Raya and the Last Dragon | March 5, 2021 | Premier Access/Theater simultaneous release

[Jamiem]

This is cool

 

"In celebration of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ new film, “Raya and the Last Dragon,” guests at the Downtown Disney District at the Disneyland Resort can take a photo in front of a new art installation inspired by the film. The artwork was designed by Imagineer Xiao Qing Chen, who was born and raised in Malaysia."

 

 

 

Source: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2021/03/imagineer-xiao-qing-chen-designs-artwork-inspired-by-disneys-raya-and-the-last-dragon-for-downtown-disney-district/?CMP=SOC-DPFY21Q2wo0304210019A

[Krissykins]

Disney continues to get a free pass when other studios don’t.

[Fullbuster]

 

 

2:15am, ready to go to bed so I won't make a long text to tell you how much I loved it, this tweet will be enough!

Box Office is in a terrible state worldwide given the covid context but this film will be remembered like a shining gem that emerged from the darkness and brought light to the animated world, it's gonna become a cult classic I'm sure of it so even if the box office is small it'll bring money for the decades to come!

 

 

[Eric Atreides]

https://deadline.com/2021/03/raya-and-the-last-dragon-opening-weekend-box-office-asian-marketing-campaign-mcdonalds-1234708089/

 

Quote

EXCLUSIVE: Today, Disney rolls out Raya and the Last Dragon, what is arguably its first domestic theatrical hybrid release; second worldwide if you count Mulan. The animated movie which is booked at 2,045 theaters, sans roughly 250 Cinemark locations, but including the newly reopened New York City market, is on its way to grossing a notable $3M today and between $9M-$10M domestic this weekend per industry estimates and that’s with an availability on Disney+ for the extra price of $30.

 

[TwoMisfits]

3 minutes ago, Eric and the Last Dragon said:

https://deadline.com/2021/03/raya-and-the-last-dragon-opening-weekend-box-office-asian-marketing-campaign-mcdonalds-1234708089/

 

 

Okay, I should quit 2021 DOM box office prognosticating while I can...if this stands, I nailed Raya...and I won't nail another movie this exactly all year:)...

[cannastop]

I don't care that much what numbers are. There's a pandemic going on.

 

Sad that there won't be much of a chance for legs though.

[Menor the Destroyer]

Was hoping to see some good BO here but since the bad openings OS kinda resigned myself to something low. Hopefully GvK can do "decently"

Edited March 6, 2021 by Menor

[DAJK]

18 minutes ago, cannastop said:

I don't care that much what numbers are. There's a pandemic going on.

 

Sad that there won't be much of a chance for legs though.

Why no chance for legs? Movies have typically been leggy in general the past year?

 

Also... yikes @ those numbers, especially after Tom and Jerry last weekend.

[Legion Again]

The PA money is a big unknown, but I’m skeptical of it doing super well. Just seems like an all around misfire, unfortunately. 0-day hybrid PA looking pretty dead I think.   
 

Am rather curious on legs, wouldn’t be shocked for this to get to 50ish. Could even end up as top 3 DOM of pandemic movies (released so far) behind Tenet and Croods, depending on T&J’s legs as well. But definitely not the result I, or Disney, or many folks, were hoping for.    
 

Most eyes now turn to GvK but I think nobody could also surprise to the upside.

Edited March 6, 2021 by WandaLegion

[cannastop]

11 minutes ago, DAJK said:

Why no chance for legs? Movies have typically been leggy in general the past year?

 

Also... yikes @ those numbers, especially after Tom and Jerry last weekend.

well I guess I'm just thinking of the video release.

Shame that it's also bombing in Japan.

[TwoMisfits]

I guess, at this point, we'll see if with NYC somewhat open and 3 movies opening if DOM BO can finally clear $30M in the Covid era.  

Edited March 6, 2021 by TwoMisfits

[Webslinger]

Yeah, like just about everyone else, my expectations were much higher after seeing Tom & Jerry break out last weekend. Even though there's a price point on Disney+, I wonder if the premier access availability might be driving some business away? I know Tom & Jerry is available for free on HBO Max, but I have to imagine that Disney+ has a much larger footprint with families than HBO Max. Just spitballing some spin here.

 

But if the run that Croods has had is a proper indicator, I do hope there's good reason to be optimistic about its legs. We'll see, I guess.

[TwoMisfits]

Just now, Webslinger said:

Yeah, like just about everyone else, my expectations were much higher after seeing Tom & Jerry break out last weekend. Even though there's a price point on Disney+, I wonder if the premier access availability might be driving some business away? I know Tom & Jerry is available for free on HBO Max, but I have to imagine that Disney+ has a much larger footprint with families than HBO Max. Just spitballing some spin here.

 

But if the run that Croods has had is a proper indicator, I do hope there's good reason to be optimistic about its legs. We'll see, I guess.

One thing that does work against it is that T&J is around, too...Croods 2 got all the family business as the only animated release for 3 months, but with spring break and Easter coming, the 2 movies can probably co-exist, although I don't know if we'll get the 5.4x multiplier...maybe 4x is a better guesstimate, although if Cinemark and other theaters pick it up for Easter, maybe it does better...

[Ms Lady Hawk]

My son was looking forward to seeing this, so I shelled out the $29.99 on Disney+ for it.  Unlike Tom & Jerry, I really enjoyed it and so did he. I think most of these movies released during the pandemic are not expected to earn much at the box office and are more to boost the profile of the streamers. The Croods opened when there were about 60% of movie theaters opened. Now, there are about 50% of movie theaters opened and the major markets are slowly opening as well. I think this can have some legs. WW84 opened when there were under 40% of theaters opened in the US and none in the three top markets. Yet, some people were pushing the “it bombed” narrative. I don’t know whether we can expect movies to start hitting their stride until at least the summer. That’s when we’ll start seeing 50 million plus debuts and then hopefully more soon thereafter. 
 

I can’t find Raya’s production budget anywhere. It looked expensive. Definitely a well made movie. 

[El Squibbonator]

I'm wary of assigning budgets to movies that don't have them publicly announced, but since Disney is fairly consistent in what its budgets for its recent movies are, I'm going to guess it was somewhere around $160 million, about the same as Wreck-It Ralph, Zootopia, and Moana. 

Edited March 6, 2021 by El Squibbonator

[Curtis1986]

Why did Disney open this right after T&J. That film is still going strong. 

[El Squibbonator]

Probably because they assumed it wouldn't be much of a threat. The LEGO Movie aside, none of Warner Bros.'s animated movies (and yes, for the purpose of this comparison I'm calling Tom and Jerry an animated movie) have been major breakout hits, so why would they have to worry about this one breaking that trend? Of course, they turned out to be wrong on that count, but hindsight is always 20/20. 

[Ryan Reynolds]

RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON (2021)

[Darth Lehnsherr]

Another winner by Disney Animation after a bit a of a dip with a Ralph Breaks the Internet and Frozen 2 (though I still enjoy them both). Firstly this will sound repetitive but the animation is actually insane in this film. Particularly creative with how water is used and the way the "lens" of the camera portray depth of field is next level. The action scenes are some of the best I've seen in CGI animation rivalled only by The Incredibles films. 

 

Raya herself is a really good protagonist ranking her along side Moana and Judy. She has the optimism that all Disnry protagonists seem to have but also a degree of cynicism that was refreshing to see. The villains have sympathetic motivations however the ending of the movie is a bit rushed to resolve the conflict.

 

Awkwafina initially was a bit grating as the dragon but once you understand why she is in the story she fits in much better than the trailers suggest (same goes with rest of the cast).

 

I'm not gonna compare this to Avatar except to say there's a reason why the TV format was the best format for that story as lots of this movie is rushed to fit in the under 2 hour runtime. If this was live action this could easily have had an epic length. 

 

All in all very satisfied with this film and although it doesn't seem like it'll do well at the Box Office hopefully enough people watch it on Disney+ as this easily had the most potential for sequels/spin-offs since Zootopia.

[Jamiem]

On 3/5/2021 at 10:14 PM, Jamiem said:

The first 20 minutes of Raya are exceptional, visually it is stunning right up there with Soul for holy shit visuals, colours and lighting.

 

Action is great and I'm actually getting some heavy Princess Mononoke vibes from the film so far (as well as ATLA which was obvious from the trailer), will likely watch the rest of it tomorrow as I'm starting to get tired and want to give it my full attention. 

Finished watching this tonight and the later action sequences are very Indiana Jones, I’m very skewed by nostalgia but damn I loved this.

 

The settings in the film were fairly unique and all beautiful (there are some I wish we’d spend more time)

 

Also damn how does the water look this good, has me very excited for her they do with the Moana series. Also how did they improve from excellent looking water to godly looking water in less than 5 years (it looks like real life, although I’ve been thinking that since Finding Nemo but water tech in these films just gets better and better) the visuals are absolutely wild. Score is also decent.

 

Overall I’d say it’s a 9/10 for me, although I’ll see how a feel in a couple of days from now and see if the film sticks with me or not.