What happened to the movies in the US?

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Somari

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I've never seen one in the movies, and I haven't been to a movie in years, but I'd go to see the movie.

They gross great in Japan, usually ranking first their opening weekend.

Why did they stop in the US? If it was because they weren't grossing well..I'm pretty sure more people would go to watch the movies now then before.

Pokemon is popular enough for a lot of people to see the movies. The main hand-held, and some spinoff, games are always top of their charts for their console, and the anime is still very popular.
 
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When they were in theaters, each movie made less than the previous.

The 3rd movie made less money than the previous two as the fad was waning at the time, so the 4th and 5th got limited releases. After that they simply gave up and had them released to DVD and air on TV.

People seem not to realize how short the Pokemon fad really was. It lasted from about 1998-2001 in the U.S. That was about it. By the time we were in late Johto, the 4th and 5th movies were obscure releases and Yu-gi-oh took over.
 
They started releasing them in fewer and fewer cinemas for whatever reason, and the gross suffered as a result; I believe Heroes was the last theatrical release in the States and it was shown in a paltry hundred or so theatres, getting a very low gross of a few thousand dollars. From that point on they obviously decided it was just cheaper to screen on TV and ship it out on DVD.
 
Matkin22 said:
They started releasing them in fewer and fewer cinemas for whatever reason, and the gross suffered as a result; I believe Heroes was the last theatrical release in the States and it was shown in a paltry hundred or so theatres, getting a very low gross of a few thousand dollars. From that point on they obviously decided it was just cheaper to screen on TV and ship it out on DVD.
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Movies 4 and 5 fell into a category called limited release, though they were on considerably more screens than most other limited release movies (roghly 300 screens for 4 and 200 screns for 5, whereas most limited release movies are lucky to get a few dozen).

What I think it really boils down to at this point is that TPCI could probably get some kind of thearical release for the movies, they don't feel like it would really benefit them in terms of revenue.
 
Honestly I'd love to see the movies in theaters again.

I don't have much more opinion on it though aside from what's already been said.
 
Pokemon (or any anime movies for that matter) just aren't that popular in America for theatrical release.
 
Movie theaters should have a giant poke'fest. where they show all the movies for like, a week :D
i'd pay LOTS of money to sit in a theater with a whole bunch of poke'tards for hours on end :D
haha, but yeah. i think they only had the first three in theaters in the US. i remember seeing the first two with my dad xD

i dont like it that they dont show them anymore, but in all seriousness, not that many people would actually pay money to go see pokemon movies in theaters, because most of the population that watches it now, is like, 6-10 year olds. (other than the people that never grew old of pokemon, like me xD)
 
Movies and TV shows are very different beasts. The Pokémon anime does very well, but watching the show on TV is much easier than going to the movies - you can view the show in the comfort of your own home, without having to get off the couch, and if you don't like the episode, you can change the channel. With a movie, you have to drive to the theater, pay $10 for a ticket, pay another $15 for concessions, sit through twenty minutes of trailers, and then if the movie is bad, you can't do anything about it; you just got gypped out of $25 and 90+ minutes of your time.

With that being considered, most people are of the state of mind that if they're going to see something in theaters, it had damn well better be worth their valuable time and money. And the average moviegoing audience does not want to see "Pokémon". Its main demographic is kids, and the amount of teens and adults who like it aren't significant enough to make the movie turn a profit. Most kids' movies in general don't do very well at the box office; it's why you hardly ever see any movies rated G anymore (a G rating is the kiss of death for a movie nowadays, as it virtually guarantees that nobody over the age of nine will want to watch it). Adults don't want to watch kids' movies; that's why they buy them on DVD and then let their children watch them alone in the other room.

"Pokémon" may be a successful franchise, but it's a successful kids' franchise. It can't compete in Hollywoodland, and so the movie studios don't even try. The direct-to-DVD market is much more profitable, and all things considered, it's the wisest move for the film series in America.
 
Marcus_Chiaki said:
Something must have sold Disney on Ponyo...
Click to expand...

Yeah...that something is called "Miyazaki's Oscar."

It also doesn't hurt that, y'know, Ponyo spent a whopping six weeks at the number one spot in Japanese box offices, and an additional eight weeks in the top ten.
 
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