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Wkd BO 1006-0817 - Ponies trampled by Runner, Mountain Between #1 & #2
- Thread starter xaosslug
- Start date
I feel like the earliest Hasbro would've started pushing a movie would've been 2011 at the end of Season 1, and the show really didn't blow up until season 2 (2011-2012). Then you figure 2 years at least for production time and you're looking at late 2013-14 the earliest they could've gotten it out, and the show started to burn out of its memetic status with season 3 in 2013 (though it had a respectable "floor" and never really faded after that).
Apparently they were originally working with Sony? So that probably slowed things down a bit.
Separate thing to remember is that the audience for the show is fairly small. Discovery Family/The Hub (it's old title) is often on obscure tiers of cable packages unless you're going out of the way to get the family package for more kids channels.
PanSexual_Peacock
Member
Sony
I think it'll be a real struggle to hit $100M, the meh word of mouth seems to be hurting it's legs.
SigmasonicX
Member
I'd recommend watching a few episodes of the show first. It's an overall fun kids movie, but it sort of assumes you already know and like the main characters, since it doesn't devote much time to establishing them. Plus, it oddly chose to be less epic than the show's two parters; I mean, the season 4 finale had a DBZ battle.
Huh? You'll have to explain that one to me.
I'm not sure what it will do in China, then again I'm never sure what any film will do there.
And China ""only"" accounted for $121 million of the $487 million figure for Interstellar, so if it does near Interstellar numbers in all other markets (which is the comparison offered by Sony in that article) it could top $300 million. Not that it seems incredibly likely.
I do however want to see how Blade Runner fares in South Korea and Japan before I write off its international chances as well.
It's flopping for WB, remains to be seen how the international market does for Sony.
Fancyarcher
Member
It's apparently not doing great business in general, so I think Interstellar are out of the question. Will see!
Any good press that they can get!
It matched Interstellar in the UK which is what brought up the comparison in the first place, it's not my comparison I just added some numbers for Interstellar for context.
And $50 million without South Korea and Japan is like I said fine. It's not setting the world on fire, but it could still work out for Sony. It's doing better internationally than US at least.
And to think at one point before release I thought this would be doing $350M at most... This is a fantastic result.
Now I want an Inception 2.
Joking.
Sort of.
Sort of.
At least international markets seem to be making up for the lackluster domestic numbers. $400M total should be doable.
Future Foundation
Member
I thought this was a Sony/Alcon joint, unless WB paid a lot to distribute it. What were the first two?
illmatic22
Banned
I never doubted Sir Nolan. He has never failed me.
Warner domestically, I saw a $60m figure banded about for marketing alone, could be wrong on that though.
Lego Ninjago and King Arthur or course!
Curious Puppy
Banned
Nolan is box office magic, always will be.
DriftingSpirit
Member
That IT performance is absurd.
Unfortunate for BR. I look forward to seeing it.
Unfortunate for BR. I look forward to seeing it.
Hmm. Alcon are the ones who are fucked it seems:
Without China, South Korea, and Japan it's too early to call if it's a total bust. But Alcon could be in trouble.
vinnygambini
Why are strippers at the U.N. bad when they're great at strip clubs???
A mess
There was an entire drawn-out process where they started out working with Sony, but ultimately decided to start their own production company (Allspark Pictures) when it became clear that they weren't going to have the creative control they wanted any other way.
The big Sony leak provided a whole bunch of insight into it we wouldn't have otherwise gotten.
IT passes Transformers 5 worldwide in 2-3 days.
That's amazing. Are they going to bump the budget up for the sequel or were all the contracts and stuff locked in already?
I have to imagine that at least the behind the camera staff with get a nice pay bump. There no way anyone was expecting $650M or so worldwide from IT.
The adult cast transition could also lead to some larger names now that the IT sequel is a major deal. That would bump the budget too.
Still, even doubling the budget would take them to $70M. Plenty of $150M films would love to hit $600M.
manzoman96
Member
This is exactly how I felt. I didn't feel the run time at all and I was engaged from start to finish. Haven't felt that with a movie of that length since Gone Girl.
Happy Thanksgiving Day, may Puck and The Littlest Hobo watch over you and yours
PanSexual_Peacock
Member
WB didn't invest much to distribute it domestically. Most of the budget came from Sony and Alcon. So no, it's not flopping for WB.
SigmasonicX
Member
Notably, Sony wanted it to be a "ponies go to the real world" story.
Nah, it's a pretty large and steady fanbase, even if it's smaller than it was years ago.
The show is in its 8th season and the movie did okay. It's about as long as three episodes and appeared to have the budget of like, five episodes. Pretty sure they'll do fine with it.
I'm not aware of too many movies spun off of ongoing shows to compare it to but it's finding its audience.
SigmasonicX
Member
I'm pretty sure it had a bigger budget than that, from what we've seen in The Art of My Little Pony: the Movie.
Anyway, a good comparison would be DuckTales the Movie, which made a total of $18,115,724 domestic, with $3,870,366 in its opening weekend, albeit in 1990 dollars.
Like that Smurfs movies they did. Classic Sony.
BlackDoomShadow
Member
I'm curious for more information about Sony's version of the movie. I read the Wikileaks emails and all I learned was that the plot involved Twilight and Celestia and a villain named "Cosmos."
Thanks for the comparison point. I'm not familiar with what you reference in the first line, though. From the animation quality it was clearly a step up from the show, but still lots of static backgrounds and relatively simple animation. I noticed a lot of recycled animation, though from different distances and angles, of the ponies walking in a group and in the background characters. There was some limited CG but it's not super detailed and its use was intermittent. They got some famous names in the cast, so that probably bumped the budget a bit.
I liked the movie a lot, but I think it was clearly a juiced-up TV show (still a few notches higher than direct to video stuff, though). It's target audience won't care though. My daughter has already asked me to take her again next week.
SigmasonicX
Member
It's mentioned in this email. Admittedly, it's only a brief aside, so it's hard to say if that's something they really pushed.
This email also shows that the movie was originally much heavier tied into the show's continuity.
Yeah, I just meant that the equivalent of five episodes of the show would just be in the area of the direct to video movies. The Movie required a new tech pipeline and its story changed significantly over time. I'd say the budget is more along the lines of a full season.
By the way, care to make a more detailed post about your reaction in the movie OT?
OrangeAtlas
Member
The reviews aren't strong enough for me to check out My Little Pony, but I'm happy that the fans seem to be pleased with it and it's nice seeing a 2D movie on the big screen.
So next year is Teen Titans GO!, 2020 is Bob's Burgers, and somewhere in between is another SpongeBob. Wonder how those will do.
So next year is Teen Titans GO!, 2020 is Bob's Burgers, and somewhere in between is another SpongeBob. Wonder how those will do.
Yeah the action heavy trailers did Blade Runner no favors. I can see people going in with expectations and then passing on bad word of mouth.
I mean I liked the movie but damn was it long and poorly paced at times.
It's going to get absolutely crushed next week by Jackie Chan in the Foreigner and that horror movie Friday the 13th.
I mean I liked the movie but damn was it long and poorly paced at times.
It's going to get absolutely crushed next week by Jackie Chan in the Foreigner and that horror movie Friday the 13th.
I didn't realize there was a movie OT. I'm not super familiar with the show other than seeing maybe 10 episodes across the seasons (my younger daughter is a fan). I'll swing by tonight or tomorrow.
I liked it. Glad it was accessible for someone like me, but the fans there - kids with pony plushies - were really into it and it made the showing a lot of fun.
Tempest seriously has the best. Name. Ever.
I went to My Little Pony earlier in the day (free pass!). With absolutely no context at all other than having seen images and knew about the fan following, I ended up coming out thinking it's decent enough. The songs are fairly catchy, the animation is pretty good in points, and I even chuckled a few times (one line really got me good, too). I didn't love it, and I also didn't hate it, but I'm also definitely not the target audience, and so I think for the audience that wanted it, it'll be a good time!
Missed this the last time. Thanks!
DarkLordMalik
Member
Friday the 13th? You confusing Texas reboot?
Ah I meant Happy Death Day.
I haven't seen Blade Runner but I'm sure it is better than The Foreigner, which was pretty much hot garbage. I don't know what the marketing is like for that movie in America, but I've gotta imagine the reviews will be bad and word of mouth will be bad as well. I guess bad movies have topped the charts before though so anything is possible.