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Originally Posted by solomon
I'd hardly consider Princess and the Frog a failure when it doubled it's budget in box office recipts, if you add in the overseas gross.
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Sure, it probably made a profit worldwide, but that alone does not keep it from performing poorly at the boxoffice. Moreover, they couldn't even make back their budget in North America, and they grossed something like a third of what Ice Age 3 did at the same time. All this points to even mighty Disney, the best brand in Hollywood was unable to sell a 2D film that had tons of rave reviews. If they can't do much in North America given the literal decades of having a fantastic brand name and a massive amount of marketing, then why should Ghibli expect to do better? I don't think that North America has much appetite for these traditional films any more; especially if they're made by decisively non-household names like Miyazaki.
Quote:
Originally Posted by solomon
Now Ghibli's trouble is that it seems to lack direction. Ghibli=Miyazaki in most cases. When Miyazaki leaves, what follows? As opposed to Disney, Pixar and classic Warner Bros studios, there doesn't seem to be a true rearing of directors at the studio.
Can Ghibli afford to go in drastically different direction with an outside director. Ghibli to me seems like Disney, I assume when people see Ghibli films they expect to see something Miyazaki like. If they deviate from that formula, they could be in trouble if not done right.
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This seems to be a separate problem from the one quoted in the OP. There, it's talking almost exclusively on the lack of penetration in North America. As it stands, the lack of new blood is probably real enough, and Miyazaki's dislike of the anime industry probably doesn't help things. It also doesn't help that Ghibli's offerings still perform very well in Japan itself - thus cutting down on the amount that they'd want to stray from the formula.
Quote:
Originally Posted by solomon
Anyway what I say stands, until America changes it's tune FROM THE INSIDE, no one should count on major slack being pulled from the US market, EVAR!
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It's not going to happen when the US itself has seemed to have lost interest in 2D animation.