best to go watch it, the last one was when marnie was there, it was really beautiful; well worth the trip.
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Freyanne
 Posts: 216 |
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Pretty sure it was a very small release, but it showed in theatres, nonetheless. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Pokemon 1 had the full strike-while-the-trend-is-hot push of Warner (who owned the US cartoon on the emerging WB afternoon strip), could plaster the theaters during a summer, play the ads on Cartoon Network and afternoon TV, and turn it into a marketing pilgrimage, which is how the kids saw it during the height of the craze: Like the Simpsons Movie, who cared about the movie, you just had to be there at the theater. Poke2 wasn't bad, just had diminishing sequel returns, but it burned out the novelty, and by the time Warner tried flogging their dead horse and giving us 3, it seemed like less of an event, it got kiddie-matinee money, and we sort of got the impression that they were all going to be pointless extended TV episodes from here on in. Warner dropped it, and Miramax picked it up for the picking, immediately thinking they'd make as much money as the first movie did. And, predictably, 4Ever made about the same money as any other attempt for Miramax to try and get an independent kids' film into wide release. (Hoodwinked Too, anyone? Doogal? Ella Enchanted?) Nowadays, it's only the new repopularity of DBZ features that get a theatrical run, because kids know the merchandise to THAT one. Basically, there are two kinds of anime features: Marketing cash-ins on hit shows, and ponderously artsy creations by directors like Oshii or Kon who consider themselves too free-form and serious to be tied down to the cliche'd mainstream indignities of the TV anime industry. And since few anime series have enough exposure to get even a decent arthouse run (Tenchi Muyo in Love was practically one of the more successful ones, back when the OVA had barely came out on tape/disk), we get the ponderously artsy ones. Sony had trans-Pacific connections enough to give us Paprika and Metropolis, but it was the dreary art-fests that were giving the other studios the same black eye that Princess Mononoke gave to Disney, and now it's only GKids that delves into a few more of the mainstream and coherently plotted audience-friendly award winners like Wolf Children or post-Miyazaki Ghibli. |
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Hameyadea
 Posts: 3679 |
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Aside from Hollywood studios (mainly Disney, Pixar, and the rest), the last time I saw an animated film being promoted in the cinemas was circa 2004-ish (I think it was a French animation. I didn't see the movie, though, so I might be mistaken). I can still occasionally find animated films in home-media formats, but that's still rare.
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rainwithsunshine
 Posts: 30 |
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Perfect timing! If it hadn't been for the reminder, I would have forgotten to look into the Love Live movie showings. I recently move into civilization, so now I can go to these events!! Ticket just bought a few moments ago!
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4575 |
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The vast majority of anime films are never going to be big enough draws to garner more than a niche release, but I've been lucky enough to catch several in theaters over the years. Our local Regal uberplex carried both Ponyo and Arrietty during their theatrical runs, and they hosted a Fathom event for Sword of the Stranger. Probably best of all is when I was in college, and our town had a film festival that included a screening of Paprika. Probably the best $3 I ever spent.
Oh, and I guess I have to count the original Pokemon movie, because everyone and their mothers saw that. Literally, since we were all too young to go to the movies by ourselves back then. 
More in general, I think it's a shame that anime fandom as a whole doesn't get very enthusiastic about stand-alone movies as a rule, since I feel like they're probably the best means for getting new fans into the medium. The vast majority of people aren't going to sit through a 26- or even 13-episode series sight-unseen just because you say it's good, but a 90-minute movie? Sure, a lot of people will be down for that. It also helps that a lot of anime movies tend to be more general-audience in their tone and themes, as opposed to how byzantine and self-referential the world of late-night anime can be. Of course I say all of this while having an absurd number of movies that I've owned for some time but haven't yet watched, so maybe I should try taking my own advice. |
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