I'm a bit overdue for another box office update, but that's fine. Ponyo's momentum has died down, and its theatrical run is just about finished. I do hope it will continue to play in your local theaters for a while longer, but Disney has begun to ramp down the theater count, the ticket sales are dwindling, and interest on the web and this blog has slowed to a trickle. I'd say the party is pretty close to being over.
Still, let's be upbeat and hold our heads high. Ponyo is now Studio Ghibli's biggest success in the United States, and with limited exposure in our media-saturated landscape, this is probably the best we can hope for. The DVD and Blu-Ray will be successful and enjoy a long run, and this will, in turn, continue to build our community of Ghibli Freaks. That's my hope, at least.
As for me, I will continue to write about Ponyo and examine it from many angles, and I will continue to shout to the rafters that Ponyo deserves a Best Picture nomination. That should be our new rallying cry, and this mantra should be spread across the intertubes and shared among the members of the Motion Picture Academy. If you are a member and a voter, you need to begin making the case for Ponyo today. Not Best Animated Feature; it's a sorry ghetto category, and everybody knows it. Besides, Pixar always wins, and the field will be crowded with Disney (Princess and the Frog) and Dreamworks (Ice Age 3), as well as indie films like Coraline and Waltz With Bashir.
That's actually a pretty good assembly of animation features, but Ponyo stands above them all. And it's not just a "statement" or status vote to place Hayao Miyazaki's movie among the Best Picture nominees. It really, honestly, truly is the best movie of the year, and should finish on most critics' short lists for 2009.
Anyway, enough tilting at windmills from me. School's back in session (boo!), so let's look at Ponyo's numbers:
Friday 8/28
Daily: $487,189
Per Screen: $554
Total: $9,632,524
Saturday 8/29
Daily: $859,649
Per Screen $977
Total: $10,492,173
Sunday 8/30
Daily: $541,083
Per Screen: $615
Total: $11,033,256
Monday 8/31
Daily: $169,082
Per Screen: $192
Total: $11,202,338
Tuesday 9/1
Daily: $165,575
Per Screen: $188
Total: $11,367,913
Note: I'll add in the Tuesday numbers as soon as the become available. Discuss!
Update 4:00pm: Tuesday's numbers are in.
8 comments:
I don0t want to sound like the voice of hope amidst the chorus of gloom... but Ponyo ain't looking like it does want to wind down any soon....
I hope I'm not coming off as gloomy. We're just near the end of Ponyo's run, that's all. How much more money could it earn at this point? Disney is starting to scale back the number of screens a little, school is back in session, and most everyone who wanted to see Ponyo has had the chance.
I'm sure there's a good amount of business from second and third viewings, and that's a great thing.
Waltz with Bashir was last years Oscars. This year the nominees will definately be UP, Coraline, Princess and the Frog and Ice Age 3. God it makes me angry everytime i think of how successful Ice Age is in comparison to Ponyo. My nephew dragged me to that, and it was painful.
There will be 5 nominee's this year and I don't think Ice Age will be one of them. The 3rd film had lukewarm reviews, whereas the first two were reviewd pretty well. Not saying this definitely won't happen, I just don't see it.
I'm going with "UP", "Coraline", "Ponyo", "Princess and the Frog" and "Fantastic Mr.Fox" which is being done by Wes Anderson and is stop-motion. The only other film I could see garnering a nomination is "9", which comes out Sept.9th, but I'm not sure how the "powers that be" will react to that one. (although the short film it is based on received an oscar nomination.
There is no reason to believe Ponyo won't get nominated, even Howl's did, or Persepolis last year. Despite the small box office numbers, tons of critics and such all see these films.
INDIE FILMS ALL THE WAY! *ahem!*
Best Animated Films Category is... Ghetto?
I'm rooting for Ponyo and Coraline. Because they're both great films with beautiful animation and good storylines. If they reflexively hand out the award to Up I think that's just wrong! 20 minutes of amazing story that made me cry and the rest just falls flat, story-wise.
Come on academy, do something different and pick a non-Disney, non-pixar film this year!
Ice Age 3 was better reviewed than Shark Tale and Brother Bear which were both nominated for best animated film. What it also has going for it is the $800000000 it has grossed worldwide so far. The movie sucks, but unfortunately a nomination seems likely. But hey, maybe they will surprise us and make the right choice.
The acadamy hasn't really inspired me lately, with awful decisions such as the Dark Knight best picture snub, and the Bourne Supremacy winning Best Editing, when the ugly editing and photography is what ruined an otherwise good movie.
Brother Bear: now there's a beautiful animated film that was ruined by an awful music soundtrack. As much as I like Phil Collins & Tina Turner, you just don't blare jarring rock songs to scenes of Kwakuital(?) Indians gracefully canoeing across Pacific NW lakes.
When creating a spiritual, soulful film, which former member of Genesis would _you_ choose to do the music? My choice would have been Peter Gabriel. At least PIXAR didn't make that mistake.
Back on topic: It seems Ponyo raked in the amount of cash Disney was hoping for. That should bode well for future Studio Ghibli film distribution in the States. Fingers crossed!
I agree with you about the music spoiling Brother Bear, Toongirl! What a bone-headed move to put in that garbage! It's dreadful.
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