Anime in Theaters

On Saturday night my local art house played 'Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust' as the midnight show. Seeing as I liked the movie and thought it would be cool to see it again in the theater, I went.

After the show, I ran into the theater manager and asked him is he had plans to show any more anime at the midnight show. He said he wasn't really familiar with anime, but was willing to support any request so long as he sold enough tickets to make it worth getting the print. He also said that he would only show dubs unless the movie was only released subbed, like 'Ghost in the Shell: Innocence'.

I asked him what was available and he didn't really know. He said that anime is kind of difficult to get a hold of due to licensing issues. He said a lot of times if the movie is too old, then it may not be possible to show it in the US anymore. He did say that he was getting a new print of the re-dub of 'Akira' in October...

I was thinking that it would be cool to see stuff like 'Ghost in the Shell', 'Ah My Goddess', and 'Escaflowne' in the theaters. My friend that I went with was all about trying to get the Eva movies, 'Appleseed', 'Perfect Blue', 'Spriggan', 'Jin-Roh', and 'Ninja Scroll'. I think it will probably only be really profitable for the theater to get 'Ghost in the Shell' and 'Ninja Scroll' off this list...

I have a couple of questions for the group:

1) What anime movies have you seen dubbed, in a theater, within the last few(maybe 10) years?

2) What movies would you think would be worth showing in a theater for a midnight show? (Remember if the theater doesn't think it'll be profitable, they won't support the request)

3) If such midnight shows were available in your area, would you go to them?

Well staring a list of those I have seen on the big screen that might draw enough interest.

Akira

Sprited Away

Armatage III

Howl's moving castle

Princess Mononoke

Tokyo Godfathers

Non Anime but in the spirt

Wizards

The Point

Heavy Metal

1) In commercial theatres...none, they just don't show them around where I live and only rarely around the main cities in England.

2) Hmm midnight showing...I would've said some Ghibli films, but I think they'd do better in the daytime...so some more adult films.

Akira
Escaflowne
Cowboy Bebop
Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie
Marcoss
Spriggan
X
Some Masamune Shirow stuff...I think they'd all go down well.


3) I would!! If only!! My local theatres last showings are like at 9...its a big chain too, but I do live in England. >_<

3 - You wouldn't be able to keep me away!!! *_*

JWR:

Which 'Armitage' did you see? Was it 'Poly-Matrix'(the OAV edited into a movie) or 'Dual-Matrix'(The second one)?

I also agree with the idea of showing 'Heavy Metal', that one is a classic. I love the story with the pilots. I don't know if I've seen any of the other ones...

One of my other friends suggested to the theater manager that he try to get a hold of 'Batman: Mask of the Phantasm' I think that one would be cool too...

Ronin:

I think I remember someone saying that they saw 'Marcross Plus' a while back. That is a movie I completely forgot about until now...