Pokemon and Mononoke

[wlt4 at mindspring.com]

> It is my firm belief that Disney Studios is deliberately mishandling thedistribution of _Princess Mononoke_ to ensure that it does NOT achieve its
maximum potential box-office.  There is no reason to have released it >in
>such limited markets and on so few screens. Word-of-mouth has been >strong
>from some preview screenings (not to mention the Internet buzz), 


Actually it's Miramax releasing this and not Disney (who certainly isn't above sabotaging distributed films as the shameful performance for "Wind in the Willows" shows) but this last bit about "word of mouth" and Internet buzz explains very clearly why it's being platformed.  "Pokemon" has a built-in mass audience that will go regardless of its quality, something not true for "Mononoke" (meaning its built-in audience is pretty small).  Perhaps just as important is that people seeing "Pokemon" are undoubtedly getting pretty much what they expect while if not handled properly "Mononoke" could experience a parents' backlash (there were minor rumbles of such at Telluride).

LT