Should the Pokemon Company re-release older films in theaters again?

[Bluelatios]

Lately, Disney and Star Wars films have been slowly re-released in theaters again. Do you think that the Pokemon Company should jump on the bandwagon and do the same with their Pokemon movies? Even if you don't think they would, do you want to see it anyway, in flat 2D or non-cgi 3D enhancements? I think it would be quite a thrill to see them do that, and possibly help create a 2D animation revival in theaters!

 

[Johny_lovin_it]

It would be nostalgic just like watching Star Wars Episode 1. I don't care about 3D mainly cuz' it ain't as effective as playing Nintendo 3DS. I just want to sit behind the theater seats and watch em' all! ^^

 

[Hellion]

No, absolutely not. No. Just no. I could not ever see them do that nor do I think it should ever be done. Star Wars can do it because they added new stuff, i.e. the 3D, it's be re-released a lot and has to this day a growing fanbase. Pokémon movies and animé, at the peak of the fad, never reached as many people worldwide as Disney movies and Star Wars, and after the fad died down, it's just one of many animé shows with not that huge of a fandom, so there's no economic incentive for major theaters and distributors to decide to pick it up. The BW movies weren't a huge hit either, it's just not enough of a safe bet to take on the financial risk for distributors. Plus, the DVDs are out there. If they'd just keep the same animation, same music, basically just present the same movie, why would people pay 10$ for 15 years old animation and characters that are for the most part, unknown to the movies' target audience? It would just be a really bad business move. There's just nothing to create a buzz around this, a need on the consumer's part.

 

[SammyW27]

hdear:

There's no point. The movies are meant to advertise new/upcoming games while showcasing Legendary pokemon, cheifly making people want Event ones. Re-releasing them would be like playing an old commercial for something people have moved on from, forgotten, or don't really care about anymore.

Also, there's NO way they could benefit from 3D with that flat, dated, fairly cheap animation (the producers may like to splurge on the movie, but they're still not as good looking as a lot of other animated movies out there). The later ones maybe, but not as a whole at all.

 

[smalllady]

No. The movies aren't even popular. So it would be a waste of time and money.

 

[Garren]

It could happen in Japan, atleast, but yeah, doubtful for America.

I'm sure that some Japanese theaters probably run the movies though for Kids Days and such already, but no upgraded features.

 

[Bluelatios]

To be fair, they have much less production costs to deal with, maybe just some digital magic. There are techniques for restoring the quality of old films. Disney has proved this through digitally restoring extremely old stuff like Snow White and Bambi to brand new quality on dvd. Marketing probably wouldn't need to be extravagant either, as Pokemon has been around long enough to establish itself easily through word of mouth, especially with the huge amount of internet hype today that they didn't have in 1998/1999. I could see them considering it, at least in Japan and starting with the 1st if they did it internationally. I'm not sure how well the newest films profited, or if it's a precursor to further releases new or old, though if anyone has box office statistics, feel free to share.

 

[Cybersai]

If it ever happened, they would have ONLY done it with the first movie, and in Japan when the 10th or 15th anniversary started.

 

[garrison-san]

I don't know about Japan, but I couldn't see it happening in the US. The First Movie was a hit back in 1999 because it came out at the very height of Pokemania, but it was pretty much all diminishing returns from there on in. I agree with Hellion that there isn't much of an economic incentive any more. Pokemon hasn't sustained the kind of monster-sized fanbase that Star Wars still has, and Disney is happy to give the older films in its catalogue star restoration treatment because there's such a huge collectors' market for them. Note also that Disney's recent dip into 3D re-releases of their classics has so far only extended to obvious candidates like The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, ie: the big, big names that they know are going to draw people in. I very much doubt that we're going to see The Rescuers Down Under in 3D any time soon.

Re-releasing the older Pokemon movies now doesn't really make much more sense to me than re-releasing (to use an example from a similar point in time) The Rugrats Movie. Very successful in its day, and it might provide a nice nostalgic kick for some, but the franchise currently doesn't have the kind of ubiquitous popularity to make it justifiable. That it "might be nostalgic to some" isn't, by itself, the kind of gamble that distributors and theatres are going to be willing to take.

 

[IcyNinjaX]

No. Its pointless to be honest. Even If they re-release It to theaters, not many people would be interesting in seeing old anime movies from early 20s. Why do you think they release DVDs in the first place?

And no 3D. It just makes the entire movie gimmicky. I've seen few 3D Movies myself and I personally don't like It. Its too dark and I hate wearing those glasses especially when It comes to movies.

 

[GreatLiver]

They shouldn't, and they won't. The only reason films have been rereleased lately is because they've been 3D digitally enhanced versions. Pokemon wouldn't make enough profit for that to be a good idea. The majority of people for which it would be nostalgic wouldn't go because they don't care about pokemon, and it would be almost entirely foreign to current fans since they'd have been born after the movie came out, so that wouldn't be a huge source of profit either.

Films used to get theatrical rereleases often back before home video existed, which is why Disney films used to come back out every 7 or so years. Now that people can just own the DVD and watch it whenever they want, or download it on the internet, there's no reason people would pay 10 dollars to go see it just because it's on a big screen.

 

[Rex Kamex]

As much as I personally would want to see that, I don't see enough of the demographic in the US who watched this movie when it came out being interested in watching them in the theaters again, and I don't know if enough kids who play the newer games would be interested in seeing this movie of older characters, like it was said before.

If something like this was to happen, yeah, I could only see it for the first movie (personally, that's the movie I hear about the most from people who were kids during its debut). And as a limited release, but then again, if it was limited, there wouldn't be much point in releasing it anyway.

The BW movies weren't a huge hit either,

Just wondering- do you mean it wasn't a huge hit in general, or that it wasn't even huge for a limited release?

 

[Yoshi1001]

I could actually see something like this happening in the vein of last year's digital cinema distribution, given that the economics of such a distribution are quite different from film distributions (the hard drives used for digital cinema are much more cost-effective than standard film duplication, which make it possible to turn a profit off of a more limited number of showings). It would pretty much have to start in Japan, however, especially if we're talking about a 3D conversion.

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

I agree it isn't economically sound doesn't help that the movies are out dated game mechanically wise and the fact that the movies are just long filler episodes. I mean the first movie didn't even make sense when 4kids dubbed it.

I mean can't fans just have screenings at conventions that sounds more fun anyways.

 

[Dogasu]

In theaters? No.

I can certainly imagine Japan releasing a pristine looking version of the first movie on Blu-Ray at some point, though.

 

[Bluelatios]

I could actually see something like this happening in the vein of last year's digital cinema distribution, given that the economics of such a distribution are quite different from film distributions (the hard drives used for digital cinema are much more cost-effective than standard film duplication, which make it possible to turn a profit off of a more limited number of showings). It would pretty much have to start in Japan, however, especially if we're talking about a 3D conversion.

That sounds like the most viable solution to me too, and even if it was a limited release it might make a fair profit and give some long-time loyal fans a nice treat.

 

[Kazamatsuri]

To answer the thread's question, ABSOLUTELY NOT.

There are two very fundamental realities that distinguish virtually every theatrical rerelease from the Pokemon movies. For one thing, virtually all the movies that have gotten rereleased to theatres have grossed upwards of 100 million in North America during their initial release (in these day, it would probably need to be more than 200 million). Secondly, those movies (Star Wars, The Lion King etc.) are considered timeless classics among the general population and have gotten rave reviews from movie critics.

Now let's look at the three Pokemon movies in question:

- Pokemon: The First Movie grossed 85 million in North America. That's certainly successful by measurement, but it's still well below the 100 million threshold.
- Then Pokemon: The Movie 2000 grossed only about half as much as its predecessor.
- And Pokemon 3: The Movie (God, what lame titles) grossed less than 20 million, and you're going to tell me it's worthy of being rereleased in theaters. No way!

Now on the issue of public opinion, critical reception of these moves was absolutely abysmal. Only the 3rd Pokemon movie manged to receive even just over 20% ratings from firm critics. It doesn't help that these movies receive substantial criticism from even hardcore fans due to all the changes made from the original versions, and with good reason IMO.

 

[Cybersai]

^ Yeah, its also quite telling each movie did worse than the previous. The fact that the 3 Johto movies flat out bombed in theaters says enough. WB didn't even want to distribute them anymore and they had to partner with Miramax. But then again it was during the Johto saga, so what did anyone expect?

 

[Bluelatios]

Movie critics do tend to be extremely picky though. Haters gonna hate I suppose. I doubt it was Johto's fault, really American animation theatrical releases were failing at the time due to the rise of CGI animation. The reason Japan still does new releases on the big screen is because they've maintained a strong and appreciative audience of their traditional style. What needs to happen for the market to go up again in America is a whole 'nother story, but it will probably involve Disney balancing their traditional and Pixar films, and possibly Studio Ghibli releasing a larger number of films here in the future.

 

[Cybersai]

Movie critics do tend to be extremely picky though. Haters gonna hate I suppose. I doubt it was Johto's fault, really American animation theatrical releases were failing at the time due to the rise of CGI animation. The reason Japan still does new releases on the big screen is because they've maintained a strong and appreciative audience of their traditional style. What needs to happen for the market to go up again in America is a whole 'nother story, but it will probably involve Disney balancing their traditional and Pixar films, and possibly Studio Ghibli releasing a larger number of films here in the future.

I am talking about box office sales, not what movie critics thought.

The fact is only the first two movies did decently well in theaters. The 3rd movie did so poorly that WB didn't even want to distribute them in theaters anymore. 4kids had to partner with Miramax just to get the 4th and 5th movies in limited releases in theaters, and those did so poorly altogether that they just went DVD only from there on. Considering this was all during the Johto era of the anime, the fact that most kids didn't even bother to see the movies in theaters says enough.

I actually saw all 5 movies in theaters when I was younger, but I know I was a minority. Very few people cared by that point.