weekend (28 Mar 2003) showtimes at nausicaa.net

I just noticed that http://www.nausicaa.net has showtimes listed for 'Spirited Away' this weekend, see:
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/sen/theaters.php

Looks like the movie is playing in 58 separate areas around the US, so given a few showings in each area I'd guess at least 150-200 theaters are screening 'Spirited Away' this weekend. While they have a disclaimer that 'this is not a complete list of all current and future showings. Cities and theaters will be added as information is brought to our attention', it looks like Disney is re-releasing their pre-existing prints rather than manufacturing & releasing many new prints.

(I'm not convinced that Disney is wrong in not springing for an 800+ run, either. In the US, anime is a direct-to-video product. We are accustomed to buying and watching, not going to a theater and watching.)

Interesting tidbit: a Google search for the word 'away' turns up 'away.com' in position #1 and 'www.spiritedaway.net' in position #2.

In Boston, however, got downgraded to Copley Place

Believe the disclaimer, there's probably 60 or so theaters in our 'to-do' pile and some places never get reported.

If people would like to help with the theaters in their local area please drop me a private email.

I think it's going to be close to 800. Melbourne, FL is getting it and it's a cultural backwater.

On a more negative note, the next nausicaa.net news feature quoted a disney source as saying if Spirited Away finds an audience the DVD may be delayed. I think it would be kind of hard for them to do since it's part of a three disk release(and it appears a collection of the three is definite since Amazon.com is taking orders for a full set of the three movies). Poor planning on their part since they knew it was up for the Oscar before the date was set - and they probably had to know it had a good shot quite a while ago.

The Amazon.com bundle is just the three films sold as a set, they'll be available individually.

People who bought the 3-pack will probably have to wait unless they want to pay for two shipping charges.

Not hard at all, because the discs are being released individually. They can release the other two movies as originally planned.

Besides, the three-pack might not be a formal release; Amazon might only be taking the three movies and selling them together as a special offer. Note that their listing shows it as three individual keepcases piled together, not as a box set.

Maybe Disney will ship the other two DVDs on time and advertize them in trailers before Spirited Away in theaters?

The problem with delaying Spirited Away only(and releasing the other two titles) is that you lose the association level at the retail level(and retailers who ordered based on it being there may not be to happy if it's not). Any displays for retailers will not be viable since they will promote all three films(and probably Spirited Away a little heavier). So now, inside you mega-retail location instead of a display with all three DVD's you have two sitting on the shelf with nothing to promote them. I'm sure we'll see all three on time or all three will be delayed.

Of course, the bright spot here is if the film does well enough this weekend/next week to force a delay it would probably make Disney a little more comfortable with some of the less marketable Ghibli movies that we all want. Face it, the most viable US titles in the Disney set are the three coming out, Totoro is a viable title when they get the rights to it, Nausicaa might be although it is certainly dated animation wise.

And since I know of at least one other Wormtown-ite on the boards, take note of the Worcester, MA Showcase North, for the first time ever. : )

Derek Janssen (yeah, but WE all got the train to Boston the first time, to see the sub)

On a more positive note, N.n just posted Disney's updated correction that, yes, the disk *would* be on 4/15 time (at least, that's the word this week)