As I’ve discussed before, Alita: Battle Angel was an expensive production. That means the movie needs two to three times its production budget just to break even at the box office. Making around $350 to $500 million is a tall order for almost any movie, but especially one based on a niche title. And while manga is known for its characters having large eyes, those eyes usually don’t follow along to the silver screen. Plus, anime fans have not been known to be kind to other Western live action adaptions. (See: Dragon Ball: Evolution, Ghost in the Shell, and Death Note.)
So although Alita: Battle Angel was being helmed by James Cameron, one of the most famous directors ever, and Robert Rodriguez, director of Spy Kids, Sin City, and more, the movie faced an uphill climb. Two weeks before it opened on Valentine’s Day (moved from competing with titles like Aquaman and Bumblebee at Christmas), estimates placed Alita debuting with only $25 million in revenue at most and $45 to 50 million in total.
Well, Alita made almost that much in its extended opening weekend: about $43 million. Combined with the international box office, the film will likely end up somewhere between a $100 million loss (at worse) to breaking even (at best). Still better than the estimates a few weeks before it opened.
And perhaps even more amazing, animanga fans…weren’t slamming it? In fact, they actually liked it.
Alita faced the opening of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World this past weekend, but this upcoming weekend (first weekend of March) has no major flicks. That gives Alita more time until Captain Marvel presumedly dominates theaters. Still, even if it manages to pull off a Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and gives Captain Marvel a threat in the vein of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, a sequel isn’t guaranteed with Disney taking ownership of the studio.
So, with other Japanese media getting upcoming live action adaptations, (most notably your name., which is starting to take shape with its hiring or a director and establishing the setting), what should other movie production staff do to ensure all-around success?
The obvious answer would seem to be, “Stick to the source material.” For fantasy or sci-fi stories, that’s not too hard to have an appealing setting for a general audience.
Well, maybe. I still don’t understand how One Piece is going to be able to not go over budget and make a profit. I mean, it’s good that all the jokes and concerns about Alita’s eyes aren’t dissuading audiences from enjoying the movie (in fact, it probably helped against accusations of whitewashing since she’s clearly different from humans, whatever race you think they are). Marvel superhero Ms. Marvel has a stretchy body, but will they flock to a silly action comedy starring a similar character not backed by the power of the Marvel/Disney names?
Plus, one of the reasons Alita is doing better than expected is thanks to its 3D/IMAX presentations. One Piece isn’t going to have that, and even if Saint Seiya does have a premium release, it probably won’t be as emphasized or as significant as Alita.
So while the premium format is probably something exclusive to Alita, what about the story? Not all adaptations can (or should) be straight adaptations. One of the requests for your name., for instance, is that it be from the Western perspective. Instead of a teen from Tokyo and a successor to a Shinto shrine, it’s going to be a Chicago teen and a Native American. The choice of metropolis didn’t really matter for the city character (sorry, Chicago), but I think indigenous culture is a good choice for the spiritual symbolism that is key to the story. But your name. isn’t going to have flashy action sequences to attract audiences, so even though that will likely mean it’s a relatively inexpensive production compared to other anime American adaptations, but trailers won’t be as catchy. (Well, maybe if they keep the boob grabs, it can achieve meme status.)
As for development hells, there have been quite a few over the years in regards to Western adaptations, and some may or will never come to fruition. Akira and Robotech are two famous examples. Heck, even Alita took 20 years.
No doubt that combining a full-length TV series or a long manga into a roughly 2-hour experience is difficult, particularly when most moviegoers probably haven’t heard of the source material. There’s also the issue of the creator(s) being located across the Pacific and not being a native English speaker. Unlike in a lot of English book-to-movie creations, it’s not likely that a director/producer can invite the author and have them hang around for a while and offer feedback.
Plus, in many series, it takes a while for the main characters to assemble, so balancing character introduction with the main part of the plot is a challenge. Alita however appears to cram a lot of the manga into its runtime, and the fact it tries to remain so faithful to the manga is probably a significant factor into its high audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Movie critics were less impressed, particularly about the script and the fact that, as Salon says, requires “homework” (i.e. reading the Battle Angel Alita manga) to enjoy. But manga fans’ positive reactions have pushed it above expectations, and maybe if the movie hadn’t cost so darned much in the first place, the community could have pushed it into moderate success territory. A few weeks earlier might have also helped considering how poor ticket sales have been so far in 2019. Better than the planned Christmas release, let alone last summer.
I still think it has the ability to become a cult classic. It may not reach, say, The Wizard of Oz or Fight Club levels of popularity, but maybe better than Clue. I think Alita may be a winner a hit with those users of VR systems like Oculus and PS VR or the remaining 3D Blu-ray owners. Those are small but dedicated fanbases.
At the very least, Alita: Battle Angel won’t be a punching bag like Dragon Ball Evolution was. Although it’s likely the movie will still lose money, at least this shows that animanga fans will spread the word if there’s a movie that respects the source material. That’s a step forward in of itself, and hopefully your name., One Piece, Saint Seiya, and all the other projects will take note.