BadAtGender

Are you scoring the TASM2/Godzilla/DoFP bets? You've marked both baumer and CJohn as winners, but not me. None are marked in red, either.

Even if said major motion picture never happens. I still remember the blurbs on Hack/Slash covers after it was optioned for a film.

Yeah, the visuals for the live action Japanese films I've seen recently do seem to be pretty good. The writing, however, may leave something to be desired. The Rurouni Kenshin film was pretty great (if a little long), but Space Battleship Yamato was a chore to get through. Hopefully Attack on Titan is a bit stronger in that regard. Somewhat related, has anyone seen the 20th Century Boys films? I'm not quite halfway through the manga and really enjoy it, but I'm wondering if the films are worth checking out at some point.

Hey, by the numbers Team Slushy Queen is doing the best. Pity nobody is rooting for us. ^_~

Nooo! Japan is being inflicted by the same curse as the US box office.

If this was going to happen, it would have been after an outcry that Serkis didn't get a supporting actor nom for The Two Towers. That didn't happen, and I don't think there's been a performance since that has gotten any similar critical acclaim. I haven't seen Apes yet, so I can't say whether there's anything comparable, but it would have to be at least Gollum vs. Smeagol good to get any feeling of a snub at the end of the year.

As the others have shown, it's not quite what you'd expect by the bread description. The Japanese word "pan" (pronounced sorta like "pahn") is a bit more encompassing, and includes a variety of filled buns or pastries as well as the traditional loafs you might expect. They're usually filled with a sweet paste, custard, or cream, but it can be savory. The full name will usually include a description of what's inside. Anpan for red bean paste. Kuripan for curry filling (I think, at least. My Japanese is really rusty and was never comprehensive.) I can't quite read the labels of those images, so I'm not sure what flavor Anna and Elsa have. I may need to check out Uwajimaya to see if they're available there.

Yeah. I might have to turn sigs off until Tele changes it. It's starting to bug me.

Maybe. The first earned just a bit over $5m, and more recent DWA films haven't gotten releases. I don't think The Croods did, for instance. Generally American animation doesn't do terribly well in Japan, except for stuff Disney releases... and even there, it's mostly just Pixar that does very well. WDAS (outside of Frozen) is mostly just okay.

This summer, man. Even when things start to look good, it's like... Nope! Odd upshot: unlike most Marvel films, I'm starting to feel excitement for GotG several weeks out, instead of just a few days before release.

1) Will any film make 35 million this weekend? NO 2) Will The Purge finish in the top 3? YES 3) Will Planes Fire and Rescue open to more than 30 million? NO 4) Will Sex Tape make more than 1.8 mill from previews? NO 5) Will The Purge make more than 1.8 mill from previews? YES 6) Will Apes fall more than 50%? YES 7) Will Transformers fall more than 50%? YES 8) Will Transformers open to more than 4 mill in Italy? 9) Will Tammy fall less than 37%? NO 10) Will any film fall less than 20%? YES 11) Will any film increase by more than 50% on Saturday? NO 12) Will 22JS have a Friday increase of more than 52.7%? YES What finishes in spots 1 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 2 The Purge: Anarchy 3 Planes: Fire and Rescue 4 Sex Tape 15 Boyhood 2000 each 3000 bonus if all correct Bonus 1: What will Purge gross on Friday? 5000 14.567 Bonus 2: What will the cume be for the three openers? 5000 84.639 Bonus 3: What will Transformers gross internationally on the weekend? 5000 48.241

It shouldn't have any trouble doing that. It'll be past 160m by Sunday, and could beat KFP entirely in another week after that.

It might have some goodwill in Japan from Frozen. Much like how Pixar has a dedicated following, there could be some of that for WDAS, now. It's not going to get anywhere close to Frozen's numbers, but something bigger than the previous standard for WDAS features may be possible. Shooting for the 5b yen range rather than 3b, for instance.

At the moment, SA is still the sales leader on video in Japan. Frozen should get there, but it'll take a bit of time, I'd think. And a bit more to make up the difference in box office.

There are some neat things about Hunchback, but it's got a lot of problems. Solid, certainly, but not one of Disney's greatest.

I'm not sure how it would be possible to make an animated film without a script. I can imagine they may have let the actors improvise a lot of the dialogue, though.

Okay, really good for Apes. What would that indicate for the weekend? 35-40? It could end up with the best second weekend of the summer. (Edging out TF4). It's also got pretty light incoming competition until GotG hits.

So I was curious about RT scores and academy noms. Here's the list, also noting Metacritic rating. Winners in bold. I also marked notable exceptions each year, though some of the foreign films would have ended up in later years. The quality of animation from 2007 to 2010 was pretty much off the charts. Even if it's slightly below that level, it's still pretty solid. 2011 is really interesting in that there were two films that had 90+ RT ratings, and neither got a nom. 2008 also had that happen, though WALL-E was also above that mark. So it's possible that it happens and something with a rating that high misses a nom, but I doubt it happens this year. In 2011, neither of the films made a big splash box office wise. Even as a disappointment, Dragon isn't going to be missed. I did check earlier years, but it seems that until 2007, they were kinda scraping to even get 3 nominations. Shark Tale, anyone? 2013 RT Fresh RT Rating Metacritic Ernest & Celestine 97 8.2 86 The Wind Rises 89 7.9 83 Frozen 89 7.7 74 Despicable Me 2 74 6.7 62 The Croods 70 6.5 55 (Monsters University) 78 6.8 65 2012 Frankenweenie 87 7.6 74 ParaNorman 87 7.3 72 Wreck-it Ralph 86 7.4 72 The Pirates! 86 7.2 73 Brave 78 6.9 69 (Wolf Children) 92 8.3 72 (Madagascar 3) 79 6.8 60 (Rise of the Guardians) 74 6.5 57 2011 Rango 88 7.6 75 Chico & Rita 86 7.6 76 Puss in Boots 84 6.8 65 A Cat in Paris 82 6.8 63 Kung Fu Panda 2 81 6.9 67 (Arthur Christmas) 91 7.2 69 (Winnie the Pooh) 90 7.2 74 (From Up on Poppy Hill) 83 7 71 2010 Toy Story 3 99 8.8 92 How to Train Your Dragon 98 7.9 74 The Illusionist 90 8 82 (Arrietty) 94 7.6 80 (Tangled) 89 7.5 71 2009 Up 98 8.6 88 Fantastic Mr. Fox 92 7.9 83 The Secret of Kells 91 7.6 81 Coraline 90 7.7 80 The Princess & the Frog 84 7.3 73 (Cloudy Meatballs) 87 7.3 66 (Summer Wars) 76 7 63 2008 WALL-E 96 8.5 94 Bolt 88 7.2 67 Kung Fu Panda 87 7.2 73 (Waltz With Bashir) 96 8.4 91 (Ponyo) 92 7.6 86 2007 Ratatouille 96 8.4 96 Persepolis 96 8.1 90 Surf’s Up 78 6.6 64 (The Simpsons Movie) 90 7.5 80 (Meet the Robinsons) 66 6.3 61

Ugh. I get the issues with derailment. Over the past few weeks, daily numbers threads have exploded. If you're in the moment and reading them, it probably seems fine, but every time I'm away from my computer for more than an hour or two, it's a unreadable mess. Something clearly needs to be done. That said, I like that the threads can meander a bit. There have been a lot of interesting and insightful conversations in past numbers threads, and I think pushing everything into the classic conversation thread is going to lose some of that. However, really it's going to come down to the members: check yourselves. Don't just needlessly spam the thread. Try to engage it. If you're repeating yourself (either via gif or just saying what you've said multiple times in the past), it's probably good to assume that either most people know what you've said already, or they don't care enough to remember. In either case, saying it again isn't going to improve anything. So, I'll see how these new guidelines work. If we as a collective forum can't correct things ourselves, it's definitely up to the staff to do it for us.

Huh?

What the hell? I go watch a couple anime episodes and this thread explodes by another 30 pages? What is happening today?

Start with an abstain.

I just started watching Kill la Kill.

At least, I'd think. It's still pretty new in other large markets like the UK and France, too.