My question is if the movie is even going to be canon insofar as anything will ever get referenced in the show again. Sea ponies, pirates, the Storm King and his species.
Shame it seems like Lionsgate is dumping this. It's only getting released in over 2000 theaters anyway.
I'm not seeing anything too alarming or out of sorts from the early financials or projections for this type of films. Box Office Mojo is reporting an opening screen count of 2,500 theaters. The Numbers is speculating that the production budget was $25 million (which is probably a slight over-estimate).
Norm of the North generated a $6.7 million opening weekend and a $17 million total domestic take off 2,400 screens despite being a piece of trash.
This film will be considered a win by all parties concerned given the franchise's built-in merchandise machine should it match its production budget with solely its domestic box office take. Norm of the North pretty much accomplished this. And I suspect MLP will net itself a little bit of surplus on top of that if it winds up in any way, shape or form decent quality-wise, which appears to be the case.
Lionsgate's animated division has been extremely poor up until this point. They've only published a ton of direct-to-video Barbie movies, Food Fight, and Norm of the North. This movie is by far the most quality thing they've ever published, and I strongly suspect that they aren't used to actually having a good movie on their hands to promote. Additionally I feel like they're not used to actually going all out and promoting something since again they've never really had an actual blockbuster on their hand. Lionsgate's marketing has been very dismal so far which is sad since I feel like this movie deserves WAY better then what it's gotten so far.
On the other hand, I've already discussed this at length in the OT but those estimates people are making are often based on the fact that they see "Lionsgate" and are familiar with their previous animated work and made estimates based off that. The estimates were so low for a movie of this scope that I can only assume that the people making them weren't very familiar with the movie and didn't think it would be any good. One of the predictors said it would get 21.5 Million Domestic which is Norm of the North levels of bad. I don't think the opening weekend will be particularly strong, but it should probably get strong word of mouth and have decent legs, especially since the only family movie competition it has for the rest of October is Lego Ninjago which isn't doing very well.
Despite losing interest in the show early in the season I'm very curious about the movie. Will probably see it if I get the chance. Also very curious to see how the critics not familiar with the source material take the film, as the previous posted reviewers were.
I can't really speak to Hollywood, but for the games industry, I don't think there's any evidence that late embargos are bad signs. If a game is embargoed at all, that means the publisher went out of its way to get advanced copies out to a group of people and want all of them talking about it at the same time right before release. In games, it seems no advanced copies or post-release embargoes (rare) are what should be worrisome, but late embargoes have been held by plenty of solid games.
Perhaps movies are different since prescreening seems to be more of a universal thing than sending out review copies.
So apparently someone has leaked the movie in full HD out on the internet. I saw it being shared on 4chan but it looks like the mods are going to start nuking any of the threads sharing links to it. Even still the cat is kinda out of the bag and as a warning (especially for those that browse derpi) there are probably going to be some stuff out there.
There's some impressions that people were sharing while it was still up but frankly a huge chunk of the people that browse /mlp/ are jaded assholes that were actively rooting against the movie and wanted it to fail so I don't put much stock in most random driveby 4chan anon's opinions on the movie.
No way there's a leak of the movie.
How the hell would an HD copy leak? I can understand a camprip, even this would be early, but how in the hell does Hasbro/Lionsgate let an HS rip get out there?
They didn't do something stupid like with "The Hitman's Bodyguard" and put it on Netflix in some areas, did they?
edit: Oh man, I didn't know "The Hitman's Bodyguard" was released by Lionsgate. Netflix could very well be the source.
but seriously, careful out there, I just got a bit of the ending spoiled for me by a rogue gif
I suppose the review embargo ending on Thursday really is working out in their favor now. If it was getting good reviews now, then an unscrupulous parent could decide to download a copy to show their kid during the weekday. With the wait, the feeling will be more, "Hmm, what can I distract my kid with while I watch Blade Runner oh wait this pony movie's getting good reviews!" As is, the only ones actively seeking out the movie are bronies, and I get the feeling that the people who watch the leak and decide not to watch it in theaters were never going to pay for it anyway.
Second hand, I'm hearing that even the scrooges at /mlp/ are giving it a 6/10 at the lowest, with a lot of higher reviews, which is a good sign.
Wow, the movie isn't out in theaters yet but Spotify has the soundtrack for My Little Pony: The Movie: https://open.spotify.com/album/2kUJgoPA2iz9c2jzUr0y1x
All the songs on the soundtrack are officially on YouTube for free, and while I haven't listened to them myself, I hear they're great.
Known to be in the movie:
1. "We Got This Together" - Mane Six (Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity), Apple Family (Granny Smith, Apple Bloom, Big Mac)
2. ”I'm The Friend You Need" - Capper (Taye Diggs)
3. ”Time To Be Awesome" - Captain Celaeno (Zoe Saldana), Rainbow Dash, Celaeno's crew, non-Twilight Mane Six, Spike
4. ”One Small Thing" - Princess Skystar (Kristin Chenoweth), non-Twilight Mane Six
5. ”Open Up Your Eyes" - Tempest Shadow (Emily Blunt)
6. "Rainbow" - Songbird Serenade (Sia) - Link is to the music video, which does contain some footage from the ending.
There's also some complaining about how. Which is to say they're meming about something that's only an issue for a small amount of dedicated fans in an effort to find reasons to hate the movie. I legit saw a "review" that gave the movie a 4/10 and only listed this as their issue with it. Not to say that can't ruin the movie for you but calling the entire movie objectively bad because of it is really silly given that it's an issue only a small group of people passionately care about and that's one small aspect of the movie.the princesses get captured and don't do much
So maybe the embargo has dropped now? There's a review from a writer for the Washington Post (hosted on the intelligencer, idk I got the link from 4chan) giving it 2.5 out of 4. The actual review is mostly a recap of basic info with little actual opinions in there so it's hard to tell what caused her to give it that rating. For the most part it's pretty positive although she mentions a couple times that it gets a little too cutesy (maybe not the right word but you get the idea) so I guess that might be what caused her to give it a lower rating? I could't find any other flaws she listed so I don't know. At any rate, you can find it here
There are a couple mistakes, such as failing to mention that Twilight has wings and claiming there are 13 songs, likely referring to the soundtrack and not the main movie.
and Rarity, like Twilight Sparkle, is a unicorn.
Planning to see this Saturday with my daughters. Hopefully it's good!
I have no doubt it will be a success. The big three elements (music, main cast and animation) seem to be there from what I have seen. That's the core of this series. That's where the bulk of the charm lies. Don't be surprised if we see the movie breaking 'Titanic' or 'Avatar' level of records at the box office.
Is that over weekend?Box office estimates have gone up.
Boxoffice.com predicting 11.9m. Deadline predicting $14-$17m
Yes, english airing, day before release I think, and 8pm. So yeah, that wasn't a kids' screeningEDIT: Glad you enjoyed it! Sucks that you had a stinky guy in the audience, but good that most everyone else was fine. This was an English airing, right?
EQD review comment:
I like your optimism, guy.
Box office estimates have gone up.
Boxoffice.com predicting 11.9m. Deadline predicting $14-$17m
Pros
My Little Pony (Lionsgate) is the latest nostalgia-driven animated pic to aim for young crowds, particularly girls and their parental generation that grew up on the property. Presales are significantly higher than expected in recent weeks, and Twitter activity has been stronger than Jem & the Holograms. Facebook growth is markedly ahead of that film, Leap!, and Ratchet & Clank. Columbus Day on Monday and Fall Break in some areas of the country should additionally help attendance with Sunday not being a school night for many young viewers. Also, Bronies.
Cons
After a number of under-performing animated films since late July, expectations have been reasonably conservative up until now for My Little Pony — especially since it hails from distributor Lionsgate, whose recent family-oriented and animated credits include the modest-to-underwhelming runs of Rock Dog, Middle School, The Wild Life, and Norm of the North. Presales could also be slightly misleading given the fan-driven nature of the property.
Review
- Tribune News ServiceThe Movie" zigs where others zag, throwing it back to the old school with its traditional animation and musical structure. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but for those who already love it, it'll be just right.
Well that seems pretty posi-
Thanks for your opinions. Glad to hear that despite all the issues you still liked it. It's probably the most detailed "negative" review so far because a lot of the negative ones I've seen so far either come off as fan whining or are very light on details.
Interesting that you didn't care for Capper as I heard from a lot of people that he stole the show for them. It's inevitable that some of the Mane 6 are going to get left out in stories like this though so it doesn't really surprise me at all that it's the case here. Most everything sounds unsurprising and likely won't be a deal breaker for anyone.
Is the really bad scene the one whereMy impressions would sound more positive if I wouldn't care for spoilers, a bunch of really good (and one really bad) scenes I'd comment on are really big spoilers
None of my criticism should be a deal breaker, it's still a very good movie and a lot of fun.
Is the really bad scene the one whereI heard something like that happens and that it was weird.Twilight gets mad at Pinkie?
Well that seems pretty posi-
"1.5 stars"
Uh... what?
Reversed? Maybe?
My friends and I are seeing it this weekend. I'm looking forward to what I expect to be the best movie based on a Hasbro property to ever see a theatrical release.
Yes, I think this will be better than the 80's Transformers movie.
So apparently someone has leaked the movie in full HD out on the internet.
Well there is Starlight's new friend...So I don't have much interest in MLP, but I kinda hope they keep making movies, if only for more random celebrity pony cameos.
If only so that we will one day have a John Cena pony
an act of generosity by Rarity gets them out of a jam while Rainbow Dashs mindless showing off gets them into deeper trouble, something that stands to reason considering Rarity is the best and Rainbow is the worst.
Keep them.Probably the most well-written review so far from swfweekly. This person definitely knows what they're talking about:
It's definitely written by someone that's well-versed with the show but it's still a fairly professional review.
So serious question: should I remove all of the fan impressions in the 2nd post I made or should I move them to a separate section?