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Spirited Away Set for 800 Theatre Rerelease
Robotech_Master writes "According to the website of Jerry Beck, a 20-year-animation industry veteran and one of the co-founders of Streamline Animation, when Spirited Away won the Oscar, it also "won the right to be re-released to 800 theatres this Friday. Disney will be announcing plans to re-release the Japanese masterpiece in theatres later today." When I emailed Beck to ask him his source, he said it was someone within the Disney publicity department and it would be made public sometime today. According to Spirited Away's numbers page at Rotten Tomatoes, it peaked during its first run at 151 screens. Wonder how it'll do this time around?"
The DVD will be out in three weeks. So for the price of two tickets, you can actually own it!
Here's the press release from Disney...
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I think that having more theaters is nice... but they need to sell the movie first... to some audience. The Oscar is nice and all but I doubt there will be too much a correlation between it and increased sales unless it had won for Best Picture.
But the more important problem is the audience. Who is this for? Under 13? Teenagers? Adults? Are they going to show commercials during Saturday mornings between Pokemon and Digimon? Or is this after-school fare?
I still think the biggest problem is that Disney doesn't know what to do with these films. They don't fit into their standard G rating pipeline so the films end up showing on 100 screens and getting attended to by the film heads only. Too bad.
What is music when you despise all sound?
Disney is in the unenviable position of submarining their own works here. In one corner, you have 'Lilo and Stitch', the film, depending on who you beleive, Disney was lobbying to win 'Best Animated Picture' vs. 'Spirited Away'.
Disney has typically treated its Miyazaki/Ghibli licenses just like every other kind non-in-house animation they acquire (Many DIC titles. First season Sailor Moon is a notable example). They'll sell it, but they will not spend adequate resources on it or promote it in any way that will compete with their own films.
They spent considerable effort creating excellent dubbs on Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away, but simply will not promote those films in any way like they will their own releases. (I have yet to get a Kiki action figure at Burger King.)
'Spirited Away/Sen to Chihiro' is a true work of art. Disney knows it. Miyazaki knows it. The people who've seen it know it. It *deserved* to win BAP. By winning, however, it takes away from 'Lilo and Stitch'. By rereleasing 'Spirited Away', Disney is effectively submarining a possible 'Lilo and Stitch' rerelease. They're also forced to tacitly admit that Miyazaki and Studio Ghibi produces better stuff than they do.
By not re-releasing 'Spirited Away', Disney is in the even more awkward position of trying to explain why they're submarining a film that's won BAP simply because it's not their own work.
Congratulations Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli! I will be taking everyone I know and can get to go to the rerelease.
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Failed at the box office? What box office?
You know where I got to watch it? I watched it in a nearby university's 100 seat theater. This is the kind of coverage Disney gave the film: very little advertisement, very few showings. Is there even a "box office" for universities for it to fail at?
Even 800 theatres is nothing compared to what the real box office bombs open at.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
I was lucky enough to get a private showing during the first run. Well, not really private, but there was no one else in the theatre. No one in town knew the movie was there. The print was so clean I think they had not even been turning the projector on. No, it wasn't an 'art house' theatre, but a real multiplex. Off course, there were no lobby cards, newspaper ads, or any other type of promotion.
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Spirited Away didn't fail, it didn't get a fair run. Look at Treasure Planet...how AWFUL that movie was, and it was a media blitz from Disney. At least "Spirited" got a better shake than Princess Mononoke. We live in Los Angeles for crying out loud, and we had to drive an hour into Pasadena to an obscure arthouse theater and watch it sitting in folding chairs on a screen the size of a medium-sized in-home projection T.V. screen. MEDIUM-sized projection T.V. screen!
Disney really doesn't want the U.S. to suddenly get an uncontrollable craving for non-Disney-produced animation features. The only reason Ghibli has any ties to Disney at all is because Disney doesn't want anime to steamroll over them without them at least having a hand on the pressure-release valve.
No matter how good the anime feature is, if Disney releases it in the U.S., it's popularity will be governed and reduced by the hand of Eisner.