| because dragonball is id even dare to say the most popular anime in the west id be surprised if other anime even make 20% of the profit they made DB |
| Probably because most people aren’t into anime |
| Only some select titles have a broad enough mainstream appeal to be worth the risk. The movies that do get to the west probably make most of their money from 'normies' who aren't even into anime as such but just know about Ghibli or DBZ or like to watch the occasional 'international animation movie'. Probably not the same kind of crowd that's on MAL and watches the more obscure movies that the western mainstream never even hears of. Remember, a large portion of the more 'dedicated' anime fans a) only pirate and would never invest any money and b) hate dubs so they'd never watch a dub, nevermind pay for it. So without the mainstream non-anime fans and without a large portion of the actual anime fandom, how much target audience is there still left who'd go and pay for them? Not enough. |
| I probably regret this post by now. |
| Cause it's a well known series in america. Imagine releasing Hajime no Ippo movies and expecting the same buzz. It really doesn't work since people prefer live action instead of animation for theatrical releases unless its a really normie anime. |
| I'm new. |
Brogeta said: DepravedMagi said: Probably because most people aren’t into anime Most people aren't into comic book stuff but Marvel movies still do pretty well. And anime is crazy popular so I don't know where you're getting that from. That isn't comparable at all while lots of people aren't into comic book stuff characters like Spiderman are almost Brogeta said: DepravedMagi said: Probably because most people aren’t into anime Most people aren't into comic book stuff but Marvel movies still do pretty well. And anime is crazy popular so I don't know where you're getting that from. Seriously.... that isn't comparable at all. While most have never read a comic book characters like Spider Man are intrinsic to American pop culture, don't have the level of foreign unfamiliarity that anime does and have big name companies like Disney promoting it with tons of big name Hollywood actors. Even DBZ's newest film still doesn't compare to the top Ghilbi film or really anytthing Disney or Illumination. How many people are going to go watch a film like Maquia, A Silent Voice or films to lesser known anime IP's like the one out for Saga of Tanya the Evil. DBZ is pretty much the most mainstream non Ghilbi anime internationally and that was the best it could do. Good but hardly comparable to any Western animated title. You do have occasional hits like Your Name but again that doesn't mean companies are going to look at anime as a sure success. They are all risks. Anime is slowly increasing in popularity in the West but it is going to be awhile before we start seeing theatrical releases become common. |
BilboBaggins365Feb 18, 2019 10:40 AM
Pullman said: Only some select titles have a broad enough mainstream appeal to be worth the risk. The movies that do get to the west probably make most of their money from 'normies' who aren't even into anime as such but just know about Ghibli or DBZ or like to watch the occasional 'international animation movie'. Probably not the same kind of crowd that's on MAL and watches the more obscure movies that the western mainstream never even hears of. Remember, a large portion of the more 'dedicated' anime fans a) only pirate and would never invest any money and b) hate dubs so they'd never watch a dub, nevermind pay for it. So without the mainstream non-anime fans and without a large portion of the actual anime fandom, how much target audience is there still left who'd go and pay for them? Not enough. Certainly not many if they have a limited release for starters. It's not a linear cause-consequence. The releases are based on estimations, yeah, but they also limit the access to these movies and they are a factor in their inability to gain popularity. |
| Low market share. Anime hasn't settled into the roots of Western culture yet - at least, far less than it has in the Far East. Companies generally don't promote what they can't profit off of. |
| I agree it's a lack of market share issue. For a bit of background, I'm nearly forty, my mother is nearing 70. She knows who Spiderman, Captain America, Batman, and Superman are. She does not know who Natsu, Ed, Naruto or even Goku is. That's why comic book movies get made, even the casual, outside of target-audience range, viewers have a general idea what's going on, whereas anime has not reached that level quite yet. Perhaps it will someday. Until it proves wildly successful with a breakout or something, you can bet Hollywood is going to keep playing it safe. And right now, safe isn't inclusive of anime or anime related titles. |
You can make me grow old, but you can never make me grow up! |
Brogeta said: TolkienFan365 said: That isn't comparable at all while lots of people aren't into comic book stuff characters like Spiderman are almost Seriously.... that isn't comparable at all. While most have never read a comic book characters like Spider Man are intrinsic to American pop culture, don't have the level of foreign unfamiliarity that anime does and have big name companies like Disney promoting it with tons of big name Hollywood actors. Even DBZ's newest film still doesn't compare to the top Ghilbi film or really anytthing Disney or Illumination. How many people are going to go watch a film like Maquia or films to lesser known anime like the one out for Saga of Tanya the Evil. DBZ is pretty much the most mainstream non Ghilbi anime and that was the best it could do. I'd say Pokémon is even more mainstream than DBZ and is just as intrinsic to American pop culture. They even made a live action Pikachu movie. They made a live action Ghost in the Shell as well and it's no where near as popular. This can easily be fixed with a bit of promotion. Yeah I forgot about Pokemon so yeah Pokemon would be the most mainsteam. As for it can be fixed with promotion how are you sure of that? I mean anime has a different market audience compared to most Western animated films which go after a younger demographic and are basically family films. Anime targets an older demographic usually in their teens. Some older than that the West still views animation as a kids thing unless its a crass comedy show like South Park or Family Guy. I mean the most popular anime internationally would be Pokemon for the same reason they are family films. I mean looking at the original Ghost in the Shell that film was a failure on release and didn't do well internationally. It was only after its theater screening and home video did amass a cult following. Plus you would again have to convince people to invest their money into marketing for it. They do for Ghilbi because that proves to sell. |
jal90 said: Pullman said: Only some select titles have a broad enough mainstream appeal to be worth the risk. The movies that do get to the west probably make most of their money from 'normies' who aren't even into anime as such but just know about Ghibli or DBZ or like to watch the occasional 'international animation movie'. Probably not the same kind of crowd that's on MAL and watches the more obscure movies that the western mainstream never even hears of. Remember, a large portion of the more 'dedicated' anime fans a) only pirate and would never invest any money and b) hate dubs so they'd never watch a dub, nevermind pay for it. So without the mainstream non-anime fans and without a large portion of the actual anime fandom, how much target audience is there still left who'd go and pay for them? Not enough. Certainly not many if they have a limited release for starters. It's not a linear cause-consequence. The releases are based on estimations, yeah, but they also limit the access to these movies and they are a factor in their inability to gain popularity. I mean yeah, I'm not saying the situation is great or how it should be, but I just don't see it happening. I think the last movie that interested me that I was able to watch where I live was Kaguya-sama and that was years ago already and the room was almost empty on the screening I saw. I more frequently see something like Akira being screened here at some event or film festival than actual new anime movies :/. |
| I probably regret this post by now. |
Brogeta said: TolkienFan365 said: Yeah I forgot about Pokemon so yeah Pokemon would be the most mainsteam. As for it can be fixed with promotion how are you sure of that? I mean anime has a different market audience compared to most Western animated films which go after a younger demographic and are basically family films. Anime targets an older demographic usually in their teens. Some older than that the West still views animation as a kids thing unless its a crass comedy show like South Park or Family Guy. I mean the most popular anime internationally would be Pokemon for the same reason they are family films. I mean looking at the original Ghost in the Shell that film was a failure on release and didn't do well internationally. It was only after its theater screening and home video did amass a cult following. Plus you would again have to convince people to invest their money into marketing for it. They do for Ghilbi because that proves to sell. I'm not sure if promotion can fix it but how can you know if it hasn't even been tried? How many anime movies has seen theatrical release in the US? It's like throwing in the towel before even trying. Distribution companies aren't going to respond well to that. As I said if they see evidence of increasing popularity it will happen but anime just isn't at that point. On the plus side it is growing in popularity so we might see wider theatrical releases in the future. |
Brogeta said: Weirdo47 said: You've still got it better than us in Iran Did you reply to the wrong thread? What does that even mean? Probably meaning they don't even get releases... Also anime just isn't as popular in the US. It's a growing fandom, and I think studios are starting to see us as a bigger market they can access, but it just hasn't been a huge deal in the past. Like right now, fathom events airs some super well known anime like the Ghibli films or Koe no Katachi as special events. There's almost no way the theatres make money off of these screenings, but it does a lot to convince people that anime can make it big here. If this DBS movie did super well, perhaps it means good things for new anime movie releases in the US. Even more so if Detective Pikachu can convince people anime isn't weird. But you still need to realize DBS is super mainstream for anime so getting more niche genres and movies to the big screen may still be a ways off. I can see Tenki no Ko possibly getting some actual theatrical release, seeing how well Kimi no Na wa did. |
 |
| Unless you mean showings in rural remote areas far from civilization, America gets plenty theatrical releases. (Protip check the fathomevents website) A reason for that could perhaps be that they'd be making less money than if they'd say... show Iron Man or Avengers once more during that timeslot. Larger cities have less to worry for as they have a larger group of people to pull from. At times I gotta admit I'm pretty envious of y'alls lineup... even getting the Made in Abyss movies. Lucky people! |
 |
| I wanted to see "Your Name" on the big screen but when it had its limited theatrical release, there were no theaters within a hundred miles of me that screened it (I live in Bloomington/Normal, IL and wouldn't have minded driving an hour or so to Peoria, Champaign/Urbana, or Springfield, but none of those cities had it.) A couple of months ago I got the chance to see "Mirai" when it had its limited run. There were only about six people in the theater. If that's typical, no wonder there aren't more anime screenings. |
mwalimuFeb 19, 2019 5:55 AM
A møøse once bit my sister... |
| I live in a traditional country in Europe and anime movies get no theater releases at all which is really sad. Even streaming services have almost nothing. DBZ is not popular at all. When I was small, there was Pokemon and Sailor Moon on tv but now there's nothing and people my age watch Family Guy and are super proud about it. There are those small alternative cinemas (there's like 20 in the whole country) for smart people and sometimes they provide screenings for small groups, like literally 30 people. I watched Mirai no Mirai in one of those. Here the mentality is what blocks anime movies and anime in general. ANYTHING animated is for small children and you get laughed at for mentioning it, sometimes even ostracized. Young people literally call anime "stupid chinese cartoons for mental people". Adults make sure to stay away. Work with that. But the manga market is growing super fast. |
| At least you got a lot of theatrical stuff happening. Here on Brazil, we only had Dragon Ball, Naruto and Saint Seiya with a normal release. All the other movies (wich weren't many) were just with one session and always extremely late. |
 |
| When I think of the main issues, what comes to mind is the niche market. An anime has to be fairly popular to do well. For example, I went to go see Liz and the Blue Bird a few months ago with a friend. We drove over an hour for our nearest location. I'm not bitching about the drive because it was worth it in my eyes, but a lot of people didn't feel that way. It wasn't very full in the theater despite being the only one with a viewing withing another hour or so from that location. On top of that, Liz was pretty much a stand alone movie from it's series, Hibike Euphonium. I'm not sure how much of an effect it would have had if it was part of the series, but it wouldn't increase the numbers for sure. We, as fans, are just a little too spread out and restricted on so many tastes of anime that it is really hard for one movie to be so popular to be worth a theatrical release. Hell, the last Pokemon movie I went to at the end of last year, I was the only one in that showing! Just a bit of insight. |
 |
| Theatrical releases of Anime has been a thing for a while here in Australia. But, up until recently you'd have to look out for it at more alternative/independent cinemas. |
| It's been said multiple times already, but the anime community in the west isn't exactly the largest. It might seem like a huge community when you look at numbers from something like an anime forum, but compared to the population of even a single state, it's still very niche. That's even worse than many think considering anime is a medium, and not a genre. Even within the anime community, not everyone's going to watch an anime movie of a genre they don't care for, cutting the potential profit quite a bit. Despite how popular DBZ is, it didn't exactly make non-Shounen fans change their minds and watch it, or at least not very many. It would be cool for us here in the west to get more theatrical releases, but that's thinking about it as consumers. For those responsible for bringing these series to the west, it's just a huge risk for almost no payoff. |
 |
| I have seen an increase in anime titles playing over here recently. Literally once a month a theatre near me plays a Ghibli movie and every 3 months or so they play a new movie like “I Want to Eat Your Pancreas” or the new fate movie that is coming out. |
Brogeta said: Just look at how well Dragon Ball Broly did in theaters. It obviously works. There's been an increase as of late in the US. Almost all the big titles have had a release even if it's a Tuesday night and they were in theaters like AMC rather than independent ones. Satoshi Kon and classic Sailor Moon movies also had limited screenings last year as well. Ghibli Fest also just released its schedule for the year as well. (still 9 movies though but I'm glad Nausicaa and Kaguya are on the list for this year). If you're looking for something with weekend showings like My Hero Academia and Dragon Ball, that's not going to happen for all movies any time soon. Not much money compared to Hollywood movies after all. |
More topics from this board
» Voice cast reunions (anime where many of the VA's share a common series together)TheBlockernator - 1 hour ago |
2 |
by Zarutaku
»»
6 minutes ago |
|
» non horror anime plots that would be a nightmare to have to go throughTheBlockernator - 48 minutes ago |
7 |
by Sasori56483
»»
12 minutes ago |
|
» Do you assume that people know nothing about anime?thewiru - Oct 6 |
47 |
by IkemenSenpai
»»
19 minutes ago |
|
» 🍷 AD Summer 2025 Best Girl Contest ( 1 2 3 4 )Shizuna - Sep 28 |
182 |
by SgtBateMan
»»
26 minutes ago |
|
» what do you think about anime elitism and which anime would fit here?selfawarecorpse - Yesterday |
43 |
by Sasori56483
»»
28 minutes ago |