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NEWS: 6,000 See One-Night Naruto Run, Viz Mulls Other Films

A 166-theater film festival/arthouse run would require expensive-to-develop, expensive-to-ship film prints versus cheap-to-develop, near-zero-costs-to-ship digital release. (Most arthouses don't have digital projection beyond an off-the-shelf DVD player.) A 166-theater film festival/arthouse run would be staggered across weeks or even months, adding to the logistics scheduling and bills. Many areas of United States have no film festival or just one film festival.

Basically, Viz accomplished in one night what would have taken a traditional arthouse release weeks or months at several times the cost. And many people would still miss it because one local film festival is already booked in the winter or the local arthouse closed down. Plus, they can do it all over again in Canada with hardly any overhead or shipping costs.

Put it another way: how many other anime films have screenings in over a 140 American cities? Now find out how much those screenings costs.

This is Naruto, not an arthouse film. A arthouse film can get 6,000 attendees with only 10 cities or less because its audience is concentrated around New York, Los Angeles, and the major metropolitan areas. The audience for a film like Naruto is diffused across the entire country, with parents who wouldn't drive to the next state just for a kid's movie, but who would be willing to drive to the next county over.

testorschoice wrote:

A 166-theater film festival/arthouse run would require expensive-to-develop, expensive-to-ship film prints versus cheap-to-develop, near-zero-costs-to-ship digital release. (Most arthouses don't have digital projection beyond an off-the-shelf DVD player.) A 166-theater film festival/arthouse run would be staggered across weeks or even months, adding to the logistics scheduling and bills. Many areas of United States have no film festival or just one film festival. Basically, Viz accomplished in one night what would have taken a traditional arthouse release weeks or months at several times the cost. And many people would still miss it because one local film festival is already booked in the winter or the local arthouse closed down. Plus, they can do it all over again in Canada with hardly any overhead or shipping costs. Put it another way: how many other anime films have screenings in over a 140 American cities? Now find out how much those screenings costs. This is Naruto, not an arthouse film. A arthouse film can get 6,000 attendees with only 10 cities or less because its audience is concentrated around New York, Los Angeles, and the major metropolitan areas. The audience for a film like Naruto is diffused across the entire country, with parents who wouldn't drive to the next state just for a kid's movie, but who would be willing to drive to the next county over.

*shakes head again*

Understand that Viz is also a company in the business of making money. If their advertising department had some..."Testicular Fortitude"......they could see that if they tried to go for areas that would produce more viewership, they could stand to make alot more profit.

Also, it would be a great boon for the film festivals, because you also get a new viewship to come to their events afterwards. The kids might come for Naruto, but the Parents could come for other films.

Remember, Viz is not a newbie at film festivals and arthouse showings. It and the other Japanese pop culture companies have done such showings for years. Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade does well in film festivals. Kamikaze Girls does somewhat well in film festivals. Naruto does better at a multiplex.

Imagine you're a parent of a nine-year-old. She wants to see Naruto at 7:00 pm. By the premise above, you wouldn't have wanted to go to this hypothetical film festival showing across the state on your own, but you might want to see Sicko that's also at 7:00 as long as you're dragged here.

Naruto ends an hour and a half later. What is your nine-year-old kid going to do while you're watching the decline of the health industry for another half hour in a city she's never been in? Worse, imagine if Naruto was at 7:00, and Sicko is at 9:30 p.m. You might sit through Naruto, but would she sit through Sicko? It might be edifying, but try telling that to a nine-year-old.

There's a reason why most film festivals aren't considered family outings by actual parents. Some film festivals do well with a children's day, but not 160 of them that aren't all near major metropolitan areas.

Plus, I'm assuming that this Naruto was shown dubbed. Some arthouses may not consider it to be a "foreign" film because it was dubbed/R1 distributed title and won't show it. That's what I found out when trying to find out where DBZ was shown in Chicago and called one of the arthouses.

testorschoice wrote:

Remember, Viz is not a newbie at film festivals and arthouse showings. It and the other Japanese pop culture companies have done such showings for years. Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade does well in film festivals. Kamikaze Girls does somewhat well in film festivals. Naruto does better at a multiplex.

So why the limited release then? I can say that Viz' Advertising department pretty much screwed the pooch when it came to exposure. Plus they pimp out two versions of the DVD's, oddles of merch, and their afraid of the Big Screen?

This is why I really hate Corporations. Or LLC's, whatever.

Quote:

Imagine you're a parent of a nine-year-old. She wants to see Naruto at 7:00 pm. By the premise above, you wouldn't have wanted to go to this hypothetical film festival showing across the state on your own, but you might want to see Sicko that's also at 7:00 as long as you're dragged here. Naruto ends an hour and a half later. What is your nine-year-old kid going to do while you're watching the decline of the health industry for another half hour in a city she's never been in? Worse, imagine if Naruto was at 7:00, and Sicko is at 9:30 p.m. You might sit through Naruto, but would she sit through Sicko? It might be edifying, but try telling that to a nine-year-old. There's a reason why most film festivals aren't considered family outings by actual parents. Some film festivals do well with a children's day, but not 160 of them that aren't all near major metropolitan areas.

You completely missed the point.

Film festivals benefit by the double-dip method; Parents bring kids to see Naruto. Film festival then can also try and entice Parents (Or other "Adult Otaku") by bringing them back for another film on another day.

I know theres a FUNi rep lurking on the boards, why didn't his company do a similar idea with the Fullmetal Alchemist movie?

Can't these companies try and court arthouses, film festivals, and other like venues? Guarantee you can easily top more than 6,000 in a limited scope release. Plus you get parents that will drag their kids and end up paying for the fare, and maybe extra tickets for themselves. I dunno, maybe call it a "coupon kids day" or something like that.

Seems like a slam dunk to me. But they still do this.

I know theres a FUNi rep lurking on the boards, why didn't his company do a similar idea with the Fullmetal Alchemist movie?