‘Alita’ Opens With Disappointing Box Office

Despite how many live-action adaptations of anime were made in the U.S., one has yet to be a financial success. The James Cameron-produced project, Alita: Battle Angel, was supposed to be the redeemer, the one to break the curse of anime films flopping at the box office. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The anime adaptation grossed $41.7 million over five days.

Not only did this movie underperform its massive $170 million budget but it also led the most disappointing President’s Day weekend box office in the last 15 years. Granted, Alita had big shoes to fill seeing that Black Panther opened to a massive $200 million box office on President’s Day last year. Even with the film not expecting to do as well as the Marvel movie from the year prior, it is disappointing considering how expensive the film was to make.

It isn’t too surprising that Alita is struggling. The film is based on a lesser known Manga and Anime. And American Anime adaptations are known to disappoint box office-wise, at first. However, the film generated about $94 million in the foreign domestic market, making it gross a total of $137 million worldwide. It could easily be a film saved by the foreign market and those who appreciate its heavy visual effects. Only time will tell if the Robert Rodriguez film will be financially profitable and whether audiences who saw Alita this past weekend will lend it support so it could have some staying power in the domestic box office.

 

Ryan Pineda: When it comes to film, animation, video games and other mediums, I can discuss for hours about how much on why certain films and animated media made me the person I am today. I adore the artistic merit that comes from a lot of pop-culture media and will definitely love to have a conversation about favorite movies any day! I have graduated in 2017 with a BA in Film and Television at the University of Arizona. Been passionate about writing about films due to always having an interesting outlook on the medium. Will always see a film and will definitely be sure to recommend it to someone that I know for a fact would love that movie. Not only that but will also give reasons for why I think that film did or did not work as a movie, and the same can go for other pieces of media like television, video games and especially animated projects.
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