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Katsuhiro Otomo's Steamboy in Theaters

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the if-you-haven't-seen-akira-you-suck dept.

echocharlie writes "Steamboy is rolling into US theaters on March 18. The movie features the notable return of Katsuhiro Otomo, who hasn't directed an animated film since Akira, so big things can be expected. The film opened in Japan earlier to mostly rave reviews. The english cast features Anna Paquin, Alfred Molina, and Patrick Stewart. That's interesting casting since all three have had prominent roles in comic book movie adapatations (X-men, Spider-Man 2, and X-men respectively), not to mention Mr. Stewart's famous sci-fi ties. Anime films without Pokémon in their titles haven't fared well at the US Box office (see Appleseed, Tokyo Godfathers, Ghost in the Shell 2, et al.). Hopefully with an adequate number of theaters carrying the film, Katsuhiro Otomo's latest opus will gain the exposure it deserves."

4 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. Huh? by Telastyn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And what about Spirited Away, or any of Gibli's other US releases? They've done fantastically well from what I understand.

  2. Why? by Jukashi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why does everything "good" have to be liked by MILLIONS of people? Isnt that the mindset that creates steaming piles like "Be Cool" - make the most bland-least-offensive-lowest-common-denominator-dr ivel possible to maximize profits? F that.

  3. Box Office Performance by PhiznTRG · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The problem is not necessarily public acceptance but studio marketing. Looking at the linked box office data it is pretty obvious that movies released to very few theatres (e.g. "Cowboy Bebop") don't do as well as movies heavily marketed and released to thousands of theatres. (On "Tokyo Godfathers" - that isn't the type of movie that the general public would like anyway - crossdressing old men in cartoons are not kid-friendly...)

    "Spirited Away", which did pretty well despite all the effort by Disney to not market the movie, shows that anime can be successful when done right. The fact that it took an Oscar to get the public to notice the movie is sad, when Buena Vista could have had a real hit on it's hands. There are more and more Miyazaki movies on DVD in places like Target now but the marketing is still minimal (though I have seen commercials for Naussica).

    There is a disconnect between what the Adult Swim alpha geek will consider good anime and what will do well in theatres (see Pokemon). The influx of Japanese manga and anime is growing, though, I suspect that we will see more movies released in theatres once the studious catch on to the growing trend. Kids that under five now will not think that Anime is strange or foreign, which will directly impact public acceptance of anime as a legitimate movie choice.

  4. Re:English Dubs by natrius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Few things annoy me more than people who will not watch a movie simply because they "have to read" it.

    People watch movies to be entertained. If they don't want to read subtitles, that's their deal. It's their free time.

    Few things annoy me more than self-righteous people.