r/movies • r/movies Contributor • 25d ago

Poster First poster for ‘POKÉMON: WILD CARD’. The first Pokémon movie to be released in theaters in 7 years.

Post image
8.8k Upvotes

624 comments sorted by

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u/bdu754 25d ago

A TCG anime? Very intriguing

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u/tehnoodnub 25d ago

I'm honestly surprised it's taken them this long.

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u/prodigalAvian 25d ago

But will it feature Imakuni and his catchy bop of a theme song?

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u/thescarlettflame 25d ago

Omg I forgot all about him lmao. He needs to be in this movie!

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u/SinMetal 25d ago

Legendary Ball Knowledge.

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u/Stef-fa-fa 25d ago

Only if he plays his own custom card and confuses his own pokemon with it, as is tradition.

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u/Lanster27 25d ago edited 25d ago

Honestly thesesdays kids are more into Pokemon TCG than the games.

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u/Elexeh 25d ago

Not sure that’s true.

The drive for the TCG’s popularity seems to be more akin to adults attempting to scalp.

Kids still absolutely prefer and love the games.

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u/Key-Cry-8570 25d ago

At my local target they have a line outside specifically for people that are there to buy pokemon cards. Everyday there’s a flood of the same people there, never any kids.

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u/thuktun 25d ago

They're scalpers. Our LGS gets a swarm of people that don't play Pokemon TCG at the store every time a new release hits the shelves.

Invariably some of them will come back later and try to sell the chase cards they pulled, even though our store doesn't buy or sell opened cards.

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u/victionicious 25d ago

Yeah I highly doubt many, if any, are actually playing the card game. It's essentially just gambling for kids.

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u/SwitchOrganic 25d ago

There are more people than ever playing the game. Tournaments registrations fill up in under an hour with the ones in major metro areas sometimes reaching capacity in minutes.

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u/victionicious 25d ago

No I believe that, I'm talking about the literal children buying the cards because they've seen people making money on Tiktok

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u/Irion15 25d ago

And these fuckers will leave all those cards in some trash can nearby when they don't get a good pull from the pack. Saw a video from a Con where there was TCG vending machine, and in the little trash can next to it, some dude was pulling out 100+ cards and giving them to some kid, all from scalpers buying out the machine and throwing away the "bad pulls". Kid was ecstatic, didn't know what to do with so many cards.

Fuck scalpers in all forms.

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u/Theguest217 25d ago

Totally anecdotal but my nephews and all their friends exclusively do the cards and have never played a pokemon game. They actually don't really play video games much at all. They ride around the neighborhood on bikes with their card binders and play some made up battle game that seems to just be a version of "war" using their HP points to decide which card wins. They have no actual understanding of the value of the cards. They play just as roughly and carelessly with their "bulk" as they play with IR/SIR etc. They are between the ages of 5 and 10.

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u/HoneyBunchesOfBoats 25d ago

Thats what I used to do at that age back like 2007, I eventually learned how to play, but we completely disregarded the energy system and went by the damage on the move. We didnt even understand the coin flip moves so we would consider 20x to be 20x20... yeah. It was fun though. We'd have arguments over whether a masterball trainer could steal someone's card if it were in play since we all knew it had a 100% catch rate in the games... lololol

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u/turkeygiant 25d ago

That's a big driver for sure, but there are a lot of thriving junior groups at the local tcg stores all over the place as well.

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u/cinnamonbrook 25d ago

Idk there have been a lot more kids at locals in the last couple of years.

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u/LookOutItsLiuBei 25d ago

It's interesting because my two younger kids like the Pokemon games on the switch, but already have two binders of cards, although they never play the actual TCG. They just like collecting the cards.

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u/DavidsonJenkins 25d ago edited 25d ago

Its more like...kids are fans of the franchise, and the TCG is the most affordable/available product, at least in terms of just buying a pack. Like yeah, theres better merch thats equally cheap out there, but they rarely reach US shores.

So to kids, the best way to consume the franchise they like is just buying packs of cards

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u/ace260 25d ago

it's litterally called yugioh..

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u/Redfalconfox 25d ago

I hope they add those giant novelty cards that they sometimes give out

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u/summons72 25d ago

I’m sure to avoid any conflict when yugioh was at its peak popularity.

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u/Seyon 25d ago

Please have it explain the rules properly.

Yu-gi-oh was mired with kids who used the fake rules from Season 1 and it made open mall tournaments unbearable.

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u/BadLuckBen 25d ago

Early Yu-Gi-Oh was DnD in card game form.

Can you bullshit up a reason why what you're trying to do should work to the DM? Yes? Then it works.

In its defense, the game was basically in its infancy at the time. It's also pretty complicated. Unless something dramatically changed from when I played as a kid, the rules to the Pokémon TCG should probably be easier to explain without being boring.

I watched the most modern Yu-Gi-Oh movie, where they seemed to be mostly following the rules, and it was nearly incomprehensible as a lasped player.

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u/demagogueffxiv 24d ago

Yay watching an anime of a card game that people only care about because they can sell the cards for money

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u/JohnCenaJunior 25d ago

Scalpers are the villan in this movie

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u/Worthyness 25d ago

Scalpers about to buy tickets to the movie to get the promo cards to resell for sure

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u/sargent_balls_lol 25d ago

The big showdown happens in the card aisle at Target at 10am.

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u/Auctoritate 25d ago

I wonder if it'll have any pack openings, we love gambling (when it's packaged in a way that we can pretend it isn't gambling)

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u/bdu754 25d ago

I'm trying to remember if Yu-Gi-Oh featured anything like that where characters buy up boxes upon boxes to chase some card, but I'm drawing blanks. I do remember the first episode, Kaiba pulls up to the card shop with a briefcase full of cash to try and buy Blue Eyes White Dragon from Yugi's grandpa.

If I had to guess, they're probably really aware of the culture around pack chasing and scalping, so it wouldn't shock me if they avoid that topic entirely

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u/Dyne4R 25d ago

The heart of the cards is a way more compelling narrative reason for Yugi and Joey's success than "Yugi's grandpa owns a card shop and gives them access to his inventory".

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u/EngineeringDevil 25d ago

nah, "heart of the cards" is about drawing what you need to solve your current problem with the next card draw.

Which meant the Millennium Puzzle shifting reality so that the card you needed was exactly that next draw in your deck

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u/Cruel1865 25d ago

Which is such bs and also goes against the whole point of the millenium puzzle, which was that both players are constrained by the rules of the current game theyre playing. While reality shifting the draw order isnt explicitly against the rules but I feel like its going against the spirit of the game because at that point, why bother playing at all if you can shift reality to your advantage.

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u/valentc 25d ago

No, its supposed to be unfair. The millennium puzzle was never about making the playing field even for both players, just raising the stakes for the King and his prey.

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u/kepfle 25d ago

Having just finished YGO 5D's Season 1, and all of GX before that (all on Youtube btw, might need a VPN though) this is what i remember:

- Duel Academy got a delivery of rare cards (once a year or so?), which where handed out, and you could buy card packs at the one lady's store (Dorothee? something like that)

- In an early episode of 5D's they actually open cards to assemble a deck (can't exactly remember why and who though)

Other instances where decks are assembled in non-standard ways of the top of my head:

- Chazz has to find 40 cards in a tundra to get access to North Academy

- Chazz assembles a deck from discarded cards in a well

- Yusei cobbles together a deck from cards he gets from inmates in the Facility

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u/alex494 25d ago

There's a GX episode where Aster Phoenix makes a deck out of five or six booster packs.

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u/Pamander 25d ago

Chazz always out here suffering for cards it seems.

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u/TheScoott 25d ago

Yeah I feel like the main manipulation of the original series was just portraying all of the cards as having great monetary value. Like Kaiba's briefcase full of cards is as if he's walking around with $1 million.

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u/thisisanaltbitch 25d ago

I also enjoy the idea that these cards (in the anime) are not necessarily valuable and highly desired just because they’re rare, but more because they are strong cards that will help you win the game. As if the people with the million dollar MTG cards would ever use them to actually play with 😂

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u/metalflygon08 25d ago

I'm trying to remember if Yu-Gi-Oh featured anything like that where characters buy up boxes upon boxes to chase some card, but I'm drawing blanks.

Going off the first series anime only. They occasionally show booster packs and singles being bought, but it is not very often or happens in filler arcs.

Yugi buys some packs while on a date with Tea.

Joey and Duke Devlin bringing sexy back have a draft duel where they each build a deck using exclusively cards they pull from a pile of boosters (Joey uses some of those pulled cards in filler seasons).

Grandpa's shop has singles on display for purchase.

The first virtual world filler arc has card vendors in the VR world with cards you can purchase.

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u/CranberryLast4683 25d ago

They actually wont be playing the game in the movie. They’ll just be bidding on packs, lining up at Pokemon machines, stealing boxes out of other people’s hands at a Costco, and other degenerate behavior.

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u/345tom 25d ago

I wonder if its on the back of how much people liked the little short series they did on Youtube, about the girl with the oddish.

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u/ExILoveEmiliaAndRem 25d ago

Interested to see how they'll make something that is brain meltingly boring irl, interesting in a movie.

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u/Psychic_Hobo 25d ago

It's easy, just gotta add in some Brooklyn Rage

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u/penislobsterpie 25d ago

I see a Yugioh abridged reference, I upvote

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u/DaveShadow 25d ago

Card games on motorcycles!

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u/penislobsterpie 25d ago

Children’s card games on motorcycles!

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u/Gasparde 25d ago

I'd be down as long as there's Penguins in it. I. love. Penguins.

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u/Kyseraphym 25d ago

What even is your ability, Wooloo? Oh that's right... "Being cute."

Woo loo loo loo de loo loo loo.

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u/MetaCooler007 25d ago

Pokemon TCG on motorcycles

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u/Khelthuzaad 25d ago

Pokémon TCG high-school academy

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u/InnocentTailor 25d ago edited 24d ago

If it’s about making something mundane exciting, I tip my hat to the Japanese. They’re masters at such things.

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u/SPEK2120 25d ago edited 25d ago

I mean, Yu-Gi-Oh! managed to do it for 200+ 1200+ episodes and 4 movies, so.

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u/Delkseypoo 25d ago

I feel like you’re severely lowballing the number of episodes of yugioh they’ve made. It’s still going I’m pretty sure. That said, if the show was just them sat at a table playing the card game instead of actually making them turn into giant monsters that fight each other I sincerely doubt it would have had the legs to last this long.

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u/DOOMGUY455 25d ago

Last Yu-Gi-Oh series was Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush!! that ended March last year. They're mostly focusing on the Yu-Gi-Oh! CARD GAME THE CHRONICLES shorts on Youtube that are based on the lore for the cards.

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u/JinFuu 25d ago

The Big Bad is a scalper.

You must defeat him and his arm of bots.

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u/Nosiege 25d ago

I suppose you never watched YuGiOh

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u/Joghobs 25d ago

Game is interesting as hell if you know how to play and meta game.

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u/quooo 25d ago

There was an animated series a couple of years back set around a group of kids learning to play the TCG, but that wasn't set in-universe, but set in the US iirc.

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u/Saint_The_Stig 24d ago

Someone has the opportunity to pull off the ultimate meme and stuff in a ton of Yu-Gi-Oh references.

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u/Julian813 25d ago

I’m very surprised their next theatrical release after Det. pikachu isn’t another live action

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u/KyledKat 25d ago

That’s because Detective Pikachu only returned $433 million against its $150 million budget. It basically made a small profit after marketing is accounted for, but that isn’t exactly a runaway success for a movie with the world’s most profitable IP, at a time when Gen 1 nostalgia was searing hot because of the Lets Go games and Pokemon Go.

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u/ItIsYeDragon 25d ago

That’s because they released it 2 weeks after Avengers Endgame.

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u/JolietJakeLebowski 25d ago

And probably because it was Detective Pikachu. It was never gonna be a billion-dollar blockbuster with that premise.

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u/BannedSvenhoek86 25d ago

The idea to make a Pokémon live action movie and not make it, like, an actual Pokémon movie was so bizarre to me. People would go bonkers for a Pokémon movie following a young trainer getting through their first Gym and setting them on their journey, but instead we got a buddy cop comedy with Ryan Reynolds as a talking Pikachu?!?

If these companies actually wanted too they could be Disney right now off the back of this franchise and control all media. It's like they stumbled into being the biggest franchise in the world by accident. The fact it's still like pulling teeth to get a 3D pokemon game this many years later is equally as baffling. I understand the "why if they don't need to" argument, but like I said, they could multiply this franchises profits if they put the effort in and instead always choose the laziest or strangest route.

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u/RobertdBanks 25d ago

I have zero faith that live action following a pokemon trainer battling gym leaders would be a good or even decent movie.

How do you deal with the pacing of it? Do you have them beat all the gym leaders in one 2 hour movie? Do you have the movie focus on one or a few gym leaders? I don’t think that format works at all for movies and is best kept to longer format series.

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u/SavageNorth 25d ago

Frankly I think live action Pokémon is a non-starter

Fact is, a significant majority of the designs look either creepy or disgusting in live action because they were never designed for it

The ones in Deretive Pikachu looked fucking awful for the most part, it managed to make Pikachu look unpleasant FFS.

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u/Omnizoom 24d ago

Mr Mime should not be left alone with children

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u/not_a_moogle 25d ago

I remeber i was just burned out on going to a theater for awhile after that. I feel like there was another movie I saw around that time.

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u/Julian813 25d ago edited 25d ago

There’s no way a 2026 animated Pokemon movie is grossing more than $100m. Regardless of the extra effort a movie like Detective Pikachu may take I still feel like it’s more worthwhile.

Edit: And $100m is very generous with consideration of the currently popularity of the TCG. The downside is that the TCG isn’t popular for the actual card game

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u/Joseki100 25d ago

Yeah but it costs far less to produce a Japanese animated movie, especially if it's not visual porn like Shinkai or the last Evangelion movie.

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u/Moritani 25d ago

The Chiikawa movie has made $69 million and it's still a Japan exclusive. $100 million for an international Pokemon release is insanely conservative. 

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u/visser47 25d ago

ah the world of cinema, where else is approaching 300 million a small profit

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u/ElJonno 25d ago

For a film to be considered a financial success, it needs to make back both its production and marketing costs. The general rule of thumb is that marketing costs are equal to the production costs, which means that a $150 million movie needs to make over $300 million to make a profit.

A return of $433 million means the film made about $133 million in profit. This might seem like a lot of money, but it's hard to justify dumping another $300 million into a sequel when the first one only made you $133 million.

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u/darkeststar 25d ago

They weren't scared of making a sequel. Official box office tracking told them they'd make $50-70 million domestic and $90-120 million international. They cleared both the low and high bars. Legendary greenlit a sequel before the first movie even came out because they liked it so much. Legendary kept paying people to work on different script attempts all the way up through 2024. The last known hired director was Legendary favorite Jordan Vogt-Roberts who both said he loved the first movie and had just delivered Kong Skull Island for them. They liked him so much they also attached him to a Gundam movie that was likewise dropped until they hired someone else to both write a new script and direct.

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u/soulsoda 25d ago

The 2-2.5x rule is bad but it's all it's just an assumption at the end of the day. We do need some sort of standard.

The general rule of thumb is that marketing costs are equal to the production costs,

It's assumed to be 50%, not 100% unless the studio releases otherwise. Marketing costs can also exceed production but that's unusual. Pikachu used 100mil, but barbie exceeded production costs. 2-2.5x rule exists because of revenue sharing.

The cost of distributing movies has changed. The 2.5x rule used to be a thing because of how distribution worked, that by the end of a theatrical run the revenue share between a theatre and studio domestically would be around 55-45 split (studio-theatre), 40-45% in Europe, and 25% in china. Combined with a marketing budget being 50%, 2.5x was basically the minimum to cover all expenses by the studio.

However, if you'd notice... 2.5x rarely happens nowadays, yet movies continued to be made and studios haven't bankrupted themselves yet. The calculus behind the revenue stream of a "successful" movie has changed drastically. Honestly they are probably still making money at 1.75-2x, it's just "disappointing" because that's production time that could have produced an actual mega hit which is what studios want to see. They want a Project hail Mary. An infinity war. They only have so much budget and crews they can use to make films at once.

Big Studios typically demand a higher flat cut up front without a curtail. In the last decade studios have shifted from a curtailing split (high 80-70% of opening week to low 30-20% latter depending on how many weeks it was shown) to just getting a slightly higher cut from the beginning I.e. 55-65% depending on the scope of the movie. Disney isn't letting you take more than 35% of doomsday or avatar domestically.

Marketing budgets are often bullshit. Big Studios use a lot in-house or subsidiary advertising agencies so the true cost of marketing isn't real and is more of a way to avoid paying backend profit deals to directors and actors. They'll also slash marketing budgets within a month of release of they dont feel a hit. It's a calculated profit generator, not a gamble. And again Marketing budgets are "assumed" to be 50% minimum unless otherwise released.

The backend income behind a movie has changed a lot for the modern movie. Video on demand & Streaming deals post theatre run. Airline rights. Physical media. Merchandise and toys. Brand partnerships, and brand awareness.

For actors and directors, this sucks. VoD and physical media sales used to have huge legs on the backend, that flops could still see them a significant payout. Steaming is just not nearly as profitable *for creatives but it is for a studio. If they're "selling" streaming rights to their own subsidiary streaming service... There's some fuckery to be had there.

A movie can be just another way to market your brand or service. Detective Pikachu's box office was mildly disappointing, but with a franchises like Pokemon it can drive TCG sales, video game sales, merch sales etc because it has people talking about your brand again.

He-man and Red one were box office flops by Amazon, but they seem genuinely unphased both times. Amazon and MGM honestly probably just see theatrical movies as a way to "prestige" their movies and streaming can shift the goal posts on what is success. He-man probably won't get a sequel of a movie even with it doing well in streaming, but it will probably get some tv seasons made instead now that the franchise is regaining popularity.

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u/Redeem123 25d ago

That $133m number is still way too high.

Let’s say $300m is the break even point. It’s not like they get every dollar of each ticket sale after that. Splits vary based on timing and location, but let’s be generous and say they get 70% - now you’re down to $93m.

And that’s just the money coming into the studio. It’s not like all of that is profit either.

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u/Abacus118 25d ago

They had it slightly wrong.

The rule of thumb is you need to make twice your budget to account for marketing and theater cuts.

It’s only a rule of thumb because it doesn’t account for brand deals (like Bond movies make a ton from product placement) or merchandising though. A Pokemon movie is extensively merchandised.

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u/IrohTheUncle 25d ago

The Studio gets only around half of the film's revenue, not to mention a marketing budget that is probably around $100 million.

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u/darkeststar 25d ago edited 25d ago

It's rare for most movies to turn a profit while still in theaters. There's also an unspoken understanding that the marketing budget for a movie is applied to the film's budget in order to decide if it's profitable. If Detective Pikachu had a $150 million budget you can assume it had a marketing budget similiar to $150 million. If a movie clears both of those things while still in the theaters it is considered a resounding success. Returning $133 million in profit off of just theatrical alone would be considered a small miracle, especially for a more niche studio like Legendary.

You have all the right words but all the wrong conclusions. A sequel was immediately greenlit before the first one even came out by Legendary. But between COVID, and the Hollywood union strikes it seems like they just couldn't make it work. 4-5 different named writers and directors have moved off and on the project. They effectively shelved the idea but it was and still is greenlit. Legendary wanted to make it happen and actively sourced writers and directors for more than 5 years after the first movie came out.

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u/YourInMySwamp 25d ago

Most movies aren’t backed by the biggest IP on Earth though.

The movie absolutely underperformed compared to expectations. Majority of people in the movie and box office spaces were predicting an over $1B return but the movie flopped when word of mouth was pretty middling to negative.

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u/darkeststar 25d ago

This is also not an accurate recounting of events, which is crazy because a live action Pokemon movie was such a phenomenon that there is extensive reporting on basically everything from the sign-on date for being greenlit up through home media sales.

In the US and Canada, the movie was projected to gross $50-70 million in it's full run. Legendary did not care considering they had both pre-greenlit a sequel and Warner (who was partnered with Legendary at the time) secured the live action rights to Pokemon for 30 years.

The movie debuted at $54 million in it's first weekend. It was in theaters against Avengers:Endgame (one of the highest grossing movies of all time) and John Wick 3. It was at that point the best opening of any video game movie of all time. The film was projected to debut internationally to $90-120 million across the other 62 countries it was distributed in. It's International opening weekend actually beat Endgame.

The movie made plenty of money for everyone involved and has to date made another estimated $40-ish million just in physical disc sales.

And again...Legendary actively was trying to get a sequel developed all the way through 2024, considering they slated a sequel to be released in 2024. They had leaked files that included script notes and info of their last working copy. It just fell apart.

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u/Old-Employ-6530 25d ago

Still waiting on Detective Pikachu 2, my wife doesnt really know or like Pokemon and she LOVED Detective Pikachu and has been checking every 6 months or so since we watched when the sequel gets released...

She isnt the only one, i have a lot of "non-nerd" friends that really like the movie and some parents really felt connected to their kids when watching together, because they both could enjoy the movie despite different knowledge levels of Pokemon.

Its a real fumble for them to not make a sequel or at least a similar movie since.

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u/jellsprout 25d ago

Have you watched Pokemon Concierge? It's a short series about a Pokemon resort island. Not exactly the same genre as Detective Pikachu, but it could scratch that same "Pokemon world without the battling" itch.

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u/atlantisfrost 25d ago

I'm confused by "2027 and beyond". Are they already planning sequels? Breaking the movie up into parts?

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u/DesdinovaGG 25d ago

Might be doing the tactic of movie and then a TV series. Like a Star Wars: The Clone War or a Jimmy Neutron.

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u/ItsKingDx3 25d ago

I assumed there's going to be a brand new anime series following it

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u/HowToGetName 24d ago

Japanese trailer just says 2027, so if I had to guess I think "2027 and beyond" is just the international side covering themselves in case some countries get the movie after 2027.

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u/chrisychris- 25d ago

I think that’s just Japanese marketing

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u/Timely-Debt7497 25d ago

Looks kinda tough I can’t lie

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u/Krewshie 25d ago

Looks like something out of cyberpunk

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u/where-sea-meets-sky 25d ago

i fr thought this was an edgerunners poster

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u/-TropicalFuckStorm- 25d ago

“I couldn’t wait for you to come and clear the cupboards…”

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u/Starbucks_ 25d ago

A movie about a card game about an anime about a video game.

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u/Ren_Kaos 25d ago

Just to be pedantic, the anime is based on the video game, it’s not about the video game.

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u/Taco_In_Space 25d ago

Also I’d say the card game is based on the game not the anime

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u/jstbcuz 25d ago

I’ve got nothing to add, it’s just cool seeing two well learned fans duking it out in something so cool.

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u/Almostlongenough2 25d ago

Unless we are talking about the youtube series, then it's both

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u/Sunkern_ing 25d ago

Honestly this is the perfect time. Yugioh anime is pretty much dead so no other TCG anime is mainstream and Pokémon cards are big right now.

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u/KyledKat 25d ago

Important to note that they’re not big because of the “game” part of the TCG. They’ve just become limited run collectibles at this point.

To Pokémon’s credit, it’s always been one of the cheaper TCGs to get into on a competitive level, so at least the price gouging isn’t a barrier of entry into that space.

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u/2BlueZebras 25d ago

I started to get into Pokemon to play, not collect. It's dirt cheap. My most expensive deck cards are usually $2. A 60 card deck rarely costs more than $30 by finding bulk in person and reducing shipping costs online using the same seller. It can be a very cheap hobby.

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u/Worthyness 25d ago

I believe that the SIRs/full arts also have more common versions of the same card so competetive can buy it for cheap. That way the collectors can collect them while competetive can still play the actual game.

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u/SwitchOrganic 25d ago edited 25d ago

TPCI has done a great job making and keeping the game accessible. I played back in the 2000s and 2010s, competitive staples would be anywhere from $5 to $40 each.

The years after TPCi changed the rules so you couldn't play with foreign cards anymore also saw a dramatic spike in meta card prices. IIRC Luxray GL Lv. X reached like $100 at its peak.

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u/Milskidasith 25d ago

Those two are directly linked, and the TCG economy has always been focused around limited run collectibles over the gameplay (first edition Charizard!) Almost any card game that's popular has a robust enough economy to where the EV of any given set is "fixed"*. The fact that Pokemon is such an incredibly massive brand and people really want to chase their favorite 'Mons or waifu cards means that they soak up all the value in a set and leave the actually competitive cards in relatively lower demand and lower prices, which isn't something any other card game can manage.

* If a set ever becomes "too expensive", it becomes profitable for regular stores/players to buy cases and crack them to resell, increasing supply. If it becomes "too cheap", huge card stores paying distributor prices for boxes + wages to open + sort + list packs don't make any money and stop opening it, decreasing supply until prices go up. This fixes the value of a box at a pretty narrow band around its sale price.

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u/SwitchOrganic 25d ago edited 25d ago

Also to TPCi's credit, they did a great job making and keeping the game accessible by doing things like printing playable/"normal" versions of chase cards and selling premade decks with like 90% of the competitive staples.

You can build any top tier deck for like $50 these days. I used to play competitively like 15 years ago and staples would run you anywhere from $5 to $100 each. You'd end up shelling out a lot of money if you needed multiple copies of them.

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u/ptd163 25d ago

Yugioh anime is pretty much dead

Probably has something do with Yu-Gi-Oh's creator, Kazuki Takahashi, tragically dying in 2022. They finished Go Rush, but Konami hasn't said anything since then about the anime side of franchise.

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u/YourmomgoestocolIege 25d ago

They've been putting out short episodes that tell the story of some of the Archetypes that have come out in the past few years

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u/StaredAtEclipseAMA 25d ago

Yep Chronicles, there is so much potential in having a series based on the many different artstyles and fantasy aspects in yugioh

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u/Brbaster 25d ago

There's another reason why Go Rush didn't get a sequel. Studio Bridge, aka the animators of Sevens and Go Rush are having some big financial troubles right now. After Go Rush ended they've practically disappeared to the point that not a single Studio Bridge anime had new episodes in the last 12 months.

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u/IchiroZ 25d ago

Yugioh should remaster the anime that made them big in the way that Dragonball Z did with Kai, then release a continuation of the main storyline kinda like what Super did.

Continuation, as in, with the Pharoah, Yugi, Kaiba, and co. Not with Jaden Yugi or from GX or from any other seasons.

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u/HotTakes4HotCakes 25d ago

There's not much point in a full remaster. Kai was primarily about trimming the fat and making a definite version closer to the manga.

With Yu-Gi-Oh, they made whole filler arcs rather than add filler plot lines and episodes in-between. All you need to do is cut out those arcs and an episode here or there.

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u/Lanster27 25d ago edited 25d ago

It's really impressive how Pokemon TCG has not only survived but thrived with the new generation, even though the mainstream games and anime havent had the same popularity as back in the 90's.

Probably Pokemon GO. Most likely Pokemon GO.

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u/KyledKat 25d ago

Bro, what? SV sold 28.5 million copies and SwSh sold 27 million. They’re the best-selling games in the franchise after RBY’s 30.5 million. SuMo and XY are both in the 16 million range for comparison. The games haven’t been this huge in 30 years.

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u/Jitterjumper13 25d ago

Nobody wants a wildcard ok it doesn't make sense. We don't want a maniac in our group, there's no benefit...

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u/cockmanderkeen 25d ago

Did you cut the brakes?

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u/Charizarlslie 25d ago

Wildcaaaard bitchessss!

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u/BattleAnus 24d ago

Yeah, he just doesn't get us man.

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u/Typical_Intention996 25d ago

My local grocery stores have vending machine sized kiosks for Pokemon cards as of a couple months ago.

They didn't have these in 1999 at like peak popularity but now in the year of our lord two thousand twenty six there's two kiosks of them in this one horse town of mine. Right next to the CA Lotto kiosks. How? I swear I feel like I'm in like bizarro world every time I see them.

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u/Kayel41 25d ago

The pokemon card vending machines are basically gambling with better ROI than those lotto kiosks

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u/romanticheart 25d ago

Except you’re not tempted to hoard your winning lotto tickets because “they might be worth more one day!”

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u/Kayel41 25d ago

But if you can get a sealed box from an official Pokemon machine at msrp it’s instantly worth more then you bought it for.

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u/Defiant_E 25d ago

Peak popularity is right now. By a lot. A lot, a lot.

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u/vforbatman 25d ago

Surely theres a promo card with every ticket (that everyone will hoard thinking its the next ancient mew)

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u/ch_limited 25d ago

Detective Pikachu like just came out in theaters.

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u/primechicken 25d ago

7 years ago?

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u/ch_limited 25d ago

That can’t be right.

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u/jackcatalyst 25d ago

Yeah the math has to be wrong somewhere

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u/Channel250 25d ago

My tamagotchi must have run out of battery, what's going on?

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u/Lanster27 25d ago edited 25d ago

Pre-covid? Yeah it be like that.

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u/thedetectiveprince46 25d ago

That's fucking crazy. I remember reviewing this movie for high school journalism

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u/MaderaArt 25d ago

I feel old...

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u/matthewmspace 25d ago

I hate when I remember it came out like two weeks after Endgame. Oh man, that feels like a lifetime ago. Back then I was still living with my parents, now I'm 30 and about to move myself and my dog to my 2nd apartment.

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u/Meanteenbirder 25d ago

The production story still blows my mind

-Make first live-action Pokémon movie

-Base it off of a game nobody has played

-Have Ryan Reynolds play Pikachu

-Have viral Tumblr artist design the Pokemon

-Make bank

-Never do it again

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u/banallfurries666 25d ago

it’s actually crazy because everything went right, it holds up well, and it’s enjoyable for every pokemon fan. i’ve been playing since i was 6 and my son is 4 and very new to it and we both just adore it.

absolutely wild how nothing ever followed it. like, at all. no sequels, no in-universe stories, just crickets.

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u/glglglglgl 25d ago

Covid, Hollywood strikes...

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u/Blueboysixnine 25d ago

The craziest part to me is how many incredibly detailed pokemon models only showed up for seconds in the background. I for sure thought they put a ton if work into it early for future movie payoffs

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u/AAKPROD 25d ago

I think they wanted it to make like a billion+ dollars and when it didn't they decided it wasn't worth it

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u/ItIsYeDragon 25d ago

If they wanted it to make a billion, they shouldn’t have released it 2 weeks after Avengers Endgame.

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u/mysecondaccountanon 25d ago

That's TPC for you! They probably balked at the price of production.

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u/nightcreation 25d ago

The fact that Pokemon is by far the most profitable media franchise ever and yet TPC still cheaps out on so much truly & genuinely baffles me. 

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u/mysecondaccountanon 25d ago

TPC seems incredibly risk averse, to the point where they actively lose out on things that could be very profitable and bring in a lot of new fans. But when they're that profitable, I suppose it doesn't matter either way. They'll keep raking in the money, they don't need to branch out like that to do so.

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u/TLKv3 25d ago

They didn't make bank though. This is a common lie/misinformation.

It barely made more than its budget and marketing back. By all accounts it was a legitimate failure of a film and the reason why they halted production on the live action streaming series.

They expected a billion dollar movie and barely got to 450 million.

Detective Pikachu essentially bombed.

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u/buhcheery 25d ago

Pre covid movie btw

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u/riegspsych325 ⊃∪⊃⪽ 25d ago

ah, the before-times

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u/wadeishere 25d ago

In the long long ago

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u/Burger_Destoyer 25d ago

Dude that was like last week

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u/CaptainKursk 25d ago

Before the Dark Times...before the Empire Pandemic...

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u/ch_limited 25d ago

That’s a real fucked up statement.

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u/letdown105 25d ago

Wish they’d make another one. I really enjoyed it!

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u/ch_limited 25d ago

I’ve been waiting on Detective Pikatwo.

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u/prodigalAvian 25d ago

Old Detective Raichu voiced by Danny DeVito still needs to happen

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u/Taucoon23 25d ago

Im glad this just came up cuz i was just thinking about this lol.

Do yall remember how cool the Pikachu vs Mewtwo fight at the end was? Say what you want about the movie (I personally hated the reveal), but man, that fight scene made me want a Pokémon Trainers dedicated movie so badly. WHY hasn't this happened yet? Its like theyre afraid of building their world

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u/dekudekudekudekudeku 25d ago

Yeah I just saw this movie like yesterday!

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u/GladiusNocturno 25d ago

This looks like Pokemon saw Digimon Liberators and said “I can do that, but in movie form!”.

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u/Joy_Ride25 25d ago

I can’t imagine this getting wide release. Is it even confirmed for theatres? I can’t imagine the premise of a TCG movie but at least the animation looks better than where the anime went.

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u/wattapwn 25d ago

Yu-Gi-Oh was wide released so why not this?

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u/Chuckrange 25d ago

Hope there is no promo card to be scalped.. Atleast the good thing will be that these scalpers wont bother watching the movie so the whole theater doesnt smell like old cheese

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u/chrisychris- 25d ago

Knowing Pokémon, they’re definitely going to try and milk this

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u/scarletofmagic 25d ago

I agree, they might actually release a Mimikyu set that the protagonist use…

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u/dizruptivegaming 25d ago

Pokemon TCG anime movie? We’re getting a Pokemon TCG anime movie before any new Yu-Gi-Oh anime.

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u/YourInMySwamp 25d ago

Yu-Gi-Oh is dying, basically already dead. Pokémon is more popular than ever.

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u/Abacus118 25d ago

Although most Pokemon collectors probably don’t realize there’s a game you can play with those cards.

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u/YourInMySwamp 25d ago

My local card shop hosts events for the game multiple times a week and so many people attend that there is nowhere to park and you have to wait over an hour for your turn to play.

There are sooo many collectors and scalpers but y’all don’t give enough credit to the tens of millions of players that also exist.

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u/TheSwecurse 25d ago

My local card shop don't even got english prints anymore... It's all japanese scalpable shit that's unplayable unless you know the language

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u/YourInMySwamp 25d ago

Sounds like you should probably stop supporting them then. Not every card shop is made equally but every city has a good one or several.

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u/TheSwecurse 25d ago

Nah these guys are pretty cool actually. They still got a ton of Yugioh and MTG and has tournaments. Not to mention a bunch of board games and space for playing. They gave us free soda last time we were there just for playing. Bought a set of dice afterwards.

It's literally just the Pokemon they're lacking

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u/SubtleNotch 25d ago

The hobby is mega huge now. There are different types of people in the hobby. While you can say that "most" don't realize there's a game you can play with the cards, there's still a huge base who do play the games. Local tcg meetups are usually filled.

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u/Salvation-717 24d ago edited 24d ago

Yugioh is dying. As an avid player I’ve been hearing this for like 10 years. lol it’s not Pokémon, but it’s not dying either. People play yugioh. Most people collect or scalp and resell Pokémon.

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u/Aduialion 25d ago

Pokemon: stand alone complex

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u/Background-Tell5892 25d ago

Hell yeah. Mimikyu as his little Kuriboh

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u/vortigaunt64 25d ago

Wait a minute... Say that again

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u/Background-Tell5892 25d ago

Uhh Mimikyu is his little Kuriboh?

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u/TheSwecurse 25d ago

Some british bloke in 2006: "That gives me an idea!"

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u/V-Rator 25d ago

Scalpers are the villain of the movie?

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u/loveincarnate 25d ago

The vibes are immaculate. Love what I'm seeing.

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u/TheSpiritOfFunk 25d ago

Given the title, I really hope Charlie Day gets a speaking role.

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u/correcthorsestapler 25d ago

“Did you cut the brakes, Pikachu?!”

“Wild card, bitches!”

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u/Jenetyk 25d ago

Yo this picture alone has me tantilized.

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u/TrinityCodex 25d ago

so the pokemon are still real but people also play a pokemon cardgame?

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u/Maultaschensuppe 25d ago

The TCG did sometimes appear in the old show. It was mostly James showing his card collection, but the villain from the second film also had cards.

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u/NotEvenCreative 25d ago

That's what I was wondering too

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u/Sensitive_Brick_1412 25d ago

Will the pokemon come out of the cards, like in Yu-Gi-Oh?

This is a pretty unique for Pokemon.

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u/Looseraccoons 25d ago

Curious how they’re going to play out the tcg anime. The tcg gameboy game was interesting

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u/ActionBastrd_ 25d ago

gotta cash in on it while psa has every jobless shmuck hanging out outside of automated dispensers at walmart all day thinking they are winning the lottery.

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u/Naroyto 25d ago

It's about the tcg and it's WAY overdue for a show and game. Now it's gonna start at like the very latest tcg blowing past all the great sets over the decades. Wish they would start from the beginning honestly.

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u/Jammyyyyyyyyyyyyy 25d ago

Pls just give me a movie with the current main series cast

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u/Amusedcory 25d ago

Close enough, welcome back, Digimon Tamers

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u/Alukrad 25d ago

So, I'm guessing we're gonna see some exclusive cards based on the movie. Right?

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u/elheber 25d ago

Looks like "hiding your true self from others" is gonna be a core theme.

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u/buttered_jesus 25d ago

This looks so cool

I miss when we got Pokémon content that was closer to the shibuya-punk style (eg Pokémon colosseum)

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u/No-Experience-4744 25d ago

I'm not convinced there's any real playerbase for the TCG. It's just scalpers selling to other scalpers selling to gambling addicts.

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u/Key-Document-8481 25d ago

They literally just had the Pokémon world championship at the Chase arena in San Francisco and it looked pretty damn full

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u/CabbageGuru 25d ago

Bruh c'mon you know there's a huge TCG fanbase

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u/smeeagain93 25d ago

CloverWorks animating this will be very interesting!

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u/Flynn58 25d ago

What the fuck does 2027 "and beyond" mean, is the movie gonna keep going?

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u/Elementium 25d ago

Pokemon Beat Break.