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Pony movie box office


Steve Piranha

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Well, according to wikipedia, the movie was expected to gross between 10 to 17 million$ by the end of the weekend. Today's update states that it has grossed about 8.8 million$, which is lower than expected. Anyone knows more about the box office issue? Is the movie doomed to fail? or there are other factors as the merchandise sold? 

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Considering the lack of advertising, I think Hasbro and Lionsgate already had low expectations to begin with. 

As is w/ MLP proper, this is just an extended commercial. The real measure of succsess will be the merch sales. 

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Hasbro is more concerned about toy sales than how well the movie does.

However, if this were a film without an established toy line, this could be considered an awful gross. Again, Lionsgate/Hasbro put limited funds into their marketing, so if they do eat the bullet for this, it's going to be a meager sum of money. This is assuming that merch sales bump up with the film's release.

Edited by Halberd
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2 hours ago, Halberd said:

Hasbro is more concerned about toy sales than how well the movie does.

However, if this were a film without an established toy line, this could be considered an awful gross. Again, Lionsgate/Hasbro put limited funds into their marketing, so if they do eat the bullet for this, it's going to be a meager sum of money. This is assuming that merch sales bump up with the film's release.

this is true, infact even with making that little to start im sure they already made their money back as they didnt spend that much as far as movies go on it anyway, all the cast and crew for the most part already work on the main show it'self, all they really spent extra money on was the animation and the extra cast and celebrities

tho im sure the movie being leaked 3 days before in came out didnt help tho

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damn, not even 10 million as some experts predicted. I expected like 15 million, but this is kinda dissapointing actually.

But to be fair, it really shows that the brony community is not as big as some people like to believe.

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4 minutes ago, Mesme Rize said:

it really shows that the brony community is not as big as some people like to believe.

 

 

Hopefully, the overall profit (not just this weekend's) will end up being sufficient.

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We also have to consider the international market, as even critically panned films w/ lack luster opening weekends can break even over seas. Such as the case w/ another certain hasbro property.

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20 minutes ago, CloudMistDragon said:

Also, can we wait to get a legitimate source for the movie's budget before we get our cupcakes in a twist over the movie bombing please? Thanks.

Yeah, people are saying 65 million. I find that really hard to believe! It does not look like a 65 million movie to me.

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Friends and I went to a later showing at Longmont, CO's theater and all told there were maybe 20 people (including us) in a theater that can sit nearly 100. Unfortunately low turnout seemed to be a trend elsewhere in Colorado as well.  That being said, there was really not much in the way of marketing for this movie that I saw beyond the occasional social media update and the early viewings on Thursday were almost not mentioned at all, at least around here.  Seems to me like Hasbro may have decided that this movie just wasn't worth putting that much money into for marketing and just wanted to use it to further the toy lines, which is a shame because I thought it was an excellent movie, especially given that it wasn't animated in the same style like the rest of the show has been.

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So I've seen another claim (from Cartoon Brew) that the budget was only around 5-8 million, which sounds much more reasonable than the 65 million Forbes stated. Does anyone know what is going on?

EDIT: Looks like the 65 million figure originally came from a 4chan "leak", which has since proven to be false, but apparently Forbes didn't pay close enough attention. 

Edited by Ganondox
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It will need to double its budget to be considered successful I believe. It will do that over the weeks with domestic and foreign ticket sales most likely even if it is an 8 million budget. A sequel is very likely on the table already if thats the case I would say. Despite the seemingly negative press.

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Seriously. It was obvious that the movie wouldn't go too well. Not every little girl automatically like mlp and most people are not interested in the movie. For them it's just another boring movie for little girls.

Besides. I would say the dvd/blu ray sales will go better. Because most bronies are ashamed of going to watch it in public. And thanks to amazon, they just order the movie and enjoy it in english.

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How we view the results of the box office is dependent on the budget. We have three different versions of it. Tack onto that the fact that to break even a movie generally has to make around 2.5 of its production budget to break even and start turning a profit. Production budgets don't include printing, distribution, marketing, overhead, and certain aspects of pre-production and post-production. Also, box office figures don't go to the production studios entirely- theaters take a cut, obviously. So with all that in mind:

1- $65 million. Likely $162.5 million break-even. This is from the 4chan leak. It is absolute balderdash. Yes, the movie has been a disaster in terms of box office if this is the case. DVD/Blu-Ray sales will not save it. This would be a mammoth blow- financially, no way toy sales linked to the movie make up for the deficit.


2- $25 million. Likely 62.5 million break-even. New animation, a stable(ha) of celebrity voice talent, other factors make me think this is most accurate. The movie has been underperforming but is not a disaster. DVD/Blu-Ray Sales will eventually turn a profit, with toys it is considered a pretty decent success.


3- $8 million. Break-even of $20 million. This seems a little low to me. The movie is doing exceptionally well if this is the case. Guaranteed to turn a profit by the end of the run, everything else is gravy. Big time success, expect sequels.

Most movies don't break-even. Many don't even make back their production budgets. Blade Runner 2049 cost so much and has such a high break-even that it may not turn a profit even with DVDs/Blu-rays considered. MLP The Movie, unless the $65 million budget is accurate, will almost certainly turn a profit for both Hasbro and Lionsgate. If it is closer to the $8 million rumored, then it has every chance of being a fantastic return on investment and near guaranteed to get a sequel.

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this movie likely had a 3-8 million budget which would make it a great success.

 

Especially with the lack of advertising there is no way the movie had a 65 million dollar budget like some rumors.

 

 

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I do doubt the budget estimate that Cartoon Brew gave of $5-$8 million. Considering the guest talent involved and the nature of the work they did with Toon Boom, it just seems too low. Less realistic IMHO than the $25 million. Of course it will be a while until we really know.

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6 hours ago, Ganondox said:

So I've seen another claim (from Cartoon Brew) that the budget was only around 5-8 million, which sounds much more reasonable than the 65 million Forbes stated. Does anyone know what is going on?

EDIT: Looks like the 65 million figure originally came from a 4chan "leak", which has since proven to be false, but apparently Forbes didn't pay close enough attention. 

Yeah I'm more inclined to believe CartoonBrew's estimates, there's no way the movie cost $65 Million, or even $30 million. For starters Hasbro was aiming for a 10-11 million opening, which, that alone, should tell you the budget wasn't that big. Second the advertising budget, given how much of a piss poor job Lionsgate did with it, was probably no higher than a couple of dollars. Not to mention, Hasbro of all companies would want to give their animated movies a smaller budget and be more careful given past experiences(last time they had big animated movie releases, they lost so much money it almost took them down)

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I see the movie budget at 15 million.

Also, WW opening weekend the movie made 12.6M, I don't see why people only ever say domestic.

I had expected it to open better than Kubo but 5-10 million, instead it barely did better.

If we assume the same success there MLP should end with 60-100 Million for a final number.

I don't see this as the brony community being smaller than we thought, more so most bronies are worried about being judged and are afraid of theaters. The leak was also probably seen by a decent amount of people. Also, not all bronies can rush to opening weekend.

I also think that had the movie opened in 4,000 theaters like other animated films it would have crossed 20 million easily

12,685,899 isn't bad for a movie that was barely marketed until the last week and only played in 2,500 theaters, in fact I would say it's quite good.

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I'm far from expert, but I doubt the movie's budget was 8 million, seems to low for me. 25 million seems more reasonable, but MAYBE that's much for an animated movie (then again, I'm no expert as I've already stated). Maybe the movie's budget was between those ranges, which the expected box office is of any indication. If that's the case, it's premiere weekend seems to be on losses, but not abyssmal ones :huh: . We have to wait for official numbers still 

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If Hasbo had struck while the iron was hot (four or so years ago) they could have expected much higher returns. Instead of pouring resources into Equestria Girls movies in hopes of cashing in on a new merchandise line, they should have focused on making their money in movie ticket sales, which would have promoted the MLP toy line anyway. 

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42 minutes ago, Toon4Thought said:

This image shows the film's budget was $25-30 million.

Unfortunately, this means the film will struggle to break even, since as of now it only has $15 million worldwide. I know there's merchandise and all that, but none of that ever matters in whether or not a film is considered a success, and this so does not deserve to be a financial failure.

Where did you get that image?

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