The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim | December 13, 2024 | New Line/WB | Anime | Kenji Kamiyama directing.

[SnokesLegs]

Yeah, I can’t see that art style appealing to mainstream audiences at all. It’s a shame that they didn’t just go for the oil painting style of the concept art they released, that could’ve stood out while also feeling like it was part of the existing LOTR movie universe. I know it was always described as an anime, but those anime character designs stick out like a sore thumb.

Edited June 11 by SnokesLegs

[dudalb]

5 minutes ago, SnokesLegs said:

Yeah, I can’t see that art style appealing to mainstream audiences at all. It’s a shame that they didn’t just go for the oil painting style of the concept art they released, that could’ve stood out while also feeling like it was part of the existing LOTR movie universe. I know it was always described as an anime, but those anime character designs stick out like a sore thumb.

I repeat, Miyazaki was never hesistated about abandoning traditonal Anime look if he thought it would serve his movie better.

I  have nothing against Anime, though I am not personally a big fan, but in the US it has always been like foreign language films; A niche audience.

 

[SpiderByte]

4 hours ago, Porthos said:

Has anyone seriously suggest that?  I've seen talk about 50m OW as a possibility, with the implication of it doing better if the stars align.

Unless tracking suddenly indicates a massive change in anime trends: not a snowballs chance in hell. That's nearly as big as the OW of the last Hobbit movie. The Demon Slayer movie was considered a big anime hit in the US with 49m TOTAL. Dragon Ball, one of the biggest anime franchises in the world, can't break 40. Pokemon, at its height in the 90s/early 2000s could not break 90 with it's first movie, and the last animated Pokemon movie with an actual wide release couldn't crack 20.

 

And those were Japanese franchises to start with. Anime films have a very hard ceiling in the west box office wise. They just aren't blockbusters 

Edited June 12 by SpiderByte

[dudalb]

1 hour ago, SpiderByte said:

Unless tracking suddenly indicates a massive change in anime trends: not a snowballs chance in hell. That's nearly as big as the OW of the last Hobbit movie. The Demon Slayer movie was considered a big anime hit in the US with 49m TOTAL. Dragon Ball, one of the biggest anime franchises in the world, can't break 40. Pokemon, at its height in the 90s/early 2000s could not break 90 with it's first movie, and the last animated Pokemon movie with an actual wide release couldn't crack 20.

 

And those were Japanese franchises to start with. Anime films have a very hard ceiling in the west box office wise. They just aren't blockbusters 

Like I said, it is a niche audience in the West in general.

I understand that Japanese Anime fans often laugh at Western Anime fans, because they go crazy over films that Japanese audiences think are mediocre at best.

[interiorgatordecorator]

5 hours ago, SnokesLegs said:

Yeah, I can’t see that art style appealing to mainstream audiences at all. It’s a shame that they didn’t just go for the oil painting style of the concept art they released, that could’ve stood out while also feeling like it was part of the existing LOTR movie universe. I know it was always described as an anime, but those anime character designs stick out like a sore thumb.

 

a lotr animated spin-off was never going to be a huge hit, but it sure feels like a missed opportunity to go for this specific art style 

the opinions coming from Annecy all seem to imply the story looks interesting but that the look is off

maybe it was just a cynical rights play after all 

Edited June 12 by interiorgatordecorator

[James]

Some of you are acting like the US is the only important market. LOTR was always a giant in Europe. We’ve had animes making close to 500m WW. As Porthos said, this doesn’t have to make 1b to be a success. 
 

Plus, there’s never been something like this before really. There’s nothing to compare it too. And it comes out during Christmas. I truly don’t see how the IP name alone doesn’t make this open to at least 30m and with Christmas holidays I don’t see how it misses 100m.

 

Take the DOM/OS ratio of the last Hobbit movie and you get 400m WW. And I think this will make more.

 

It was also probably very cheap to make compared to a normal blockbuster.

[SpiderByte]

7 hours ago, James said:

Some of you are acting like the US is the only important market. LOTR was always a giant in Europe. We’ve had animes making close to 500m WW. As Porthos said, this doesn’t have to make 1b to be a success

I believe it'll be successful but 500ww is a massive reach. Demon Slayer made that much because it came out October 2020, there was almost nothing else even playing. It's also worth noting that movies success has not even come close to being replicated by subsequent Demon Slayer films. The ceiling, to me, seems likely to be around 300-330m WW at highest.

Edited June 12 by SpiderByte

[HowSway]

1 hour ago, SpiderByte said:

I believe it'll be successful but 500ww is a massive reach. Demon Slayer made that much because it came out October 2020, there was almost nothing else even playing. It's also worth noting that movies success has not even come close to being replicated by subsequent Demon Slayer films. The ceiling, to me, seems likely to be around 300-330m WW at highest.

Well yeah because the subsequent DS films were just episodes thrown together not actual films

[ZeroHour]

2 hours ago, SpiderByte said:

I believe it'll be successful but 500ww is a massive reach. Demon Slayer made that much because it came out October 2020, there was almost nothing else even playing. It's also worth noting that movies success has not even come close to being replicated by subsequent Demon Slayer films. The ceiling, to me, seems likely to be around 300-330m WW at highest.

300 WW would be fantastic for this! In terms of other live action Western IP turned animated, Into the Spider-verse jumps to mind (similar release window too). That made 375 WW, but it had a unique animation style and huge universal critical acclaim. This isn't going to have the former and the latter seems like a stretch (at least to that level of acclaim). This also probably won't play much to families like ITSV did. I think 200 WW would be a pretty huge win for this one. It seems pretty niche and mostly like a fairly cheap way to hold on to the LOTR movie rights.

[SpiderByte]

I'll note that I said 300ish was the CEILING not that it's what I think it'll make.

[JustLurking]

2 hours ago, SpiderByte said:

I believe it'll be successful but 500ww is a massive reach. Demon Slayer made that much because it came out October 2020, there was almost nothing else even playing. It's also worth noting that movies success has not even come close to being replicated by subsequent Demon Slayer films. The ceiling, to me, seems likely to be around 300-330m WW at highest.

There are no subsequent Demon Slayer films lol, everything that came out since in theaters was just a mix of old episodes with a preview of the next one and released a couple months before season start, they're not actual films.

 

Anyway I don't think the main demographic for LOTR going to show up for an animated movie and even moreso one in this style, I honestly doubt this goes much (if at all) higher than 200

Edited June 12 by JustLurking

[Boxx93]

I actually kinda dig this artstyle. It reminds me of Castlevania with a little bit of Golden Kamuy thrown in there (good show btw). I would have liked something more akin to the Shinkai extra detailed backgrounds but I trust Kamiyama and his team.

[Porthos]

Am I the only one who doesn’t think the “anime” style is all that, well, anime-ish?  Not that there is any well defined rules to just what anime is, as there is a wiiiiiide variety of “house-styles” when it comes to anime.

 

If anything, it’s the oil-like quality to the stills which is more “exotic”, for lack of a better word, than the anime influences.  Does sorta kinda remind me of A Scanner Darkly in a vague, far more subdued way.  Which make no mistake will be a factor in audience interest,  I just don’t see it as quite the same thing.

 

Not that the anime influences aren’t apparent, because they are.  But maybe I’ve seen too much anime over the years (and, mind, I am super super casual when it comes to this sort of thing), but on the scale of “you sure that’s anime” to “30 second short only seen at the most niche of art houses”, this rates pretty deep into the “mainstream” end of things, with only the almond shape look of the head to the main female protagonist being the biggest “tell” of being an anime project.

Edited June 12 by Porthos

[JustWatching]

As someone who grew up on the Bakshi LOTR and Rankin-Bass ROTK, what little of this we have seen so far looks fantastic to me.

[Porthos]

19 hours ago, SpiderByte said:

Unless tracking suddenly indicates a massive change in anime trends: not a snowballs chance in hell. That's nearly as big as the OW of the last Hobbit movie. The Demon Slayer movie was considered a big anime hit in the US with 49m TOTAL. Dragon Ball, one of the biggest anime franchises in the world, can't break 40. Pokemon, at its height in the 90s/early 2000s could not break 90 with it's first movie, and the last animated Pokemon movie with an actual wide release couldn't crack 20.

 

And those were Japanese franchises to start with. Anime films have a very hard ceiling in the west box office wise. They just aren't blockbusters 

 

This is gonna be one of those arguments I absolutely hate because we're largely in agreement, but we're quibbling/being pedantic over terms, but when you said "anything close to the live action films" I automatically think of 75m-80m as being the mental minimum benchmark.

 

*checks*

 

As a matter of fact even though, thanks to a very long list of factors, the last Hobbit film did clock in at 55m 3 day OW it did so as part of a 89 5 DAY OW.  Even if one reasonably presumes that not all of the 5 day could be scrunched into the 3 day, I do tend to think BotFA wouldn't have been a 55m 3 day, but much closer to 70m, if not above it.

 

As it is, I'm still in the mid-20s to mid 30s camp for this film as the "pretty good result".  But, especially when the posts were made about the project unseen, 50m OW in 2024 dollars wasn't a massively pie-in-the-sky thought IF ALL THE STARS ALIGNED.  

 

Said stars might already not be aligning given that first look.  But 50m 3 day 2024 is not the same as 55m 3 day as part of a 5 day 2014.

Edited June 12 by Porthos

[SpiderByte]

Yes but my point is for an anime film 50 DOM total would be considered a runaway success, which is why 50 OW is insane to me

[Eric is Quiet]

Might change on trailers or advertising or whatever, but I see this doing around Mutant Mayhem numbers domestically.

[interiorgatordecorator]

3 hours ago, Porthos said:

Am I the only one who doesn’t think the “anime” style is all that, well, anime-ish?  Not that there is any well defined rules to just what anime is, as there is a wiiiiiide variety of “house-styles” when it comes to anime.

 

If anything, it’s the oil-like quality to the stills which is more “exotic”, for lack of a better word, than the anime influences.  Does sorta kinda remind me of A Scanner Darkly in a vague, far more subdued way.  Which make no mistake will be a factor in audience interest,  I just don’t see it as quite the same thing.

 

Not that the anime influences aren’t apparent, because they are.  But maybe I’ve seen too much anime over the years (and, mind, I am super super casual when it comes to this sort of thing), but on the scale of “you sure that’s anime” to “30 second short only seen at the most niche of art houses”, this rates pretty deep into the “mainstream” end of things, with only the almond shape look of the head to the main female protagonist being the biggest “tell” of being an anime project.

 

looks like chinese or korean anime to me (not a good thing at all)

[Elessar]

i don't get you, guys, that's exactly how anime looks (from Japan).... *shrugs*

[dudalb]

On 6/12/2024 at 9:09 AM, JustLurking said:

There are no subsequent Demon Slayer films lol, everything that came out since in theaters was just a mix of old episodes with a preview of the next one and released a couple months before season start, they're not actual films.

 

Anyway I don't think the main demographic for LOTR going to show up for an animated movie and even moreso one in this style, I honestly doubt this goes much (if at all) higher than 200

I think we need to seperate LOTR fans..fans ot the Jackson movies..from Tolkien fans..fans of the actual books. I can guarantee that lot of Tolkien fans will not show up for this.

A lot of them..and I include myself among them...just have a real problem in spinoffs based very loosley on a couple of sentences in Tolkien books. You do not treat a major work of literature like a comic book franchise.