Detective Pikachu Movie Discussion Thread

[BenLee really not taken]

Pokemon is bigger then SW and Avengers. Highest grossing franchise ever. It could make a billion, and I honestly think there's a chance it will.

If it's actually a good movie, I think it has a good chance to join the Billion Dollar Club.

I know that evidence came from Wikipedia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media_franchises
But I did hear how the list is highly inaccurate, with Toy Story box office for example.

 

[greninjamaster]

Why does every single joke in this trailer land so well!? I died at Pikachu talking about 100,000 steps in an hour.

This movie is gonna be hilarious and Ryan was the best choice.

 

[greninjamaster]

I know that evidence came from Wikipedia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media_franchises
But I did hear how the list is highly inaccurate, with Toy Story box office for example.

That is irrelevant. Pokemon is a 92 Billion Dollar plus franchise and will likely be getting very close to a 100 Billion with the release of this and Sword and Shield.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Can't we just agree it will surely make a lot of money and leave it at that.

 

[Kutie Pie]

If we want to talk about box office results, we shouldn't look at what its total gross will be once its theatrical run is finished. What should be looked at instead is the opening weekend, and currently, it's projected to make somewhere in the 75-90 million range. IMDB (which I'm sure is where most of these "It'll hit a billion!" cries come from outside of one of the Marvel guys) has a 2019 box office prediction (for some reason, but whatever) where they feel Detective Pikachu will be the third-highest grossing 2019 movie once all's said and done.

So due to brand recognition, the movie has a very good chance of being financially successful, which is why Legendary announced a sequel as they're that confident. Thus far, the budget hasn't been revealed, but on average projections place a blockbuster film to break even around the 500-mil mark (you have to take into account marketing, and Legendary alongside TPCI's heavily marketing Detective Pikachu). I personally like to look at domestic revenue for films, but for the past decade Hollywood has catered heavily toward the international crowd, especially China, so even if the film doesn't make much domestically, it can rake in the dough overseas and still keep Legendary in the green.

 

[greninjamaster]

If we want to talk about box office results, we shouldn't look at what its total gross will be once its theatrical run is finished. What should be looked at instead is the opening weekend, and currently, it's projected to make somewhere in the 75-90 million range.


To be fair this is long range prediction, which in many regards is bottom of the barrel, which is still very very good for Pikachu. With Ryan's marketing and more awesome trailers and promotion this easily be an over $100 M + opening weekend.

Tracking always usually increases towards a films debut. Unless the film is not being received well like the Hellboy reboot or Dark Phoenix.

 

[Lady Umbreon]

what do we think the critical ratings for the film are going to be, out of 5 stars?

3 to 4 depending on the critic. They're going to be surprised that they enjoyed it but won't call it a Godfather-level masterpiece.

I'd like to make a crazy prediction: Detective Pikachu will cross the 2 billion mark. Either it or Avengers: Endgame will become the new highest-grossing film of all time. We're actually due for a new champ. Since The Sound of Music took the title in 1966 there has been an average of 6.28 years between new films breaking the record. It's been ten years since Avatar.

I also foresee Detective Pikachu being adapted into a Broadway musical with Lion King-style puppets.

 

[Kutie Pie]

I also foresee Detective Pikachu being adapted into a Broadway musical with Lion King-style puppets.

Pokémon Live! was a thing back in 2000 and early 2001. I remember there being talk to bring it back on tour a few years ago, but it didn't fall through that I could tell.

 

[Lady Umbreon]

Pokémon Live! was a thing back in 2000 and early 2001. I remember there being talk to bring it back on tour a few years ago, but it didn't fall through that I could tell.

I can believe that they'd want to do a travelling stage show again. Those things make bank. But Pokémon Live! is stuck in season one. It would probably be better to start from scratch with a more current story. (One that doesn't make up crap, like Delia Ketchum being Giovanni's ex-girlfriend.) But if they keep adapting the anime they'll have to retool the show every 3-4 years. They'd have to rewrite or add songs to match the new characters. They'd have to make dozens of new costumes and puppets. The costs would add up.

"Detective Pikachu" on the other hand is a self-contained story with a specific cast of humans and Pokemon. They'd never have to worry about it becoming outdated, or having to cast brand new roles, or having to design & build tons of new puppets. It has the potential to be evergreen.

 

[BenLee really not taken]

On the budget, it definetely will be more than 100 million. It might even come close, or over 200 million, since there will be a heavy HEAVY use of CGI from all those Pokémon.

 

[BCVM22]

On the budget, it definetely will be more than 100 million. It might even come close, or over 200 million, since there will be a heavy HEAVY use of CGI from all those Pokémon.

It definitely isn't a $200 million budget - that's into Star Wars/MCU/tentpole territory. The budget is likely somewhere between $50-$75 million and probably on the low end of that - you'd be surprised how "cheap" (extremely relatively speaking) even an effects-heavy movie's budget can be when they're only really paying for one "big name" actor.

 

[BenLee really not taken]

It definitely isn't a $200 million budget - that's into Star Wars/MCU/tentpole territory. The budget is likely somewhere between $50-$75 million and probably on the low end of that - you'd be surprised how "cheap" (extremely relatively speaking) even an effects-heavy movie's budget can be when they're only really paying for one "big name" actor.

The cgi aren’t actually that costly to animate?

 

[BCVM22]

The cgi aren’t actually that costly to animate?

To you and me? Sure. Probably more money than you and I combined will ever see in our lifetimes, hundreds of times over. But in terms of a movie budget, not especially. Deadpool, a film with no end of effects work, including constant CGI facial animation on its titular character, and another massive character created entirely from CGI, cost "only" $58 million to make.

 

[BCVM22]

I think they were saving budget by focussing mainly on small pokemon in this film. For example pikachu and psyduck are only about a foot high, and the only large ones are charizard

The second trailer alone depicts Machamp, Golurk, Blastoise, Mewtwo, and Snorlax, among others. But that's not quite the point because...

maybe in a few films time whe they have made their money we will see a film populated by mostly huge pokemon, onix etc

...the size of the effect - in this case, the Pokémon - doesn't directly correlate to the cost of the effects shot.

The point was not "there are mostly smaller Pokémon, which will keep the effects costs down." The point was that even a film like this, depicting a world populated by detailed CGI Pokémon, is not a $200 million film and very likely isn't quite a $100 million film either.

 

[BCVM22]

this helps keep the cost down because they take up less of the screen with effects.

No, that's exactly what I said is not the case.

the size of the effect - in this case, the Pokémon - doesn't directly correlate to the cost of the effects shot.

Whether they're animating a big Pokémon or a small one does not directly correlate to how much the effects shot costs. Animating Pikachu and animating Charizard may cost them different amounts of money per second of effects shot, but it's not because of the size of the Pokémon.

And again, that's not remotely the point to take away from what I said, which had everything to do with the film's budget (adjacent to and relevant to the effects costs) and nothing to do with the size of the Pokémon they chose to use.

 

[BCVM22]

Okay. I tried. Moving on.

 

[Kutie Pie]

Size of the CGI models does not necessarily cause a movie to be more or less expensive. You can create a Godzilla model that's only several pixels high, but then you can zoom in the camera to make him look huge or even scale up the model with little issue.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

i thik the Godzilla film must have had a huge budget then. google says it cost 160 million. so the pokemon movie probably cost way less, around 50 million, because the pokemon are all so much smaller and take up less of the screen

Probably because a huge CGI model tearing a lot of stuff up is more expensive than 60 models walking about.

 

[Kutie Pie]

i thik the Godzilla film must have had a huge budget then. google says it cost 160 million. so the pokemon movie probably cost way less, around 50 million, because the pokemon are all so much smaller and take up less of the screen

actually that makes me have a question: which attacks do you think we will see in this film? for example rock throw would be easy to animate so that's likely. I bet double team wont be there

Now I know you're trolling. Gr8 b8 m8.

 

[greninjamaster]

They literally said "mother of Arceus" OMG THIS MOVIE!