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Wkd Box Office - 5•10-12•19 - Pikachu does like Ash and fails to be #1, Endgame's Arceus-like run slows, Tolkien can't Hustle audience interest
- Thread starter OrangeAtlas
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I think whether or not we see some Pokemon follow ups is how lucrative Legendary/WB sees the franchise. I think starting with something small like Detective Pikachu was smart from a business sense but maybe not a fan sense. It let them test the waters on if people would even respond to a live action Pokemon movie at all, and I think the numbers at the very least show that they do, just maybe not this Pokemon movie. The decently-sized opening and initial interest showed that people will happily accept their take, but most people petered out when it became apparent it was kinda a weird kid's movie. And unless they do a hard reboot, they pretty much used Detective Pikachu to set the foundation for all the mechanics and avenues for their world: catching, battling, leagues, Pokemon designs, etc, without blowing their wad in the "big" movie and potentially screwing up. They can now just lightly tweak things while focusing mainly on plot and characters without worrying too much about figuring out the nitty gritty for the first time.
We can napkin math it all we like but it'll be up to the internals if they decide sticking with this world, in either a smaller-scale followup or the big adventure movie, is profitable for them.
Please decide it's profitable.
We can napkin math it all we like but it'll be up to the internals if they decide sticking with this world, in either a smaller-scale followup or the big adventure movie, is profitable for them.
Please decide it's profitable.
Yeah, they just optioned it like many other things in the past. It might never happen. I don't consider it a real project yet.
The center part of a Venn diagram that is a Detective Pikachu & DC & Hulk fan must be a sad place.
The Hobbit films were crazy consistent. Yeah, the last one missed a billion but not by much. But it still made $950 million. As much as the geek community (or whatever you want to call it) hates the movies, the general public had no problem going back for each film. If the public was truly that disinterested then you would be seeing The Battle of Five Armies struggling to clear $500m. Despite what these threads make some think, making near a billion is no easy thing (even moreso in 2012-2014). Back in 2014 the only MCU films to outgross TBoFA were the Avengers and IM3. $3 billion in total revenue for three films released annually probably made Amazon *more* confident in the LOTR series, not less.
Re: the game. SoM was a big hit for Warners. I believe Shadow of War also did quite well for them even with the controversy over microtransactions.
I didn't know The Hustle was a gender-bent remake of an old comedy. Thought of seeing it as I don't mind Anne Hathaway comedies, but sadly reviews were bad. It's clever of them to release so soon after Captain Marvel though. Now if they'd been just as clever at marketing it, I'm sure it would make a whole lot more money.
For anyone that says Endgame is the reason Pikachu didnt open higher, a reminder of 2015. Jurassic World just came off the then record OW, and in this week also set the new second weekend record. Yet Inside Out still managed to open to $90m against that.
Because general audiences wanted to see it. General audiences just were not as enthusiastic about Pikachu. The movie had a decent opening, but Endgame's third weekend had minimal impact on it, because if another family film (original I might add, and not based on "the biggest franchise in the world") can make $90m and still come in second place, then that shows that if general audiences actually wanted to see a film, they would see it.
I didn't expect Pikachu to ever beat out Endgame in a week, and I don't know enough about movies to have made a guess at money made. But I am finding all these sarcastic, "hur largest media franchise," posts to miss the mark, I guess? Like, factually, the Pokémon franchise as a whole has grossed more than even Mickey. It is the largest media franchise. Now as for that carrying over to a movie success, idk why anyone would think that? I also don't do much browsing in these threads, so.. all I can assume is the sarcastic comments are coming in response to earlier goofy predictions that this fact would lead to the movie doing exponentionally well?
TBH I've just been checking the threads these past few weeks to see if Endgame will top Avatar haha
TBH I've just been checking the threads these past few weeks to see if Endgame will top Avatar haha
But it will be a spectacular film. I will be sad if Dune bombs, but will be more overjoyed if it actually delivers on being a great film.
Numerous people said DP would outgross Toy Story and Frozen because of that reasoning.
No, it factually hasn't. That damn Wiki article is the only source for those rankings, and it's HILARIOUSLY bad in every way. The Pokémon list double counts $30 BILLION in revenue.
And even if it WAS accurate, all time revenue generated across all revenue streams is an awful metric.
There were some folks here who were insisting it would top Lion King, and possibly Endgame. I'm not shitting you.
I can't wait for it to be marketed as "The Original Star Wars". It worked so well for John Carter.
And with that, I think we've peaked. Let's cut the Detective Pikachu peeps a break. It's not wrong to dream
Late to respond, and not that it matters much anymore since Disney now owns Fox, so Marvel has all it's X-men properties/rights back.
But I thought Fox and Marvel had a 50/50 deal on Merchandise, but Marvel had the manufacturing rights of those merchandise, and therefore chose not to produce much of anything if anything at all related to FoX-Men movies.
So basically Fox was getting nothing from the merch because Marvel/Disney wasn't producing anything for them to get a share of.
was that incorrect?
I hope some exec gets ballsy enough to go forward with a big Pokemon adventure movie.
However, it was said in another thread that it was, The Pokemon Company itself that didn't agree to a trainer movie and that Detective Pikachu was actually something they had to settle for as a result.
Pretty much this. A big upside is that Pokemon fans in general even lapsed fans from the 90s who only ever watched the anime, are loving this for what it was meant to be: A nostalgia trip and a proof of concept that a live-action world of Pokemon would be pretty fun to watch and not crazy at all. Much better than other things.
Hope it has enough legs for it to be profitable enough for Legendary and WB.
Yes, that is incorrect. Fox owned a fair bit of the merch for FF and XMen and it wasn't just movie related merch either. Not sure about Deadpool.
I hope they don't push out Pikachu too early. I want to see it but may not have a chance before the end of the month.
We'll see. I know there's some other movies on the horizon...
We'll see. I know there's some other movies on the horizon...
I swear if Goji is as good as it's cracked up to be and still underperforms, I'm gonna be hella CRANKY.
Just wait till they see what we have to say about the birth of a nation!
endgame actually looked like it might have a shot at 3bill after first weekend, pikachu hasn't tracked over 60m dom weekend ever and people were predicting billion worldwide and putting it up against toy story and frozen and shit.
Also @OrangeAtlas 150m budget film isn't really starting small
To be fair, people initially predicted these things back when the first trailer got dropped to big numbers of views.
The public interest just dropped off after a while.
I was tremendously impressed with EG's performance and it blew my expectations away! I thought it might come under IW, but it blew past it very quickly. But the EG 1B/3B train is a classic case of being a victim of one's own hype.
Poor pika pika. Can't even beat a film in its third week.
Endgame isn't even a "summer blockbuster" smh
Endgame isn't even a "summer blockbuster" smh
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Smaller scale perhaps. Detective Pikachu basically takes place in one city and a little exploration outside of that (and an expensive ending but whatever on that). You could conceivably go even smaller, but then at that point it's barely even a Pokemon movie. I think all these anime adaptations are going to inherently be expensive just because of how stylistic the worlds are, and if you want to tone all that down then, well, you get Dragonball Evolution. Coming out of the gate with the 8 gym badge/Pokemon League would have been way larger in scale and more of an "event" film than the two-person detective flick we got.
Right but Det Pika not setting the world on fire I think is a big block to scaling up to a full cg/live action pokemon movie like you are talking about. It would have to do insanely well from here for that film to get the go ahead. Probably alot better roi to just keep making 2d animated movies.
For those doubting the fact that Pokemon is the world's highest-grossing media franchise, here is a post I wrote in another thread:
Endgame will come closer to either of those things than Pikachu to a billion and they are literally the highest possible targets a film could reach.
I don't think anyone denies that Pokemon is currently the biggest media franchise in the world. Just from the fact that they crank out 10 million+ units sold for each of their games every holiday puts them in that conversation, not even factoring in licensing, cards, anime, pokemon go etc.
I think most are just poking fun at the fact that people were expecting all that to result in a billion dollar movie. it ain't that easy.
The film would need to have atrocious legs for there not to be another movie. It might not make much of a profit, but the most difficult part is taken care of. There's a lot of potential for growth now that they tested the waters and saw what worked and what didn't. They got the most important things right. Giving the sequel to a better writer and director could go a long way.
Besides, whatever they spent on P&A now will pay off over time when they have to promote sequels. It doesn't have a one-time effect.
Besides, whatever they spent on P&A now will pay off over time when they have to promote sequels. It doesn't have a one-time effect.
There are a few who are doubting it recently, based on DP's underwhelming performance at the box office. Otherwise, I agree with you. It was absurd for people to think that just because Pokemon sells lots of games/cards/toys, that it would suddenly translate into box office blockbuster success. It didn't work out like that for Christopher Robbins (despite Winnie the Pooh being Disney's biggest merchandise seller), and neither would it work out like that for Detective Pikachu. Franchises like Pokemon and Winnie the Pooh sell a ton of merchandise because they have a safe "kiddie" image, yet that safe "kiddie" image is also what would prevent them from becoming major box office blockbusters.
Maybe this is a lesson for box office watchers. Just because a franchise sells a ton of video games, or cards, or toys, or merchandise, that doesn't mean it's a guaranteed blockbuster at the box office. And that's something future video game movies like Sonic and Mario will need to watch out for.
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