News: Newest Pokémon movie tops list in Japan

[bobandbill]

Making half a billion yen and beating a Pixar and PotC film is a good start!

 

[weedle_mchairybug]

Hmm... well, it broke the trend. Not sure whether it will mean much by the end of its run, though. The only thing we can say is that at the very least, it might do better than the Volcanion movie. We've yet to see whether it does better than the Hoopa movie, or even Pokémon Heroes (heck, we're not even sure if it will do better than the Diancie Movie, either. Don't forget, that was the last film to even have a good start, and while it did ultimately edge out on Pokémon Heroes just barely, it overall was still underwhelming especially compared to past films barring Pokémon Heroes that it resulted in the guy who usually does Pokémon films being fired as a result and having someone else take over screenwriting duties as a result based on what Dogasu said here: http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/old_news_archive/january_2015.html [the very bottom news post]). Besides, I've heard that Japanese critics apparently thought the movie was a cash grab, or at least, that's what this link seemed to imply: https://plus.google.com/112520588126462038837/posts/aFfrrFeqe8b

 

[Hikamaru]

You have to admit that I was concerned this movie would bomb due to the controversy that was surrounding it with the plot and the whole "our childhood has been ruined" issue. But I was proven wrong, especially with beating both the latest Cars and Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

 

[weedle_mchairybug]

You have to admit that I was concerned this movie would bomb due to the controversy that was surrounding it with the plot and the whole "our childhood has been ruined" issue. But I was proven wrong, especially with beating both the latest Cars and Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Yeah. That is definitely a silver lining, that it at the very least beat out the Volcanion movie, maybe even the Hoopa movie. Now, whether it will do better than Pokémon Heroes or the Diancie Movie remains to be seen. After all, while the latter did better than Pokémon Heroes, it wasn't exactly all that impressively received, and I heard it was because it underperformed so much even with it not outright bombing like Heroes did that Sonoda Hideki ended up getting fired and replaced with Tomioka Atsuhiro for the Hoopa movie.

 

[jjc927]

You have to admit that I was concerned this movie would bomb due to the controversy that was surrounding it with the plot and the whole "our childhood has been ruined" issue. But I was proven wrong, especially with beating both the latest Cars and Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Controversies like that make people want to see it, they want to know if it's really that bad or what was being said online was overblown. The movie was made a big deal because of the 20th anniversary. There were similar things said about the recent Power Rangers movie but it did reasonably well despite the stiff competition it faced in the box office.

 

[weedle_mchairybug]

Controversies like that make people want to see it, they want to know if it's really that bad or what was being said online was overblown. The movie was made a big deal because of the 20th anniversary. There were similar things said about the recent Power Rangers movie but it did reasonably well despite the stiff competition it faced in the box office.

Not all controversies ensure something's a success, though. Just look at BMX XXX. That was mired in controversy the very day it was announced due to... certain elements of that game (in fact, causing controversy to increase sales was apparently the idea behind the controversy), and that pretty much ended up being a sales disaster and one of the final nails in Acclaim Entertainment's filing for bankruptcy. This was just a dodged bullet (and quite frankly, deliberately engineering a controversy to get more sales is what I call dirty regardless of whether it is a success or not).

Anyways, there's still the fact that Japanese critics simply made negative comments about it being a cash grab, so there's that to consider as well, even ignoring the controversy.

 

[weedle_mchairybug]

Sorry for double posting, but I have to be the bearer of bad news: While the most recent Pokémon movie DID have a good first weekend, it's done terribly starting the second weekend, only returning half as much (even the Diancie Movie managed to do better). Right now, it only has 772 million yen total as of the second movie. By comparison, the Diancie Movie by that same time got 909 million yen. I don't know if it's still going to perform better than the Hoopa or Volcanion movies, let alone Pokémon Heroes, but it's definitely unlikely it will perform better than the Diancie Movie.

 

[Hikamaru]

Sorry for double posting, but I have to be the bearer of bad news: While the most recent Pokémon movie DID have a good first weekend, it's done terribly starting the second weekend, only returning half as much (even the Diancie Movie managed to do better). Right now, it only has 772 million yen total as of the second movie. By comparison, the Diancie Movie by that same time got 909 million yen. I don't know if it's still going to perform better than the Hoopa or Volcanion movies, let alone Pokémon Heroes, but it's definitely unlikely it will perform better than the Diancie Movie.

Well, it turns out my prediction of box office bomb has come true after all. I now claim that if a new Pokemon movie performs worse than Diancie And The Cocoon Of Destruction, I will consider it a flop. It's fair to say the movies are nothing but getting worse starting in XY.

 

[weedle_mchairybug]

Well, it turns out my prediction of box office bomb has come true after all. I now claim that if a new Pokemon movie performs worse than Diancie And The Cocoon Of Destruction, I will consider it a flop. It's fair to say the movies are nothing but getting worse starting in XY.

Personally, I'd set the bar even lower: I'd say if it performs worse than Pokémon Heroes, it's a flop. Pokémon Heroes was at the time considered the worst performing Pokémon movie ever, so you can probably see why I'd set it to that standard. Doing worse than Diancie doesn't really mean much if it at least breaks even with if not surpasses Pokémon Heroes.

 

[CodeHelmet]

Personally, I'd set the bar even lower: I'd say if it performs worse than Pokémon Heroes, it's a flop. Pokémon Heroes was at the time considered the worst performing Pokémon movie ever, so you can probably see why I'd set it to that standard. Doing worse than Diancie doesn't really mean much if it at least breaks even with if not surpasses Pokémon Heroes.

Been awhile but Pokemon Heroes was based on Season#5 and Latios and Latias and the Bianca character if memory serves. Seems for a movie so early in the Pokemon Anime to be considered one of the worst ones must have resulted in the writers/directors changing things up for Season 6(might explain why Misty was pulled... who knows).

Also... I never thought the movies were "bad" but I can't recall the last time they ever bothered to air Pokemon movies in US Theaters. If memory serves me again, Pokemon Heroes was the reason for this as it bombed both in Japan and here in the USA. Due to its failure, all future movies were direct to DVD/TV type of deal.

Therefore I have to agree that if it does better than Pokemon Heroes, then its not a total flop but to gross only 772 million Yen(that's 7.72 million in US Dollars at a 100:1 rate) is kind of disappointing. Heroes took in roughly 20.8 million US Dollars worldwide. Of that 20.8 million though... only about 750k came from the USA lol. So unless it tops that then the 20th Movie is an unmitigated disaster. Will be interesting what fallout this yields.

 

[Hikamaru]

So unless it tops that then the 20th Movie is an unmitigated disaster. Will be interesting what fallout this yields.

If Pokemon Heroes flopping caused huge changes in Advanced Generation such as Misty being dumped for a new female companion and Ash restarting from scratch with his regional teams, then maybe this movie flopping coupled with the alienation of fans that the Sun & Moon series caused may lead to even more changes.

Changes that the writers will have to take into account so that they don't alienate older fans again.

 

[weedle_mchairybug]

Been awhile but Pokemon Heroes was based on Season#5 and Latios and Latias and the Bianca character if memory serves. Seems for a movie so early in the Pokemon Anime to be considered one of the worst ones must have resulted in the writers/directors changing things up for Season 6(might explain why Misty was pulled... who knows).

Also... I never thought the movies were "bad" but I can't recall the last time they ever bothered to air Pokemon movies in US Theaters. If memory serves me again, Pokemon Heroes was the reason for this as it bombed both in Japan and here in the USA. Due to its failure, all future movies were direct to DVD/TV type of deal.

Therefore I have to agree that if it does better than Pokemon Heroes, then its not a total flop but to gross only 772 million Yen(that's 7.72 million in US Dollars at a 100:1 rate) is kind of disappointing. Heroes took in roughly 20.8 million US Dollars worldwide. Of that 20.8 million though... only about 750k came from the USA lol. So unless it tops that then the 20th Movie is an unmitigated disaster. Will be interesting what fallout this yields.

No, Pokémon Heroes' performance had nothing to do with Misty's removal (Takeshi Shudo made it very clear that they decided Misty got the axe long before then, it was either her or Team Rocket. Funny how they never considered Brock, though, since he if anything fared very badly in Johto, far worse than Misty or Team Rocket ever did.).

And to be fair to Pokémon Heroes' American Release, it only got a limited release, so it wasn't expected to do particularly well, and it did beat out The Matrix Revolutions at least. Still, the American version did badly enough that most Pokémon movies became TV/DTV movies, with only one of the current movies having ever aired in theaters (well, technically two since it was a double feature: It was White—Victini and Zekrom and Black—Victini and Reshiram), and even there, it was only as a limited release.

One thing's for certain though, if Pokémon Heroes didn't bomb, we probably wouldn't have the movie makers making the movies into outright commercials for the mythical Pokémon and also distributing them in the same movie as a cynical way of ensuring people go to the movie in Japan.

 

[Pinkie-Dawn]

And now Despicable Me 3 has dethroned Pokémon Movie 20 at the Japanese box office. Just to give you guys more reasons to despise the minions.

 

[CodeHelmet]

If Pokemon Heroes flopping caused huge changes in Advanced Generation such as Misty being dumped for a new female companion and Ash restarting from scratch with his regional teams, then maybe this movie flopping coupled with the alienation of fans that the Sun & Moon series caused may lead to even more changes.

Changes that the writers will have to take into account so that they don't alienate older fans again.

I don't know for certain if it did(Weedle claims it wasn't) but 20th Movie wasn't based on the SM anime. If anything, we have at least one movie based around it which is why I see Season 21, at minimum, being based in Alola. Season 22 onward is where we might see Ash elsewhere but they might stretch Alola to Season 22 if only to buy themselves more time.

Needless to say, making some changes to the anime, such as aging the protagonist Ash and other characters wouldn't outright kill it. He's been at this for 20 years for starters and so what if he's older than the typical 10 year old just starting out in a region? Makes no difference in the end if he's facing the same Gyms(and their respective Leaders), catching and battling the same Pokemon and facing the same antagonists. I understand the need to appeal to the next generation of kids but things don't last forever and rather than trying to fight the inevitable, it'd be best to throw a bone to the older and loyal fan base by bringing back past characters for one last hurrah in the Kanto region(like I'm doing from a creative fan fiction perspective).

 

[Hikamaru]

And now Despicable Me 3 has dethroned Pokémon Movie 20 at the Japanese box office. Just to give you guys more reasons to despise the minions.

Of course it would lose out to that movie. The Despicable Me franchise is nothing but Illumination Entertainment's cash cow, especially thanks to those minions.

 

[CodeHelmet]

Of course it would lose out to that movie. The Despicable Me franchise is nothing but Illumination Entertainment's cash cow, especially thanks to those minions.

Well... when they made the first movie, the minions stole the show to the point where they have their own spin-off movie. First movie was excellent, second was not bad, haven't seen the minion spin-off but I heard from relatives that its pretty good and the latest one's success is largely a result of the previous 3 films(although its not a bad movie in its own right since it has some really funny scenes). From a bit of digging, Pokemon Heroes debuted in the USA around the same time as Finding Nemo. That's like asking for trouble if you're up against Pixar. Seems the 20th movie is suffering from the same problem of being up against an animation titan and losing as badly as Ash in Unova.

Btw, if you think Illumination is a cash cow machine... Disney is the king when it comes to cash cow and none more so than their Frozen title. Mark my words, in November 2019(which is 2 years and 122 days if my math is correct and yes that's a long time to wait), Frozen 2 will probably break 2 Billion worldwide, not to mention causing every parent on the planet with a daughter(my brother has twins... the chills...) making their wallets that much thinner.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

Even if the movie had been bad, I don't see them leaving Alola anytime soon. We still have at least 1 season there since the next games are going to be Alola as well. So unless they completely change the anime to not follow the games and where it can go down its own path, we won't be seeing Ash leave Alola until later, We also know that the Switch Game, which is probably Gen 8, won't be around until 2018 or 2019. So they have to do something till then.

We already know Movie 21 is a thing. So Ash probably isn't going anywhere until Gen 8. And they aren't going to start a new anime region until a week or two before Gen 8. So chances are, we will have 3 seasons of Alola.

We are probably getting more islands in USUM, so that gives him a chance, and if they add gyms, well then he has something else to do. Not to mention I still see us having a Skull or Aether Arc.

 

[weedle_mchairybug]

Even if the movie had been bad, I don't see them leaving Alola anytime soon. We still have at least 1 season there since the next games are going to be Alola as well. So unless they completely change the anime to not follow the games and where it can go down its own path, we won't be seeing Ash leave Alola until later, We also know that the Switch Game, which is probably Gen 8, won't be around until 2018 or 2019. So they have to do something till then.

We already know Movie 21 is a thing. So Ash probably isn't going anywhere until Gen 8. And they aren't going to start a new anime region until a week or two before Gen 8. So chances are, we will have 3 seasons of Alola.

We are probably getting more islands in USUM, so that gives him a chance, and if they add gyms, well then he has something else to do. Not to mention I still see us having a Skull or Aether Arc.

Maybe, but they're definitely going to be hard-pressed to think of something to market the new movie with. Can't be a new mythical Pokémon. That ship has sailed by them wasting Marshadow's debut in this film rather than saving him for the next movie and have Ash Hat Pikachu be the distribution bonus (they already used Magearna for the Volcanion movie, so that's out, and other than Marshadow, they don't have any other mythical Pokémon left to distribute), not to mention they haven't teased any new gen Pokémon yet. It also doesn't help that they haven't shown an animated teaser for the next movie (and before anyone jumps down my throat and claims they showed a teaser, I said an animated teaser, not just a brief message about there being a new movie next year. The Pokémon movies had at least one animated teaser released of the succeeding movie, while this didn't).

 

[Pinkie-Dawn]

Well... when they made the first movie, the minions stole the show to the point where they have their own spin-off movie. First movie was excellent, second was not bad, haven't seen the minion spin-off but I heard from relatives that its pretty good and the latest one's success is largely a result of the previous 3 films(although its not a bad movie in its own right since it has some really funny scenes). From a bit of digging, Pokemon Heroes debuted in the USA around the same time as Finding Nemo. That's like asking for trouble if you're up against Pixar. Seems the 20th movie is suffering from the same problem of being up against an animation titan and losing as badly as Ash in Unova.

Btw, if you think Illumination is a cash cow machine... Disney is the king when it comes to cash cow and none more so than their Frozen title. Mark my words, in November 2019(which is 2 years and 122 days if my math is correct and yes that's a long time to wait), Frozen 2 will probably break 2 Billion worldwide, not to mention causing every parent on the planet with a daughter(my brother has twins... the chills...) making their wallets that much thinner.

Make that double because the sequel of the 2014 Godzilla movie also comes out in 2019, and considering how Shin Godzilla decimated Pokémon Movie 19 last year, I'm sure this movie will also decimate Pokémon Movie 22.

 

[Taste of Tea]

And now Despicable Me 3 has dethroned Pokémon Movie 20 at the Japanese box office. Just to give you guys more reasons to despise the minions.

It's not as if the 20th Movie would've been redeemed even if it had kept its top position from last week. Judging from the twelve or so summaries that I've read, the movie was horrible regardless of how much its final gross will be IMO.