Official On-Going DBZ 2013 Movie Thread: "Battle of Gods"

[Hellspawn28]

I doubt we will get international screenings in the US by the end of the year. International screenings takes a lot of work and it's not that easy to be like "Hey let's start releasing this movie now worldwide". If we do get screenings here in the US then I'm not sure how much Toei will get off of from international screenings. With the international market, I recall that the US gets like 55% of the overseas market. I don't know if the same goes with Japan as well?

[FortuneSSJ]

...unless, 3 billion was never actually the goal and was actually just said for public relations purposes because they thought they would exceed that no effort and in fact it turns out they could not even reach that making this an epic flop

I'm worried because I think this too. Its possible that secretly they had higher expectations for the movie since we are talking about a classic here.
Dont know how it will influence in the future. They can play it safe and use less budget next time or push themselves even harder to make it reach the top.

[Cold Skin]

Surely not reaching your goal will impact the amount of efforts and budget on the next movies.

But we have to take into consideration that many other factors can influence their decisions: domestic DVD/Blu-Ray sold, international screenings, international DVD/Blu-ray sold...

That's just what happened with Kai: it was considered it did not reached its objective (having expected consequences), yet international markets reversed their thoughts into thinking it was a satisfying project worth being continued.
And nobody saw it coming, nobody thought international markets had the power to turn a "objective: failed and unprofitable to us" into an "objective: reached and worthy of being continued cause it's profitable to us".

The same could happen with this movie, international markets might save the day. They did it with Kai - which quality divided fans -, it's not impossible that they'll do it for a big-event "Biggest Dragon Ball movie ever" film awaited by all fans for months...

[Big Momma]

Rank-----------Movie Title-----------Distributor----------Gross-------------Release
1-------------------Ted----------------Toho-Towa------$43,994,113----------1/18
2---------Doraemon Himitsu...---------Toho----------$39,965,030----------3/8
3-----------Meitantei Conan...----------Toho----------$29,989,725---------4/20
4---------------Dragon Ball Z-------------Toei-----------$29,947,013---------3/30

I'm completely floored by the fact that "Ted" is #1.

[Hellspawn28]

Yeah, 4th biggest gross of the year so far. I don't see why it should be considered a flop at all.

Not a flop, it just didn't make as much as they hope for. Movies can make a lot of money, but still never make as much as the studio wanted. If Battle of Gods didn't meet Toei's expectations then I doubt we will see another movie or a new TV series.

[rereboy]

Yeah, 4th biggest gross of the year so far. I don't see why it should be considered a flop at all.

Not a flop, it just didn't make as much as they hope for. Movies can make a lot of money, but still never make as much as the studio wanted. If Battle of Gods didn't meet Toei's expectations then I doubt we will see another movie or a new TV series.

And they would be wrong. Sometimes the studios are just stupid and unrealistic. In this case, they deemed their objective to gross with this movie over 30 times the amount of money they invested in it, and the movie pretty much did just that. So, I'm sorry, but I'm only following logic here. With that amount of profit, even half of it would be excellent, especially since its one of the highest grossing movies of the year so far. So if Toei thinks that it was bad because they didn't surpass their goal (over 30 times what they invested), that's their prerogative, but they are wrong (and they will eventually realize that they are wrong once their greed settles a little).

(And this amount doesn't even cover what they will eventually gain in merchandise, games and whatnot.)

Not many companies can afford the luxury of setting the goal of their business as 30 times what they invest in it and be disappointed when that is not surpassed

[Hellspawn28]

Dragon Ball is a big franchise and it's still going well in Japan unlike places in the US. I can see why Toei was hoping the movie would reach 30 million. Toei most likely spend a lot of money on marketing on the movie. Marketing costs does play a part of the budget since most movies have a high budget since most of that money was spend on the marketing.

. With that amount of profit, even half of it would be excellent, especially since its one of the highest grossing movies of the year so far. So if Toei thinks that it was bad because they didn't surpass their goal (over 30 times what they invested), that's their prerogative, but they are wrong (and they will eventually realize that they are wrong once their greed settles a little).

A movie can be on the Top 10 highest grossing movie of the year, but can still view as a let down by the studio. For example, the 1998 American Godzilla remake was the third highest grossing movie of 1998 next to Saving Private Ryan and Armageddon but Sony view it as a let down since it didn't make as much as they wanted. I don't know what went wrong with Battle of Gods since Dragon Ball is still popular in Japan and it has the biggest fan base then anyplace else.

[JulieYBM]

in fact I've read that reports point to its budget being under 1 million dollars, so making over 30 times its budget and having the 4rd biggest gross of the year so far, can't be anything other than a success.

Not that I would find this surprising, but which reports claim that?

[rereboy]

A movie can be on the Top 10 highest grossing movie of the year, but can still view as a let down by the studio. For example, the 1998 American Godzilla remake was the third highest grossing movie of 1998 next to Saving Private Ryan and Armageddon but Sony view it as a let down since it didn't make as much as they wanted. I don't know what went wrong with Battle of Gods since Dragon Ball is still popular in Japan and it has the biggest fan base then anyplace else.

It wasn't what they wanted because Godzilla cost a lot to be made. According to Imdb.com, Godzilla cost 130 million dollars to be made but it only made 136 millions in the USA, barely covering the costs. It took the international markets to push its gains to 379 million dollars, a more comfortable margin.

This is not the case with Battle of Gods. According to reports, it cost under a million dollars and it has made around 30 millions, or in other words, 30 times its investment.

in fact I've read that reports point to its budget being under 1 million dollars, so making over 30 times its budget and having the 4rd biggest gross of the year so far, can't be anything other than a success.

Not that I would find this surprising, but which reports claim that?

For example: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/ ... s/?a=77649

Not a definite source but since its perfectly believable, I don't have any trouble believing that claim.

[JulieYBM]

For example: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/ ... s/?a=77649

Not a definite source but since its perfectly believable, I don't have any trouble believing that claim.

Hmm...that's rather unspecific of them. "Reports say" and yet they can't be assed to link to said reports?

[rereboy]

Hmm...that's rather unspecific of them. "Reports say" and yet they can't be assed to link to said reports?

Like I said, not a definite source but still a pretty believable claim IMO. And even if the actual budget is the double of what they claim, the movie would have still made almost 30 times its investment.

[Saiga]

I'm with rereboy, I think it'd be really silly if they make a big deal out of falling short of the goal when the movie did so well.

I am also surprised that Ted was number 1.

[SaiyaJedi]

Hmm...that's rather unspecific of them. "Reports say" and yet they can't be assed to link to said reports?

Like I said, not a definite source but still a pretty believable claim IMO. And even if the actual budget is the double of what they claim, the movie would have still made almost 30 times its investment.

Whether it's believable or not is beside the point. Lots of things are believable but still untrue. The burden of proof is on the one making the claim.

[Blade]

So Battle of God's missed its target by $50,000 - big deal.

You know, these sort of target figures that get thrown around are ballpark at best - and I honestly don't think that falling short by such a small margin will have any bearing on if Toei regard the film to be a 'success' or not. It's not as if by reaching the exact figure of a 3 Billion Yen theatrical gross a giant green light would turn on with the word 'Financial Success!' written on it inside Toei's head offices.

As has been previously mentioned the film will have made a hefty profit from theatrical gross alone. When one factors in income from home video releases, product tie-ins, film-related merchandise and the overall 'Battle-of-Gods' effect that the films release will have had on existing Dragonball franchise products then one can assume that this profit margin will be significantly higher.

[VegettoEX]

We've been covering merchandise sales for the franchise for years now. Namco-Bandai just posted their fiscal 2013 figures, and while Dragon Ball hobby and toys merchandise (non-video games) did 0.8 billion yen more than they projected it would have done for the year, the entire franchise as a whole still fell off the best-performing-franchises list, and likely wasn't matching up with those top five by a long shot. Top on that the fact that they're projecting the same 4.0 billion yen they projected for this year now for next year (which itself would be a big drop)... and... well...

[Blade]

We've been covering merchandise sales for the franchise for years now. Namco-Bandai just posted their fiscal 2013 figures, and while Dragon Ball hobby and toys merchandise (non-video games) did 0.8 billion yen more than they projected it would have done for the year, the entire franchise as a whole still fell off the best-performing-franchises list, and likely wasn't matching up with those top five by a long shot. Top on that the fact that they're projecting the same 4.0 billion yen they projected for this year now for next year (which itself would be a big drop)... and... well...

Those financial figures are largely representative of the year prior to Battle of Gods being released, therefore the entire extent of the effect that the film has had upon merchandising wont be fully visible until next year's figures. Namco-Bandai's figures make sense in regard to Video Games given that the only major console game released in that period was Dragonball Z for Kinect.

[VegettoEX]

Yes. And, like I just said, they're forecasting a drop for next year.

[Blade]

Yes. And, like I just said, they're forecasting a drop for next year.

And that makes my statement invalid how exactly? Their forecast will be representative of the number of new products and product lines they introduce along with expected sales figures - which will naturally be less in the coming year due to a lack of Battle of Gods tie-ins. You said it yourself, they made 0.8 Billion Yen more this year than they expected to - the year in which Battle of Gods was released, therefore the fact that they are expecting to make less is perfectly linear but not representative of the lack of effect the film is having on sales. However, as I said, the full extent of the effect that Battle of Gods has had upon merchandise will not be visible until the end of the next financial year when we can then get a full picture of sales figures across the entire cinematic release period.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong but the Namco-Bandai merchandising figures don't have anything to do with many of the other commercial tie-ins or events, such as those ran by KFC, and as such it would be highly presumptuous to believe that this one set of figures is representative of commercial trends across the board.

And so, as I outlined originally, it will not be possible to fully quantify the 'success' of Battle of Gods for some time - but what we can be certain of is that the cinematic gross is not the sole area of concern for Toei and their commercial partners in regard to how successful the film has been.

[hulkty]

How are people surprised about Ted? It was created by genius, Seth MacFarlane.
Anyway, how much longer till Americans get to see this BoG subbed?...

[goku the krump dancer]

I hardly call Macfarlane a genius, Ted was terrible and predictable much like Family Guy as of late 09 or 2010. American Dad is okay and I feel like thats only because I used to only watch Family Guy so its sorta like a breath of fresh air and don't get me started on the Cleveland Show.