Simple Question VERY Simple Did My Little Pony The Movie Fail At The Box Office Yes Or No

[TwilightSparkleAndAJ 85]

Did my little pony fail at the box office no one can give me a straight answer ponies keep saying it did well but does anypony know the truth thanks?

[Ganondox 899]

No. It failed to meet expectations for its opening week, but in the long run it still did fine for what it was. 

[Photon Jet 5,489]

Well, after hearing the news about how well it did and watching the movie which was one of the greatest things I've ever seen in my life. It's a straight-out NO.

[TwilightSparkleAndAJ 85]

And yet blade runner 2049 failed at the box office and they are still airiing it.

[Denim&Venöm 16,464]

Not so simple actually. 

It failed in drawing praise from critics and in drawing a sizable number of viewers.

It succeeded in pleasing fans & general audiences, and in turning a profit for it's creators.

It all depends on context. 

 

 

[Quarium 108]

It did pretty ok after a while, the budget of the movie was "humble" as the execs explain and it will be sure to make more than enough money with the home DVD/Bluray release and merchandise. To the point where they might even consider making another one.

[Jade Fire 7,036]

1 hour ago, TwilightSparkleAndAJ said:

And yet blade runner 2049 failed at the box office and they are still airiing it.

thats cuz the money they put into each movie, mlp took very little money relatively, so they didnt need to earn much to meet their costs. blade runner took a ton of money and they are struggling to meet that cost and may never will xD

[Fhaolan 4,468]

I honestly don't understand how people can say it failed on opening weekend... It was #4 at the boxoffice in it's opening weekend, pulling in $9 million at 2,500 theaters (on an estimated $5-8 million budget). #3 was 'It' with $10 million at 3,600 theaters (on a $35 million budget), #2 was 'The Mountain Between Us' with $11 million at 3,000 theaters (on a $35 million budget), and #1 was 'Blade Runner' with $33 million at over 4,000 theaters (on a $150 million budget). What exactly were you all expecting?

So basically, unlike any of the films that 'beat' it, it likely made it's budget back on opening weekend despite being released at two-thirds the number of theaters of the other big releases. That's an unqualified success in film production circles.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

2 hours ago, TwilightSparkleAndAJ said:

Did my little pony fail at the box office no one can give me a straight answer ponies keep saying it did well but does anypony know the truth thanks?

yes and no.
The Run isn't fully finished yet, so its not out of the game yet; but at the same time, its going to need to break 50 million or so to be comfortably in the green. Its sitting at about 38 million, most of which is in foreign sales (which get taxed more heavily and so are "smaller" sales than domestic sales), and has lost the majority of its momentum. so its going to have a hard time reaching that number. ADDITIONALLY, it fell short of its original projected sales for its opening weekend, as it was 18 million in its original projections for the opening weekend and only sold about 12/13 million opening weekend-- so whether or not it manages to break into the green, it STILL has done worse than they were projecting/expecting.

On the other hand, its budget was very low, which gives it more wiggle room; its only saving grace is sadly that its budget was incredibly low, meaning even IF it fails to make budget, its such a small budget that the money lost is minimal and can be easily made up for by toy and merch sales.

I'm very dissapointed as I (and probably hasbro) was hoping for this to be a definitive success, selling about 80-100 million for a really strong showing, especially given how Equestria girls 1 had lots of bronies going to see it when it came out, to the point that they EXTENDED its theatrical run. This just kind of shows how much momentum the series has lost in the general public since 2013-2014. I really like the movie, but even if its a moderate success with its toy sales factored in, its a FAR shot from being a definitive success with a guaranteed sequel-- look at the Second TMNT movie for example, it sold tons of merch (being even more toyetic than MLP) and sold 245 million to a 135 million budget (meaning its roughly on par with MLP for budget to sales ratio at the moment), but the fact that it didn't blow it out of the water torpedoed its chances for a sequel.

 

 

As a FINAL thing, we can't count the toy sales until they're sold, so we can't even definitively point to toy sales as a success for this movie until after the christmas season-- We won't know whether or not the movie actually increased sales, or if by that much, until the numbers are in, and there is NO guarantee this movie will increase them. Remember, Hasbro has been utterly devastated by Pony toy flops before in this series, specifically Equestria girls: friendship game toys. They went ALL OUT making tons of toys for it, with lots of tie ins and a bunch of unique molds and whatnot (nerf bows and arrows, bike toys, ect.) and it flopped hard in sales, with almost all of it sitting on shelves and going into clearance. The same thing could happen with this movie too. Remember that Toys R Us's US branch declared bankruptsy, and that's where the majority of Hasbro's MLP toys are moved through: meaning it just got kneecapped going into this christmas season by its main distributor having financial issues that will make it difficult for them to order and stock lots of the newer toys for the movie.

Edited November 2, 2017 by Unlikeable Pony

[Ganondorf8 11,118]

It really depends on how you look at the movie from different perspectives. From the viewpoint of Hasbro, the movie failed to live up to expectations so they are cautiously waiting to see if the DVD sales will give it some much needed momentum. Bronies will say that it was a success regardless of what the numbers end up being by the time it has finished its theatrical run. For others, who are either casual or were just curious about the prospect, the movie did well in some ways but badly in others.

[Ganondox 899]

57 minutes ago, Ganondorf8 said:

It really depends on how you look at the movie from different perspectives. From the viewpoint of Hasbro, the movie failed to live up to expectations so they are cautiously waiting to see if the DVD sales will give it some much needed momentum. Bronies will say that it was a success regardless of what the numbers end up being by the time it has finished its theatrical run. For others, who are either casual or were just curious about the prospect, the movie did well in some ways but badly in others.

[Citation Needed]

From what I’ve heard, Hasbro was very pleased with the movies performance. 

[Varrack 1,080]

Since it wasn't a big release, and it didn't was never meant to be heavily advertised, then it shouldn't be compared to every other movie. For where it's gotten to, I don't think there's room for disappointment. Also keep in mind that the movie hasn't really been shown in some countries yet (it releases November 2nd in Australia and New Zealand, which is today there), so there is still some room for box office growth.

[blackstarraven 142]

3 hours ago, Varrack said:

Since it wasn't a big release, and it didn't was never meant to be heavily advertised, then it shouldn't be compared to every other movie. For where it's gotten to, I don't think there's room for disappointment. Also keep in mind that the movie hasn't really been shown in some countries yet (it releases November 2nd in Australia and New Zealand, which is today there), so there is still some room for box office growth.

Should also be notted that its total take is up to 42+ Million Dollars.

If what we know about the movie is true that is somewhere in the order of 4 to 6 times the cost of production.

Even at the (Basically not possible) Figure that 4chan gives of 20 million. Its still likely going to cross the 2.5 mark.

 

Simple put, This movie has done very well.

[Sione 1,108]

No, not reaally, but it lowered the expectations of the audience in relevance to the potential for the ponies.

That's how I felt before I saw it.

[Steve Piranha 28,752]

there's no official numbers about the total budget for the film, so it's hard to tell. Though they seem pleased with the over 40 million, and that seems a lot if we consider they showed ponies in relatively few theaters, and it was hardly advertised. Not to mention the toys, but those are another expense they need to recover from

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

1 hour ago, blackstarraven said:

Should also be notted that its total take is up to 42+ Million Dollars.

If what we know about the movie is true that is somewhere in the order of 4 to 6 times the cost of production.

Even at the (Basically not possible) Figure that 4chan gives of 20 million. Its still likely going to cross the 2.5 mark.

 

Simple put, This movie has done very well.

The most reliable info I've seen puts it a 30 million budget, with some wiggle room from a 5 million break of some sorts they got on it from the canadian government. Why do you think TWENTY million is impossible? that's absurdly low for a budget, even 30 million is low and 20 is unbelievably low.

 

1 hour ago, Steve Piranha said:

there's no official numbers about the total budget for the film, so it's hard to tell. Though they seem pleased with the over 40 million, and that seems a lot if we consider they showed ponies in relatively few theaters, and it was hardly advertised. Not to mention the toys, but those are another expense they need to recover from

I'm kind of wondering why they haven't released a budget yet actually; its kind of strange. Most all movies release their budget numbers pretty early into runs of the movie.

 

1 hour ago, Sione said:

No, not reaally, but it lowered the expectations of the audience in relevance to the potential for the ponies.

 

Yeah. Was kind of hoping we'd get a really super good movie that pushes the envelope and reignited public interest in ponies like what the 2011 S1 of the show did by making people realize ponies didn't have to just be like the 80s Stigma.
While I enjoyed the movie, it was still dissapointing in how they chose to play it safe and ended up hitting it kind of low due to that.

[Adamgreen 1,129]

From my understanding, no. It's doing fairly well.

Though it's not saying much since the movie wasn't failing when they have the toy sales and DVDs.

[Ganondorf8 11,118]

On ‎2017‎-‎11‎-‎01 at 7:09 PM, Ganondox said:

[Citation Needed]

From what I’ve heard, Hasbro was very pleased with the movies performance. 

Then we need to hear it straight from them even if they don't want to say anything. Me? I would like to see the movie be successful even though I know it's not an easy task given how certain obstacles have gotten in the way.

[Ganondox 899]

14 hours ago, Ganondorf8 said:

Then we need to hear it straight from them even if they don't want to say anything. Me? I would like to see the movie be successful even though I know it's not an easy task given how certain obstacles have gotten in the way.

It was from their quarterly financial statement or something like that. 

[Jeric 46,834]

On 11/1/2017 at 6:36 PM, TwilightSparkleAndAJ said:

Did my little pony fail at the box office no one can give me a straight answer ponies keep saying it did well but does anypony know the truth thanks?

 

There isn't a straight answer when you phrase it that way. There isn't a straight answer to this question at all because most of you that post here don't understand how film production, distribution, and exhibition works when coupled with other horizontals and verticals. 

I haven't read this whole topic and I am not going to, but I guarantee that we have some opinion, assumptions, ignorance, and half-truths from well meaning people who just don't have the experience and training needed to read further into this industry. Not that it matters, since you don't apparently want to explore nuance. 

To answer your question, or at least  what I suspect your question is, The movie didn't make a direct profit. Theaters keep over half the ticket sales. If you use the SAG and average salary of  positions of the crew in the credits, you can at least get a base labor cost estimate. You don't need to go any further. 

My question is ... why is this so important a question to you that you would employ (I'm assuming unintentionally) the passive aggressive approach that comes with, "<Question>, yes or no."

In the future when you get a bunch of complex or nuanced answers, there is usually a reason. Truth resists simplicity. 

1 hour ago, Ganondox said:

It was from their quarterly financial statement or something like that. 

Maybe it was in the webcast, but it wasn't in the SEC filings or presentation. Though some hilarious other things were in there that made me laugh. Percentage of net revenue to advertising only increased .2 of a percent. 

Lol

[GrimGrimoire 4,970]

Very simple answer

On 11/1/2017 at 5:36 PM, TwilightSparkleAndAJ said:

Did my little pony fail at the box office no one can give me a straight answer ponies keep saying it did well but does anypony know the truth thanks?

1. You enjoyed it. = Success
2. You did not enjoy. = Failure

As for financially... I have not heard about any Hasbro personal being laid off due to cuts, nor any of them leaping off bridges due to the state of the film...

... but I also have not heard about them dancing in the street  or building any Scrooge McDuck money bins over the film and holding money diving contests.

They seemed satisfied with how the film has done. You should follow or disregard that example based upon the previous bullet points. Let Hasbro worry about the numbers.

[Ganondox 899]

4 hours ago, Jeric said:

 

There isn't a straight answer when you phrase it that way. There isn't a straight answer to this question at all because most of you that post here don't understand how film production, distribution, and exhibition works when coupled with other horizontals and verticals. 

I haven't read this whole topic and I am not going to, but I guarantee that we have some opinion, assumptions, ignorance, and half-truths from well meaning people who just don't have the experience and training needed to read further into this industry. Not that it matters, since you don't apparently want to explore nuance. 

To answer your question, or at least  what I suspect your question is, The movie didn't make a direct profit. Theaters keep over half the ticket sales. If you use the SAG and average salary of  positions of the crew in the credits, you can at least get a base labor cost estimate. You don't need to go any further. 

My question is ... why is this so important a question to you that you would employ (I'm assuming unintentionally) the passive aggressive approach that comes with, "<Question>, yes or no."

In the future when you get a bunch of complex or nuanced answers, there is usually a reason. Truth resists simplicity. 

Maybe it was in the webcast, but it wasn't in the SEC filings or presentation. Though some hilarious other things were in there that made me laugh. Percentage of net revenue to advertising only increased .2 of a percent. 

Lol

Found the source: https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/10/possible-2nd-my-little-pony-movie-on-way.html

So it was the investor call for the third quarter, and a direct statement from the CEO. Without context the statement doesn't explicitly say the movie was a success, but the implication is clearly there.  

Edited November 3, 2017 by Ganondox

[Jeric 46,834]

8 minutes ago, Ganondox said:

but the implication is clearly there.  

That's standard investor CEO jargon. Its why I casually dismissed the webcast as valid source by stating I didn't listen to it. I can find more relevant information from a Bazooka Joe strip, because they are not substantive at all. I mean ... ever. 

I have heard it a dozen times from James Dimon, Alan Mulally, and Bill Ford the people to wrong good ol Jeric's checks in the past. The only thing that is demonstrated clearly by that quote is that Goldner knows how to 'pitch to calm'. Fun jargon that we learned in Business Grad School hanging around these C-Level types. 

If it sounds like I'm being snarky, I'm not. The press and investors on the other end usually know this too. It's what makes it so laughable. Of course, the fine folks at EqD and others ... probably don't. No. They definitely don't. 

The finals tell the story, but not the whole story. Hence the cautious optimism with a hint of, 'we'll see', from the business and investment press. I honestly want to do a full analysis on this, but I know that the true audience a corporate health report and prospectus in this fandom is lacking. So I'll do what tends to get the most traction these days ... 

 

To those that feel as if the film was a success at this point ... 

 

 

And to those that say it was a failure, let's wait for this guys numbers come in ... he will bring fort Hasbro's salvation or damnation when it comes to results driven data. 

 

As I told the OP ... tis not so simple. 

[Misty Shadow 7,067]

It's a traditionally animated movie not associated with Disney that made more than forty million dollars in a month. Of course it's failing! It's failing so spectacularly there's speculation of a sequel! 

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/11/hasbro-and-paramount-strike-5-year-film.html

Yeah, I strongly doubt the movie bombed, despite them not revealing the budget for some odd reason. Because yeah...this is not the action of a company that just saw a movie they invested a lot into fail.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

Kind of wondering WHY its taking them so long to release the official budget for the movie; Most movies release such financial info loud and clear early on into a run. The fact that its taking so long for them to do so is making things feel kind of off.