Which is funny since this movie is much more of a thriller than an action movie.
Ghost in the Shell bombs at the box office
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Which is funny since this movie is much more of a thriller than an action movie.
Coming at the end of a packed March definitely doesn't help either. March 2017 was the the biggest pre-summer (June/July) month in history, and was the fifth biggest month ever outside of July (which is by far the strongest month for domestic Box Office). Only two Junes and the last two Star Wars Decembers were bigger.
UnemployedVillain
Member
There were only 2 of them, one of which spoke Japanese while everyone spoke english, for some reason.
Edit: Correction, there were 3. Aramaki, Togusa, and the
mom
TDLink
Member
The line of thinking is that the movie would do better with scarlet than an Asian actress whether the movie does good or bad. So it bombed with her, but if you replace scartlet with an unknown it probably bombs even worse. It isn't that a star garuntees a success, it just increases the chances and mitigates a failure.
Of course I'm sure they didn't expect it to bomb even this badly. Fact is I don't think the leading lady and her race had much of anything to do with it. The movie is and looked bland. The action's not good. The trailers weren't good. The writing is mediocre. It's a not great movie in a niche genre and this has been a busy few weeks for movies. So with those things considered, yes the movie would still bomb regardless. What this needed was a better script and a different release window. It was marketed like a blockbuster but it isn't. There isn't enough action for that. But the writing isn't smart enough to be a good contemplative film either.
cartographer
Member
The weird thing about studios though is that they wouldnt be interested in making that movie. A large part of the appeal in adapting something like GitS is the never-ending chase for blockbusters and franchises. The studios are more focused on hitting home runs, often without giving enough attention to how much the strike out.
There's lots of anime they could make for a fraction of the budget of GitS. But to the studios, the question becomes why adapt that all if you aren't going to throw a ton of money at it. Easier to just buy the rights to an unproduced screenplay that isn't an adaptation and make that.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point.
There's some benefit to chasing blockbusters, but not to the degree it's done.
What did he mean by this?
Member
Coming at the end of March didnt hurt the Boss Baby at all
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
How does a movie bomb when it hasn't even opened in one of the world's biggest markets, nor one of the markets the source material came from (China, Japan)?
Disappointed to see it down in the US, was a good movie overall.
Disappointed to see it down in the US, was a good movie overall.
Agent_ShortBus
Member
And without her I would have gone to see it day 1. Dont get me wrong I'm still gonna watch it but I skipped going on release day to waiting two weeks and letting my buddy get me free tickets at the theater he works at.
TDLink
Member
There were more than two, but that's still a big deal for Hollywood anyways. The one who only spoke Japanese was in a significant amount of the film.
Please explain what you didn't get.
Hollywood is full of people wanting easy cash and restricting creativity and most in Hollywood couldn't give less of a shit about animation in general as a part of the art form.
That's why GiTS was poorly received. It's a cash grab, not an earnest attempt to make a good film.
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
There wasn't any other animated movie to compete with Boss Baby.
That film always had better commercial prospects, and actually has the kids market all to itself right now.
I mean... fuck
They made a good movie out of Deadpool
Surely a bit of effort would have made a good movie here.
Z..
Member
I think nothing of your opinion either way. I'm simply telling you the only way you could even realistically think it sucks is if you have no knowledge of the medium at all. At worst, you would think it's average. It's too excellent an effort on too many fronts for something as reductive as "it sucks" to even apply. Your shallow analysis is indicative of how ill equipped you were to even be watching something like gits. It's as much of a red flag as when you see someone poopooing on 2001... grading auteur films from an entertainment value perspective is an exercise in futility.
Let's try this another way... Do you think "it sucks" could ever apply to something like Grabity's Rainbow or Infinite Jest, even if you highly disliked them?
Admiral Woofington
Member
Right? With all these different Supermans they could get away with Idris Elba as Superman or something. If the Iron Fist was Asian, Goku was Asian, the Avatar was Asian, and now Katsuragi... Asians wouldn't have work in Hollywood anymore. Let's put Asians in movies that don't suck or clearly have an Asian main character.
An anime I think would work without worrying about race and has a simple enough plot is the Fate series. Battle royale between many different country's heroes, winner gets a wish, easy.
The funniest part is that besides the Major this is actually a pretty diverse movie, one of the most diverse in recent memories.
I would say vocal critics who shit on the movie thinking this would send some message to Hollywood just shot themselves in the foot, but that would be assuming they have any kind of voice in Hollywood which is lol.
Box Office Mojo's weekend writeup doesn't mention any opinions on the film, beyond a CinemaScore of B.
Suicide Squad made $300 million with a 25% score on Rotten Tomatoes, ya'll. Reviews did not sink GitS. General apathy did. To me it's the kind of movie that might have been helped by absolutely phenomenal reviews, but I still doubt that a little.
It was the first major cartoon since LEGO Batman. Beauty and the Beast definitely has family appeal, but forget taking pre-school aged kids to a film that is going to run over 2.5 hours with trailers.
That just because one movie failed that there should never be anymore attempts at adapting anime. And Ghost in the Shell wasn't even terrible, it was just okay, so to say no more anime movies should be made because of an okay movie is lunacy.
And no one that has seen Ghost in the Shell would honestly believe it's a "cash grab", anyone working on that movie put their all into making that world as believable as possible, and they succeeded. Throwing all those people under the bus by saying all they work they put into the film was just a "cash grab" is pretty insulting.
Oof. I think those gymnastics just sprained my back.
TatteredHat
Member
Is this the star power of ScarJo?
cartographer
Member
Because making money somewhere like China is way less valuable than making money in the US. Studios get a fraction of the box office on China compared to the US (and they are only getting a fraction in the US too). Even huge success in China wouldn't guarantee success. See: Warcraft.
And also Fast 8 is coming out next week to take all of the screens.
GuitarAtomik
Member
The part where you think this is the best they could do for one.
Miles Quaritch
Member
Someone at work went to watch it over the weekend and thought it was pretty good. He loves the source material though and I get the feeling he would have liked it anyway, but he seemed pleased with how it plays out.
Thought the rating held it back though and wasn't happy that the ending is basically sequel bait, but those were his only complaints.
Thought the rating held it back though and wasn't happy that the ending is basically sequel bait, but those were his only complaints.
TDLink
Member
It bombed domestically, where a significant portion of profit is udually made on a Hollywood film. It could still do well in China but Paramount won't get as much money for every ticket sold in China as they do here in the states. Still chances are it will go into the black, but it'd have to be a real runaway hit in those markets for it to make a worthwhile profit.
Z..
Member
You HAVE to be kidding.
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
Well that's disappointing. The movie was solid. The whitewashing didn't help, but I don't think it hurt either. Catch 22. Without ScarJo there's no stars in the movie, and people don't go.
maquiladora
Member
Truthfact.
It can be a cash grab and the people working on it can pour their heart and soul into it. The two aren't mutually exclusive.
old manatee
Banned
Too bad MCU stans propped up Doctor Strange.
No? The visuals are jaw droppingly gorgeous. It's pretty much the one thing people have praised about the movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KosBvDyWgnA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbCyXVEVpKk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxUoqIrXd9E
Watch any of those videos and honestly tell me that their work can be distilled to an insulting term like "cash grab".
You honestly believe the movie bombed because of the whitewashing? Lol ok.
Unknown Soldier
Member
I guess I'm surprised they spent $110 million on the movie adaptation of a very niche property
TDLink
Member
Eh, in my experience those who like the source material are usually the harshest critics of any adaptation
Both movies had the same target audience. The difference between them is one was good.
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
Your right, it's not a cash grab. Watching it you can tell they tried to put some serious work into this adaptation as much as possible. It's probably the most effort done to a live-action anime compared to past attempts. But it's got way too many flaws when it comes to it's story and characters that hold it back from being different than any other sci-fi property with the same themes.
"It's a cash grab, not an earnest attempt to make a good film."
They went on to say it wasn't an earnest attempt to make a film, that's not true at all.
The term is not being aimed at the craftsman who worked on the production of the film (art, audio, set design, etc.). It's being aimed at the studio and producers.
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
Ehhhh, I'd put them on the same level. I enjoyed both decently and both had great visuals.
Consensus disagrees with you, but OK.
Matrix XII
Member
As soon as I knew Scarlett was the lead I knew I would never go see it. What a terrible casting, plus I can't stand her as an actress.
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