The Boy and the Heron | Hayao Miyazaki | Studio Ghibli | GKIDS | NA Debut at TIFF | WINNER OF THE OSCAR FOR BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

[Lighthouse]

So they're going to make zero promo ?

[harrisonisdead]

Several sellouts at the Angelika in NYC today, and the screenings that didn't sell out got close to it. Definitely the movie's highest-grossing location today, probably around $35k. I checked sales for Friday and Saturday there as well and it looks like it'll be a similar story, already a lot of sales. Burbank continues to also be doing well. AMC Lincoln Square (NY) and Century City (LA) are lagging behind a little. Some packed screenings, but some practically empty.

 

Not sure what per-theater average will look like. It'll be somewhat deflated by the fact that one of the movie's five theaters is only showing it once a day in a small auditorium. The 3-day PTA will also be deflated by the wednesday opening. But we'll have a better picture after today. If we get any sort of numbers reported, that is.

 

Top 3-Day Opening PTAs of 2023:

Quote

1		Asteroid City	$142,230
2		Beau is Afraid	$80,099
3		Past Lives	$58,067
4		Theater Camp	$50,203
5		Bottoms	$46,105
6		Saltburn	$46,093
7		Barbie	$38,186
8		Dream Scenario	$36,673
9		The Holdovers	$35,182
10		The Super Mario Bros. Movie	$33,701

Top Opening Day PTAs of 2023:

Quote

1		Asteroid City	$60,106
2		Beau is Afraid	$35,273
3		Saltburn	$23,946
4		Bottoms	$23,120
5		Past Lives	$20,131
6		Theater Camp	$18,389
7		Priscilla	$16,661
8		Barbie	$16,616
9		Dream Scenario	$16,440
10		The Holdovers	$15,987

 

[harrisonisdead]

Quote

Takeshi Honda already had a good gig lined up. The veteran animator was slated to work on Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, the next film in the sci-fi series that Honda had worked on in fits and starts over the last two decades. Before starting that job, he partnered with Studio Ghibli’s famed Hayao Miyazaki on Boro the Caterpillar, a short film that aired exclusively at the Ghibli Museum. But as Boro was winding down, Miyazaki came to Honda with a proposition: be the supervising animator on his next feature film.

 

“Of course I had already booked Evangelion, so I had to say to him ‘I need some time to talk with the other parties, and come to a decision.’ I had to stall,” Honda said. “But Miyazaki was in quite a rush and was very loud about this. He said ‘I don’t have any more time. Nobody in the Miyazaki family has lived beyond 80. This is probably going to be my last film so you have to come on board.’ And when Miyazaki says that to you, really there’s no way to say no.”

https://www.theverge.com/23971512/boy-and-the-heron-takeshi-honda-interview-evangelion

[MovieMan89]

These reports are making me excited, especially if GKIDS is claiming presales are “extremely strong.” I’d be over the moon if this open to like DS-ish numbers DOM. 

[Flip]

5 hours ago, harrisonisdead said:

Several sellouts at the Angelika in NYC today, and the screenings that didn't sell out got close to it. Definitely the movie's highest-grossing location today, probably around $35k. I checked sales for Friday and Saturday there as well and it looks like it'll be a similar story, already a lot of sales. Burbank continues to also be doing well. AMC Lincoln Square (NY) and Century City (LA) are lagging behind a little. Some packed screenings, but some practically empty.

 

Not sure what per-theater average will look like. It'll be somewhat deflated by the fact that one of the movie's five theaters is only showing it once a day in a small auditorium. The 3-day PTA will also be deflated by the wednesday opening. But we'll have a better picture after today. If we get any sort of numbers reported, that is.

 

Top 3-Day Opening PTAs of 2023:

Top Opening Day PTAs of 2023:

 

I’d guess they’re going to lump these special engagements and all the early access into the gross for Thursday the 7th or Friday the 8th if they don’t report previews, but I can’t see it being too high since I’m expecting the theater count to be at least 1000 so it would have to do 15m which it’s obviously not.

[harrisonisdead]

9 hours ago, Flip said:

I’d guess they’re going to lump these special engagements and all the early access into the gross for Thursday the 7th or Friday the 8th if they don’t report previews, but I can’t see it being too high since I’m expecting the theater count to be at least 1000 so it would have to do 15m which it’s obviously not.

I could see them doing that for the IMAX previews or the previews on the 6th, but it'd be pretty unusual to lump an entire 2 week limited run into the preview gross. If it does particularly well in these first few days, it'd probably be in their best interest to report it as a PTA win than to count it as an extra million towards the wide opening. But who knows? This is the first time GKIDS has done a proper expansion from platform release to wide release, so there's no precedent. In the past, they've at least reported weekends for their limited releases.

[titanic2187]

Omg, debuted with 67% verified audience from RT. It is hard movie to watch apparently everywhere. 

[Issac Newton]

Top Critics is still 100% (29 Reviews) - 9.30/10

 

All Audiences is 90% (4.5/5.0)

 

I wonder how will it goes in NA.

[Danhjpn]

11 minutes ago, titanic2187 said:

Omg, debuted with 67% verified audience from RT. It is hard movie to watch apparently everywhere. 

Only 4 verified audience yet on RT tho, the sample is still too small.

Based on Letterbox data and using RT standard, it should be around 85-90% 

[harrisonisdead]

The same complaints that have applied to other international audiences will still certainly apply to Americans, which is that some people find the plot confusing/weird and/or boring (the most common negative review you'll see on Letterboxd is "it's visually beautiful but I didn't understand it at all"). I've also seen a number of people in English-language reactions fixate on the fact that a character marries his late wife's sister. That said, the Letterboxd rating has increased slightly since American audiences have started seeing it, so there's some self-selection among people more likely to enjoy it. Right now it's above Ponyo and in line with Castle in the Sky. It very well might fall back down when it goes into wide release.

 

I've also seen some complaints that the English dub is not good besides Robert Pattinson. But I think most screenings in the US so far have been the subbed version, so a minority of people are affected by the dub. When it's in wide release, most screenings will likely be the dub, so hopefully it's not that bad.

[Issac Newton]

You’ve been working with Miyazaki for around 20 years now. Was there something different this time in terms of studio atmosphere or how it was created?

Akihiko Yamashita: The biggest difference was that we worked without a set release date, so without deadlines.

For nearly every film, the release date is decided sometime during the production, and so it’s common knowledge that once the deadline is set, we’re all heading towards disaster. (laughs) However, with Miyazaki getting old, he couldn’t work as fast as before, so the overall schedule adapted to his pace. We went rather slowly, and the release date was only decided once the film was completed.

On normal films, a lot of staff is gathered and put to work all at once to compensate for the lack of time; this time, we were just a small group of hand-picked people who had all the time we needed. So, if I had to say what made this production special, it’s how quiet it was: everyone followed their own pace, something that you’d never ever meet elsewhere.

 

 

[MovieMan89]

It will be a shame if the dub isn’t good since a good dub could make it far less confusing for American audiences. I have said many times that subs can often be impossible to really convey what’s being said, hence why I love a good dub that takes the liberty to actually make things make sense in another language. 

[Flip]

Audience score up to 79%, but I think this won’t be a movie with appeal outside of Miyazaki fans or cinephiles

[cannastop]

3 hours ago, Flip said:

Audience score up to 79%, but I think this won’t be a movie with appeal outside of Miyazaki fans or cinephiles

that's just fine with me really.

[titanic2187]

On 11/25/2023 at 12:36 AM, Danhjpn said:

Only 4 verified audience yet on RT tho, the sample is still too small.

Based on Letterbox data and using RT standard, it should be around 85-90% 

The verified audience score grew to 79%.

Whereas the mostly useless all audience score is at unbelievably level of 98%. Definitely some fans boosting up the score is happening here. 

[harrisonisdead]

29 minutes ago, titanic2187 said:

The verified audience score grew to 79%.

Whereas the mostly useless all audience score is at unbelievably level of 98%. Definitely some fans boosting up the score is happening here. 

Definitely. Someone must have sent a brigade considering there was a huge surge in audience reviews in portuguese today (and I don't think it just released in a portuguese-speaking country this weekend, but maybe I'm wrong). It went from the 50+ rating range to the 500+ rating range overnight. Probably an organized effort by some online fan group or something.

Edited November 25, 2023 by harrisonisdead

[MovieMan89]

I maintain Miyazaki has a WAY bigger fanbase in the west now than in 2013, so I don’t know if “only for Miyazaki fans” will be any kind of problem really as far as how high it can go. 
 

Also, wildly impressive that one Ghibli animator did roughly 1/3 of the animation here himself, woah. If he’s any good at storytelling/screenplays, Miyazaki should be mentoring him to “take over” for him. 

[Issac Newton]

 

 

[Flip]

They’ve got to add more IMAX EA showings, near me almost every one is sold out but there’s only one, whereas minus one is getting 3 showings next wednesday

[lorddemaxus]

Bought IMaX tix for next Monday

Edited November 26, 2023 by lorddemaxus