Rock Dog

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Rock Dog

Post by Dacey » November 29th, 2016, 4:28 pm

So, this is going to be a thing...

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift--that is why it's called the present."

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Re: Rock Dog

Post by Ben » November 29th, 2016, 9:39 pm

Singtopia?

Yeesh..another Lionsgate blockbuster in waiting. And it's gonna be a long wait. The saddest part? "From the co-director of Toy Story 2".. :(

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Re: Rock Dog

Post by EricJ » December 2nd, 2016, 4:08 pm

If it's Lionsgate, you immediately got to IMDb and find out What Country It Came From.

Seems to be a Chinese co-production--In keeping with the "monastery" plot, the Dog in question is a Tibetan mastiff, so, accdg. to IMDb, it was known in its home country as "Tibetan Rock Dog".

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Re: Rock Dog

Post by James » December 5th, 2016, 9:29 am

I actually saw that trailer in a theater a week or so ago then completely forgot about it!

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Re: Rock Dog

Post by Dacey » March 2nd, 2017, 3:44 pm

Lionsgate has no idea how to open an animated movie.

Even with these smaller titles, they should be able to find a way to get more than $3 million when they are opening them on 2,000+ venues. I can't think of any studio that currently has a worse record on the matter.

Heck, Rock Dog apparently didn't even suck, and got a couple of solid enough reviews (especially compared to Norm and The Wild Life. Did they really think that Bats would already be out of gas by now?

And they're doing the same timing by opening the actually pretty cool-looking Power Rangers only one week after the monster that is going to be Beauty and the Beast. At least John Wick 2 did really well for them, but that film was also riding on the extremely good faith towards the original and stellar reviews.
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Re: Rock Dog

Post by Ben » March 2nd, 2017, 4:54 pm

Many of these kinds of releases are to simply be able to promote the home video release, and to be able to claim it as a "major theatrical release", which puts licensing and eventual television fees up. I wouldn't be surprised if they actively work these as loss-leaders in order to make what should be a DTV title something more. If one actually hits, then great, but they probably make *more* money for them in the long-run by failing!

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Re: Rock Dog

Post by EricJ » March 6th, 2017, 1:23 pm

Dacey wrote:And they're doing the same timing by opening the actually pretty cool-looking Power Rangers only one week after the monster that is going to be Beauty and the Beast.
They can't help it, it's the RULES, and LG had to take what March slot they could get--Just spent yesterday musing on the mysteries of "March Geek-Week" for the blog, in case you're puzzled:
https://twitter.com/EricJanssen001/stat ... 5507777537
(Wasn't sure whether to categorize last year's "Gods of Egypt" as a March Geek-Week title, since it jumped the gun in the last week of February, but it otherwise shows all the symptoms.)
Ben wrote:Many of these kinds of releases are to simply be able to promote the home video release, and to be able to claim it as a "major theatrical release", which puts licensing and eventual television fees up. I wouldn't be surprised if they actively work these as loss-leaders in order to make what should be a DTV title something more. If one actually hits, then great, but they probably make *more* money for them in the long-run by failing!
That's how we've also gotten some of the most epic animated failures--Legends of Oz, Norm of the North, Strange Magic--when small Lionsgate/Weinstein/etc. acquisition-animateds think the "coast is clear" with no competition, pretend they're A-titles, open wide, and forget they were supposed to just flicker briefly for a video release.
Here, they were aware of their competition from Lego and Disney, and decided to do a more sensibly quick under-the-radar "billboard" nominal-theater release, like Ratchet & Clank last year.

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Re: Rock Dog

Post by James » March 6th, 2017, 2:15 pm

Taking a bullet for you guys here...

[attachment=0]IMG_0871b.JPG[/attachment]

(EDIT: shrank image!)
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Re: Rock Dog

Post by EricJ » March 6th, 2017, 3:25 pm

Regal?? Oh, no, we wouldn't ask THAT of you!! :P

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Re: Rock Dog

Post by Dacey » March 6th, 2017, 3:50 pm

Pretty sure Disney didn't think the "coast was clear" with SM. I think they threw it away.

And PR was going to be a summer release initially.
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Re: Rock Dog

Post by Ben » March 7th, 2017, 5:12 am

Strange Magic was a contractual release after the purchase of LucasFilm. I expect the number of screens was dictated by that arrangement so it was guaranteed to go out wide.

Disney obviously knew they were throwing it away but put it in the January/February timeframe where they had some major success with theatrical issues of their DTV sequels in the early 2000s and the likes of Gnomeo & Juliet.

If Strange Magic had been an unexpected moderate hit that wouldn't have been bad, but this was simply a massive dump that wasn't even meant to promote the home video release (DVD only, just a couple of months later).

And despite the ugly look, you still can't lump SM's animation in with the likes of Oz, Norm or any of the Lionsgate/Weinstein titles that really are DTV fodder dressed up for a theatrical premiere just to promote the kind of home video release it should have been in the first place!

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Re: Rock Dog

Post by Dacey » March 7th, 2017, 11:06 am

It is a bit sad for Reel FX that after producing the beautiful Book of Life, they end up stuck with this.

Then again, I haven't seen it. Only James has. Well, him and maybe five other people in the nation. ;)
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Re: Rock Dog

Post by EricJ » March 7th, 2017, 12:53 pm

Dacey wrote:Pretty sure Disney didn't think the "coast was clear" with SM. I think they threw it away.
Ben wrote:Strange Magic was a contractual release after the purchase of LucasFilm. I expect the number of screens was dictated by that arrangement so it was guaranteed to go out wide.
...Okay, okay, "Delgo", then. (How wide was "Space Chimps"?)

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Re: Rock Dog

Post by Dacey » March 7th, 2017, 2:06 pm

Chimps was wide...and fairly successful financially. It was also distributed by Fox.
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Re: Rock Dog

Post by Ben » March 7th, 2017, 3:57 pm

Chimps got a sequel, too, I think.

Yeah, I'm good with the use of Delgo, although James actually liked it (I never got around to watching our screener copy!).

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