OmegaBeamOfficial

Toy sales are Hasbro's first and foremost main focus with something like a movie being secondary.

True, guess so. There's a reason I see a plethora of new Transformers merch whenever the next movie's coming out...

 A Guardians of Harmony spin off series that would focus on Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, Discord, Thorax, Ember, and Gabby.  

Sounds cool, perhaps not Gabby or Ember though, I don't think they'd fit.

Reviews don't influence movies as much as people believe. In few cases maybe, like with Suicide Squad and BvS, but they seem like the exception. Otherwise, Bayformers and Twilight wouldn't have been as ridiculously successful as they were(or are with Bayformers)

Really? I thought the live action Transformers movie was OK, and it was received as at least decent. The sequels are what REALLY went downhill with fans including me, especially 2 & 4, 3 seemed to be a step in the right direction, but it wasn't good as the first one. As for Twilight though... Eh, it probably struck a cord with a lot of teenage girls I'm guessing.

You know they are going to release merchandise based on the movie. It's a foregone conclusion that they would as they need to make money as a business.

Well, I figured they'd focus on making money from the movie itself.

I don't think it makes sense that a movie that makes 100 million dollars is considered a flop, just because it didn't make up the production cost during the theatrical run.

 

Of course money isn't the only thing that matters in the grand scheme of things.  I'm in 100% agreement.

But look at my first quote, where I brought the subject up: "Remember guys, the most important stats for a new movie are opening weekend, and opening day sales."

This is directly referring to convincing producers that MLP is a thing to invest in.  money is THE thing that matters to them.  it is the most financially driven job in an industry that makes a lot of TON of money.  I feel like you are ascribing your completely reasonable values inappropriately onto producers, or maybe I've not been clear that that has been my point all this time?

I think you are underestimating the industry a bit, not every company are just people with suits around a table with dollar symbols in their eyes.

Hasbro probably does it to promote their toy lines given that is the nature of their company. I'm only taking a guess at this because I don't work for the company so I don't have an insight into their business practices.

I'd consider the movie and the MLP toy lines two completely separate can of worms, unless they make merch based on the movie of course.

That might be because movies have tentative releases at first that can be changed depending on whether it was delayed due to complications or pushed forward if progress on it was better than expected. The MLP movie, for example, is slated for release next October/November, but it could be delayed or released earlier depending on factors we can't even see. If neither of these things happen to a movie, it will release on the scheduled day the company has stated.

Yeah, plus the fact that most companies don't announce their movies nearly as early as Hasbro has.

I do like the idea of young Celestia, Luna and Discord.

But, an obvious one,a CMC spin off, which we'll most likely get in the future anyway.

Everyone's favorite background ponies in a complete "Slice of Life" series.

Daring Do, in an adventure series, or just based on the "books".

Or even a spin off to do with the Pets (Opal, Gummy etc)

I'm cool with a CMC series I guess, just don't make it aimed at preschoolers, but if it is, I can just ignore it, so no harm done.

The others would all work really well, for the pets I'm thinking something similar to Happy Tree Friends, except suitable for younger audiences obviously.

Octavia, doing everything with her cello and getting into comical shenanigans with DJ-PON3. When it's time to fight evil mutants, all our favorite cellist needs here is a flipping cello, even to blow up a Death Star! Said cello is now indestructible, even eventually blocking a Death Star laser at point blank range and leaving Tavi completely unharmed.

Yes, I can't believe I forgot about those two, they have so much chemistry!

Her youth was covered, but how about her journey into being a grandparent, becoming a determinant caregiver to Big Mack, AJ & Applebloom and acting as a mentor tot he three?

Perhaps such a series may be called for then.

 

Yeah, I know that will never happen. The very idea of a spin-off sounds unrealistic to me. I hope I'm wrong though. At least, the secondary characters got more screen time in the recent seasons - it's a good sign. 

Yeah, plus there was Slice Of Life, so...

How about adventures of the main six's parents & siblings? Have episodes on Shining & Cadence's youth or Big Mack learning wisdom in Ponyville, maybe even see the growth of the mane 6 parents like Velevet & Night light and Granny Smith. 

Shining and Cadence's youth huh? Interesting... I too would be interested in seeing more of Twilight's parents if it weren't for them having barely any character to work with. As for Granny Smith, I believe we had an episode in the show about her childhood centred around the Apple Family Reunion which covered it pretty well.

Well a spinoff detected to people's OCs in the fandom would be extremely FUN!!! Plus people will have to request their OC so they don't have OCs that people don't want to be in the show.

Eh, I don't think using fan content for the official show is such a good idea, it comes off a bit tacky...

Daring Do and Doctor Whooves are the easiest options, but their spin-offs would be to unoriginal, IMO. Also, as far as I know, at some point Faust planned a spin-off about CMCs, which never happened. But we already get enough of them in the main show anyway.

 

Personally I’d like to see something like a short prequel series about Bon-Bon working for the monster-hunting agency of Steven Magnet and Cranky’s adventures. It’s a good opportunity to see some historical events, new places and creatures.

Unoriginal, I don't see how Derpy and Whooves as a show would count as unoriginal. I'm glad the CMC's didn't get a spin off, I like them as characters, but supposedly Lauren planned it as a show for the preschool demographic. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, It's just REALLY not my thing.

That... Sounds insane, but amazing at the same time.

Trixie, Starlight, Sombra, and any villain in general. 

Trixie and Starlight are far from underused in the show, I don't think they need a spinoff. Though using the villains for one would be interesting... I don't care for Sombra though, he's as developed as a brick.

Can't think of any that would be good, just a single episode or so. An entire spin off show could end up just campy and unoriginal.

What, so something like Slice Of Life?

A pre-FiM spinoff focused on the young Princesses, Celestia and Luna. It shows how they lived back then and how they came to being Princesses.

Perhaps so, that'd be neat, I'm hoping they talk more about that in the show.

Wouldn't that just be something they can inject into the current show though?

Well, now that I think about it, if they wanted to put that in there, they would have by now...

Omega, logically, that makes some measure of sense.

But I've never seen data that supports that as a fact. 

Industry insiders don't seem to care about reviews.  And you are far overestimating their impact.  

Obviously you and I care, and if the movie is good or bad will impact whether or not new viewers decide to check out the TV show...

 

But if we want to prove that we care, and want more MLP movies with solid budgets to be widely released in theaters, there are only two things that matter, and they are both numbers followed by dollar signs.  

 

Logic does not rule the industry.  

Did you know that a movie is considered to be a flop if it costs 10 million to make, earns 9.9 million in the theatrical run, and 100 million in DVD sales?  

Well, I think that makes sense, if a movie makes less than it costs to make then you could say that it failed It's job and the filmmakers gained little to nothing from it.

However, I really can't agree that only money matters in the grand scheme of things.

It's the latter most likely.

OK, I get it, I've been a dumbass. No need to rub it in...

The movie is supposedly slated to release in October, but I honestly don't know how firm that really is. I'm not seeing any animated films on that list going that far forward. There's *always* animated stuff hitting theatres in October-December so the fact nothing is listed there for that time slot seems odd. However, I'm under the impression animated films tend to be a bit more... slippy on release dates than regular movies, so Fandango might just not bother listing any yet for that slot.

Probably because of how far away October 2017 is, most people don't announce their movies as early as Hasbro has.

Anypony know why MLP doesn't appear in Fandango's list of upcoming movies? Could it be that the release date is not finalized, or something else?

Fandango is probably either not aware of the movie, or they don't consider 2017 close enough to be upcoming.

I have a good idea of who would be good replacements, this is entirely based on how well they represent the elements of harmony, not how much sense it would make for them to be there.

Twilight could be replaced by Starlight Glimmer

Pinkie Pie could be replaced by Cheese Sandwich

Applejack could be replaced by Big Macintosh or Apple Bloom, either would be fine

Rarity could be replaced by Sweetie Belle

Fluttershy could be replaced by Coco Pommel

Rainbow Dash could be replaced by Scootaloo or Daring Do

Some of these might be stretching it a bit, but in all honesty no-one can really get as close to these elements of friendship as the Mane 6 are.

I would actually like a show that does not center specifically around any sort of "main" characters. Sure some characters would appear more than others, but the idea of an episode about Big Mac one week, followed by one about Mayor Mare and her staff the next and then followed by a story about those ponies in Starlight's old village another, to me would be interesting. It would be a way to give more background on.. well... background characters and give lots of different types of stories with lots of different perspectives. I would not even mind if they were done as shorts if they were done well.

Hmmm... That actually sounds like a neat idea. Kind of reminds me of what they did with the EG shorts.

I have to say Octavia would have no problem handling duties from Celestia and acting as Twilight's backup in the show. It's like having the backup players taking over the starters when the game is all but decided.

Twilight is a powerful magic alicorn who is also one of the Elements Of Harmony. Octavia is just really good at playing music. I don't think Celestia would choose her as a Twilight backup XD

I'm 100% positive that opening weekend ticket sales are critical to a movie's perceived success.

 

I don't actually know if positive reviews have a major impact on that or not.  

It seems like it might, but I've never seen data on that.  

I'm not referring specifically to data, I mean that sure, the movie might make a lot of money when it starts, but then reviews will come out. If reviews call out the movie for being bad, people tend to stay away from it and then the sales will go down. So I'd say reviews and ratings have as much of an impact on the success of the movie as money does, I mean what's having a lot of cash from opening day worth if you don't have the trust of most people if you decide to make a sequel.

Since the Mane 6 and a few other characters are usually front and centre in the show, I think it would be cool to see some kind of spinoff show for certain less utilised characters in the show, the question is, if one were to theoretically happen, who should get it? I for one would really like to see a spinoff show involving characters like Derpy, Doctor Whooves, or heck, maybe the rest of the Pie or Apple families.

None of those look theatrical except for maybe Waltz with Bashir. None of them look appealing to a general audience.

 

And then you have films like Top Cat, Aqua Teen, and Drawn Together that look downright hideous.

 

Not to be rude but what do you not get about the difference between TV and cinema?

Yeah, I know, It's pretty obvious that TV and cinema are on two very different wavelengths, I'm not saying the show and movie need to be the same, but... Oh, to hell with it! OK, I admit it, you're right! I don't actually disagree with you OK, I just didn't want to admit I'm wrong...

None of those films look theatrical TBH. They all look like TV shows that someone suckered people to walk into a theater for or just look like awful movies in general. Many are foreign films, most are commercial failures. None of them match up to any of the big screen animation being done by the larger companies these days that are trying to make a true animated film experience. Not saying some of them are not good, but they all look like Direct to Video films that someone decided to release in theaters for just a little bit of extra money and it shows. That is why many of them have such limited releases.

 

No one said Flash is useless, as you can see there are several amazing looking films that UTILIZED flash, but were not made using it alone. MLPFiM is going Toonboom, they may still utilize flash for pieces of the film. But honestly I don't think you really care anymore, you are just be difficult because you think we should get a normal 3 or 4 part episode thrown into theaters and not something landmark that will stand out for all the fans everywhere and really make it worth going in the first place. Sure, lets all go to the movies and spend these outrageous prices for tickets, snacks and beverages, while having to put up with crying babies, cell phones ringing, text screens lighting up all over the theater while people text friends, take selfies, screen shots or calls and people continually walk back and forth in front of you because the bathroom can't wait.... just to watch this normal cartoon show we all could have saved our hard earned money for and just stayed the hell home so we could watch it in peace, and it would look EXACTLY the same.

 

Thanks no. You want to leave a lackluster impression in the minds of fans.. go that route. Or you could, I dunno... step up your game and try to make something fans and casuals will both enjoy and be happy they got to experience in the theater before commercial breaks, limited screen sizes and image quality rear their ugly heads and suck away part of the experience.

 

As for blockbuster. Yes it can compete. No one expects it to be another Frozen or the latest Pixar, but it can easily make a very large profit at the box office and showcase what the future can potentially hold not just for MLP, but for any licensed property. Every fan of any licensed property ever should want this film to do well, since a failure for MLP is not just a failure for MLP by itself, it is a message to the minds of company executives and shareholders that no one will ever want to see another large scale animated Transformers film, Thundercats, He-Man or whatever franchise you may love. They don't look at Transformers the Movie and say "Boy, we made some bad decisions in that film! No wonder it did not do what we hoped" they say "No one apparently likes animated Transformers in theaters, let's not do that anymore." and the ripple effect hits many other franchises owned by that company and companies with similar properties. But on the bright side, if it does do poorly we can always give the license to Micheal Bay and his FX and maybe he can rebuild it right?

 

It also does not need positive reviews these days to do well, even bad films with horrible reviews can easily get people in the door and make a large profit with merchandising and advertising, which MLP will most certainly get.

That sounds like you're saying that movies are always better than TV shows, since you seem to be implying that because it looks like a TV show It's not worth going into a theatre for, so I can't really agree with that at all. For example, I think the Dragonball Z anime is great, but the live action movie they made of it was garbage. Granted the movie wasn't animated, but I couldn't really think of a better example.

I'm not being difficult, this is just a discussion. And no, I don't want a movie that's just like 4 episodes stitched together, I hate movies that do that, and it shows, some movies literally are just a bunch of episodes stitched together, like that one Family Guy movie, which came off terrible because it was disjointed and had no real sense of build up or character development. Judging them as segmented episodes I can respect them, but it was released as a movie, so I'll judge it as a movie. Forgettable and standard is the LAST thing I want the MLP movie to be like.

I won't comment on the rest because honestly everything else you're saying seems sound to me.

That depends on what big league movies are coming out next October/November.

Yeah. Looking on IMDB though I can't seem to find any.

It's impossible to improve upon the Flash animation; it's Flash. It's pretty limited. Toon Boom is actually theatrical quality.

Here's a list of flash animated films, you look at these and tell me they don't look theatrical.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Flash_animated_films

I don't think the animation is going to be an issue as Toonboom is seen as a better version of Flash, and the MLP movie is designed to be a blockbuster experience so it makes sense that Hasbro wants to go with a bigger budget than they've done regarding both the show and Equestria Girls.

 

 

 

That's why I think Hasbro have learned from their mistakes although now that the 1980s Transformers Movie has been brought several times in this thread, maybe a little concern is in order. They need to remember not to ignore the old cast in favour of the new one otherwise fans won't respond in a positive manner.

A blockbuster experience? Yeah, I don't see this movie competing with the big leagues...

I did not make my point clear.

opening weekend, and first day sales are what the film industry uses to determine success.  

if you want producers to think "wow, that was great, we should fun more movies like this", then you should go opening day.  

Maybe, but money will only get them so far, It'll need to get positive reviews around it first.

Actually, by all reports it did amazingly well at the box-office for such a strange limited release. Well enough that the quarterly reports published by Hasbro specifically called it out in a rather confused manner, as they really didn't expect it to work that way. The box office apparently did better than the toy sales, which is why Rainbow Rocks got made.

 

 

 

 

 

They've shown some promotional materials, and while you can tell it's different assets they've used, that's only because we've stared at the current assets for a long time. I'm not sure casual viewers will really notice beyond it being 'upgraded' in quality.

 

 

 

 

 

Yup. And there's reasons for that. The G1 MLP and Transformers movies together lost so much money it almost tanked Hasbro as a company. That's supposedly why EqG had that strange limited release. Hasbro didn't want to make *that* mistake again, even though it was decades ago.

 

 

 

 

Oh lord, that was all sorts of disaster. Why Hasbro went along with that marketing plan still baffles me. Run contests for fans of the original series to provide their own content for the movie? Use unlicensed clips from celebrities talking about the original cartoon series? And then have the movie not actually have much if anything to do with that original series? Good job there.

 

 

 

 

Given that the Transformers movies, the Battleship movie, G.I. Joe movies are all Hasbro properties prior to Jem and the Holograms... I'm not sure Hasbro as a company learns things particularly quickly.  To be honest Hasbro doesn't do a lot beyond hold the IP and do a little marketing. As a rule they hand off all the production and management to other companies, like DHX, Bonnaventure, Universal, Paramount, Discovery, etc.

 

Nah, you have to have seen the original and the movie to understand how different they were. Changing animation software is a trivial thing compared to the differences between the original Jem series and the Movie. The original Jem series was in effect a magical girl series, with supercomputers and holograms substituted for the normal 'magic'. The Jem movie was a Hannah Montana clone.

Well, I mean, I figured they made Rainbow Rocks so they could sell more toys, but that worked out for the better in my opinion, Rainbow Rocks is the best EG movie to date.

Who knows, I mean they're changing their entire animation method.

That's a shame. I liked the Transformers movie, I've never touched MLP's other generations, they don't seem like my kind of thing. Sucks to see that movies people liked get treated so poorly at the box office.

Again, I'm not familiar with Jemz, but that sounds like an ATROCIOUS attempt at marketing.

Well, who knows. We'll wait and see.

That movie did so bad that it was pulled from theatres two weeks after it was released. Hasbro realize now that Jem and the Holograms was abysmal because it went completely against the original vision they had from back in the 1980s and wanted a more modern version no one could relate to. The MLP movie will be handled with much more care so I know it is going to turn out well.

Now do people understand why I'm worried? This sort of sounds similar, no? Going completely against the original vision (AKA the switch from Flash to Toonboom.)...

I hope the release is very wide...there were zero theaters in Alaska that showed the first equestria girls movie.  

But I'll go even if I have to drive an hour to find a theater.

 

Remember guys, the most important stats for a new movie are opening weekend, and opening day sales.  If possible, you should see it on opening day.  

Actually, although the opening day sales are important, you shouldn't rely completely on those to judge how well it did, movies gain money over time, not everyone can go to see them on opening day, so if the opening weekend ends up unimpressive (which just maybe It'll do fine now that I consider the majority of bronies will see it as well as the original little girls demographic, those two together will add up) the ongoing sales may make up for it.

1. What I mean is that the marketing is not going be minuscule like you claim.

 

2. Sorry, but animation quality does matter. This is not the Equestria Girl films where they're for the fans only. They're trying to gain a larger audience, and one of the ways to do that is blow them away with the animation.

OK, sorry, I got a little offended, that's all. I've been studying the movie industry including marketing for a while now, so when someone tells me I don't know what I'm talking about, it gets me a little mad, that's my bad.

I guess what I'm trying to say in the long run, is I don't expect this movie to get the scale of marketing that some other popular franchises get. I suppose I shouldn't expect nothing either, but considering It's Hasbro, I don't expect something massive.

There's a difference between improvement and changing the style entirely. If you want to have better animation with the movie than your show, then improve upon the Flash animation you use, don't throw the baby out with the bath tub and change everything.

Hasbro needs to avoid repeating what happened with "Jem and the Holograms" at all costs so I think they will do whatever is necessary to ensure that the MLP movie is successful.

I'm unaware of Jem and the Holograms, but if this Isn't Hasbro's first attempt at a full on movie, they will have learned at least something...

I'm a bit skeptical. Why doesn't MLP appear in Fandango's list of upcoming movies?

 

I also hope it doesn't become way out of character, like the Spongebob movie. Spongebob and Patrick, for example, never showed any interest in Goofy Goober, prior to the movie. Sure, it's meant to show Spongebob's innocent kid nature, but they used a way "out of blue" example.

Really, that's bad.

I can relate to you on that, but I'm fine with introducing new things and characters to the movie that aren't in shows, as long as they flesh them out enough to justify them only being in the movie.

Do you realize MLP is Hasbro's number one brand? The one that brings them in ONE MILLION dollars a year? The show that's basically holding Discovery Family up from closure? The show Hasbro won't stop expanding the brand toylines to new opportunities to? The show that millions of kids across America and probably billions more across the world can recognize? Of COURSE they're going to market it well. If something is making you money and you have a feature length movie on of COURSE they'll promote it well.

Yes, but toy sales don't fully translate to movie ticket sales. Hasbro might not want to go all out for something that Isn't even their speciality.

If someone does not know what MLP is by now, then nothing short of a giant transforming pony robot falling out of the sky is going to tell them. MLP advertises itself these days pretty well. Hasbro could probably sit on their thumbs and let word of mouth sell the movie at this point honestly and still make some profit off it... the Brony fandom is going to swallow it, period. However, they are going to have ads all over the place, in print, television, internet, most likely a supporting toyline, probably a video game, McDonalds happy meals toys and a bunch of other things to spread the word. The advertising and marketing is going to be covered, trust me. It will become an anti-bronies worst nightmare for a few weeks I imagine.

 

The show animation is OK, that is all... there are superior ways out there now to animate coming into existence... so they can either stick to the old way which is looking dated compared to some things out there, or they can step up and take advantage of this and make what we all hope is a superior product. The fact is, everyone who goes to see the movie, wants to be overwhelmed, not underwhelmed... and the animation can play a big part of that. Go look at some old Disney cartoons vs. their older theatrical releases and see how much they stepped up their game when taking it to the theaters. Although some of those plots where questionable... most everyone acknowledged the film looked amazing. A great story and fun film can carry the film, but why make them do all the work?

 

This is a chance to take their biggest current product and make it even bigger... they are going to take full advantage of all their resources to make that happen. Whether people like or hate MLP, there is no denying that this generation of the series has become huge and is raking in the dollars for Hasbro. It is go big or go home... they can't afford to just put a film that is "decent" into theaters. Now whether it will be good or not.. I have no idea... but I do think it will do very well, probably fairly impressively, just because of the brand alone and where it stands... now if the movie is really good and gets a lot of praise, well that just means it will do even better.

You'd be surprised how many people you can run into who have no clue what MLP is, I think It's safe to say there are more recognisable brands out there. In print, television maybe, the internet and the toyline I can definitely see happening, but something tells me if they were gonna make an MLP video game they would have done it by now, and that McDonalds Isn't the best place to promote characters who are literally made of what they use in their burgers.

I can accept wanting to improve your animation for the sake of the movie, hell, I've even seen plenty of shows where animation improves as the series progresses, but switching out your entire method of animation... It just feels really drastic. I'm not saying anything about anything, who knows, maybe I'll come to like the new "toonboom" MLP, but we haven't seen any movie footage yet, so there's no way to tell for now.

I'm praying to Celestia that the movie itself will be good, something like this has been wanted by bronies for a long time, and Hasbro knows that. I hope they'll go all out to make the movie, but I cannot shake the feeling that they won't put just as much effort into marketing it, and that probably won't change until the months up to the movie's release.

Pretty obvious you don't know how marketing works.

What's that supposed to mean? I've read through what I wrote multiple times, it makes complete sense, if no-one knows about your movie, the movie won't make money, It's basic logic.

More celebrities will hopefully bring in new people who haven't even seen the show before to watch the movie. Hopefully helping to bring the general public to watch it, rather than just bronies or little kids. 

 

 

ToonBoom animation is a better and more modern animation program than Flash. Theoretically, it should mean that the movie's animation will have higher quality than the show itself. 

 

The fan-animation "The Moon Rises" by DuoCartoonist was animated using ToonBoom.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2PCNKlddJY

It's not the quality that bothers me, that animation looks great, but there is such a thing as going too far. We don't need upgraded animation just because It's a movie, the EG movies were fine without it, I don't see why this has to be. In my opinion It's just wasting the budget on trivial things.

You also have to take the marketing into consideration as well.

Marketing? To be honest, looking at the circumstances, can we really say there's gonna be any marketing outside of Hasbro advertising it on their channel or updating their website? I know It's sad to admit, but outside of the bronies, there simply aren't people with power in the movie industry or the media that care about My Little Pony to give this movie any promotion, whether the movie is good is another story, but whether It'll be financially successful depends on the publicity.

It's already been said for a while it's getting a theatrical release. Pretty sure Lionsgate is distributing it.

Lionsgate huh? Good on them I guess.

The 2017 movie will be a theatrical release given the distributor, the celebtrity voice cast, the improved animation program they are using instead of Flash, and so on. It will end up being released on DVD sometime in early 2018.

That makes me kind of nervous honestly. I've seen movies which have tons of celebrities as actors and it never turns out well, with all due respect to them, they're better off sticking to what they're good at than acting, because it comes off tacky and pointless. Plus, with them not using flash for this one, I have to wonder now if the movie will look... Well, too different to the show.

I think the movie will have a more public theatrical release than EQG. And I think that there will be a lot of advertising for the movie starting a few months before the movie is released. There will probably be a DVD release soon after the theatrical release.

Probably, but who knows. Sadly, since It's My Little Pony, I don't see the media giving the movie that much attention.