Things I'm puzzled about the 2009 movie

[cuejqi]

After watching the film,I think it's one of the best and cuttest movies I have saw.I think it's perfect in the view of all factors,role setting,background setting,plot,among which I think the best is the mixture of different cultures and global make.But to my astonishment, the ticket office is not good over the world and Imagi even went bankrupt because of it.I am quite puzzled about it.
If you guys who have watched this film,please share your information about the reason for failure of this movie.

[ASTRO BOY IS AWESOME!]

I think it was maybe that not many people have heard of Astro boy or it was only a kid friendly movie but I thought it was awesome!

[Gotta Love ASTRO BOY]

I believe it is because not a lot of people like to see the child get hurt and in this case the child died all together. It is also a movie for children and alot of times children movies dont work out.

[AprilSeven]

I believe the single biggest issue was poor marketing. I never saw a single ad (I tend to watch non-broadcast TV - Discovery, PBS, etc) and many others here say the same thing.

Plus they released it a week before Halloween - which is when audiences expect/want horror films! If they had released it just before the holidays - with a LOT more ads - and NOT just the "violent" aspect of his character, I believe a LOT more folks would have seen it.

It was "designed" for audiences not familiar with AB's background, and revisioned to appeal to a broader global audience, so in many ways it certainly should have worked! Some die-hard fans resented the changes, and Imagi didn't sell the movie's story strongly enough. It was only in the theatres for a couple weeks - so how could it compete with 2009's Halloween-appropriate movies?

You'll see a LOT of very positive reviews (and, yes, some negative - but mostly because they made Astro a teen, and put clothes on him, and he is on good terms with his dad at the end).

I still say Astro Boy is a concept way ahead of its time, and will eventually become the universally loved character he deserves to be.

[Dragonrider1227]

I agree. It was severly poor marketing. I hardly ever saw an ad for it either and though just before Halloween was an odd time for a family movie. I hear Summit is notorious for badly marketing it's films. In fact, I don't recall seeing many ads for most of their Twilight movies now that I think about it.
However, I understand the movie was the number 2 selling DVD when it was released. That's gotta be worth something, right?

[I-Am-Atom's-Sister]

Imagi went bankrupt?
I think that the movie only appeals for a very slight selection of people. It's got child death and then toilet jokes. I'm not sure who it's aimed at. Also some of Astro's expressions in that movie just drove me up the wall.
Even though his white Tshirt made me wet my pants
I have a thing for guys in white Tshirts

[Novacain]

@ I-Am-Atom's-Sister - I read your entire post and was done, then kinda paused and thought: Did I read that second last sentence right??? Turns out I did!!! LOL!

[Gotta Love ASTRO BOY]

[Androids101]

After watching the film,I think it's one of the best and cuttest movies I have saw.I think it's perfect in the view of all factors,role setting,background setting,plot,among which I think the best is the mixture of different cultures and global make.But to my astonishment, the ticket office is not good over the world and Imagi even went bankrupt because of it.I am quite puzzled about it.
If you guys who have watched this film,please share your information about the reason for failure of this movie.

Pretty much no advertising, I guess. Long-time Astro fans would have resented that they changed his appearance, while non-Astro fans had no reason to watch this film instead of another Disney film or something.

[Gotta Love ASTRO BOY]

I thought they where gonna try to make Astro a fighting machine in the few adds I saw. I was like " " even though I had never seen Astro before. Then I found out what it was really about and put off seeing it for a whole year hmy:. I thought it was a good movie, but I like most movies that the majoraty doesn't