Dragonball Poster

Yet another great disaster of a movie on the horizon is Dragonball. A movie that like “Speed Racer” is dramatically over estimating the size of its existing fan base and is destined to be a box office flop. Anyway, a Japanese version of the Dragonball poster comes to us from the people over at Dragonballcn that looks pretty lame. If you want to see a larger version of the poster you can just go here.

Dragonball-Poster-Japan.jpg

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84 thoughts on “Dragonball Poster

  1. naw. the movie will do just fine. i do think they did make a mistake with not having krillin in it tho. i am a little skeptical tho about it. i’m a huge fan. but as soon as i see a trailer i’ll make up my mind. but over all i think it will be ok just cause dragonball is so popular. altho. i am also a huge godzilla fan and they messed that movie up big time. so we’ll see.

  2. Those who stubbornly held hope for this flick had to keep changing their excuses with every new piece of information coming out.
    Therefore, the conclusion is that this movie sucks and will flop, especially with the new addition of more members to the boycott in Japan after the release of this poster.

  3. Oh John…
    At first i didnt argue when it seemed u were just guessing from the poster (and little knowledge) of dragonball, that the movie would flop.
    But the more comments i read down, it seemed to turn into a deffinite “This WILL flop”.
    I dissagree with you alot. and you really shouldnt be that sure when your not familiar with it, and a trailer hasent showed up yet.

  4. here is some data.

    After pokemon and disney ,dragon ball is the 3rd related anime/cartoon most saled video game tittle of all time.

    Dragon Ball Z: Budokai (2.583 million approximately: 2.04 million in US,[20] 543,312 in Japan)[145]

    Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 (2.007 million approximately: 1.5 million in US,[20] 507,245 in Japan)[145

    Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 (1.782 million approximately: 1.14 million in US,[20] 642,424 in Japan)[145

    Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (1.18 million)[154

    Compare this with games like halo with 8 million looks little impressive,but still .

    the manga was translated for portuguese,spanish,english,russian,chinese.
    the anime was or still being transmited in open and closed channels in Brazil,USA an Japan.

    Just because you dont like it john doesnt mean its a “minor franchise”!
    I saw references to dragon ball in Superman and x men comics.
    Yep 8.400.000 fan sites in goggle is less then transformers 14.000.000 but i still a BIG fan base for a cartoon that dont had anithing new in tv for decades.

    THIS MOVIE PROBABLY WILL FLOP,BUT THE REASON WILL BE THE SAME AS WHY SPEED RACER FLOPED.

    THE MEDIA DONT TRANSLATE WELL TO LIVE ACTION.

    And in the case of speed racer:
    radical AND NOT WELL MADED CHANGES in the universe of the anime .

    Speed racer did really bad here(in japan) even with the heavy marketing capaign .
    AND all the japanese friends i have here said “what hell is this??”when they saw the trailers.

  5. Ahh Mikey,

    When one gets soundly defeated in a debate, you desperately try to change the subject.

    Since when did I ever compare Watchmen to Dragonball?

    But by all means… keep trying to change the subject. It amuses me.

    Next year, we’ll see which name has the bigger fan base and draws more people to the theater.

  6. oh, dragonball is inspired by the Monkey King which the Forbidden Kingdom is based on.

    anyway, Forbidden Kingdom had jet and jackie, haha. of course it appeals to shitload of people. i’m a DB/DBZ fan and i know our fan base is HUGE, but so far i’m not impressed.

  7. i guess we’ll see…

    and before we see the domestic total we’ll get a glimpse at japans numbers..(comes out first in japan).
    you might not realize how popular it is in latin american countries either… it was the only anime cartoon playing in spanish channels.

    however i agree it will FLOP if it cost anything over 100mil to make(not counting marketing)

    =p

  8. Nope, The Watchmen is the most famous and renowned graphic novel in history.

    However… I don’t think the Watchmen will do all that well either.

    So Mikey, let’s just wait to see how many “hard core fans” Dragonball actually has once it comes out. I guarantee you… FLOP and I’ll be proved right. So let’s just wait and see.

  9. john just base the fan base on the recent video games of dragonballz

    those alone sell hundreds of thousands of copies. And thats just the video game crowd.this being the first japanese anime based movie also.

  10. John i’m not trying to argue with you i just said Dragonball has a large fan base i didn’t say Dragonball is the largest fan based ever, i was just letting you know the facts because you seem to have a lack of knoledge of Dragonball and misinforming people about like for example you said that Dragonball movie is based on the Dragonball Z series that’s not true.

  11. Oh Mikey Mikey Mikey,

    First of all, your link to protoculture.ca is NOT an official source. Secondly it’s dated in 1996 (12 years ago), so once again, your claim that Dragonball “continues to sell BILLIONS in merchandising” is way way way off.

    Also, your “best sellers” list is only for best selling Anime & Manga which is just a drop in the bucket of the real overall numbers.

    Sorry man, just admit defeat.

  12. Look John my point is if Dragonball has a small fan base then why Manga, DVDs, Toys & Video Games sold successfuly in north america? Here’s the bestsellers to prove ithttp://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/dvd/517956/ref=pd_ts_zbw_d_517956_more?&pf_rd_p=336729001&pf_rd_s=right-3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=517956&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1KSF35ZHAHBDC6VG2NFD

  13. Dragonball has a much larger fanbase than Transformers. This however doesn’t mean that the film will be a success. If the film doesn’t appeal to audiences it will flop.

    No one gave a shit about Transformers for about two decades prior to the film being released. The film was a hit because it was a big budget film about huge robots beating the shit out of each other on the July 4 weekend. It was an event film. The branding Transformers had very little to do with its success.

  14. Mikey. The numbers of dollars made does not equal the number of people out there that are fans. It shows that it has a loyal fan base that is willing to spend money on the property over and over again.

    You can make tons of Dragonball crap each year that the fans will gobble up but you can only make one movie a year. The fans, who are not offended by the changes made in the film will go see it. And then who else?
    Unless they pull of an ingenious marketing plan that hooks they are in serious trouble.
    I mean how are you going to marked this guy:
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c9/DB_Tank%C5%8Dbon.png

    to this guy (sadly the majority of the movie going public)
    http://frattinghard.com/wp-content/uploads/douche8.jpg

  15. Hey Mikey,

    Don’t change the topic. You said Dragonball continues to sell BILLIONS in merchandising each year. I said it doesn’t and told you to show me the sales statistics.

    Now that you can’t, you’re changing the topic.

  16. Hey Mikey,

    Being a fan doesn’t mean you know anything other than the fact that you’re a fan.

    Once again… show me the sales statistics. If you “know what you’re talking about” show me the information.

    You can’t because it doesn’t exist.

  17. Hey Mikey,

    Sorry, yes I do have the right to say it. It looks pathetic and stupid. That’s my opinion, and I have every right to it.

    And no, you’re dead wrong. Show me the sales statistics. If it’s “Fact” then you can easily find sales statistics. The reason y ou can’t find them to back up what you said is because it’s 100% false.

  18. John. it doesn’t give you the right to say the premise is stupid for a live action if you never seen or read Dragonball NOT Dragonball Z and everything i said is a FACT wheather you believe me or not.

  19. 1.How does this film look like a winner when you haven’t seen a glimpse of it? What I’ve seen looks like total ass.

    2. Barbie makes billions of dollars worldwide. Do you think there would be an interest in a live action film about her?
    Dragonball has its share of fans, no doubt but compared to the general movie going public or the public in general it’s a blip on the world map. More people out there know who Speed Racer is than Dragonball. What they need to do is amp up the “bad ass” level, like Iron Man and Transformers did and people might be interested in seeing it. But as someone pointed out the premise is just too weird looking and silly for them to be able to pull it off. Plus there are no stars in the film, the scrawny looking lead actor incredibly unconvincing as the hero and I’m pretty convinced that the guy from Buffy or Ernie Hudson are not going to be flocking people to the theater. Chow Yun Fat even though his probably the biggest star in this film is not capable of luring people over, just look at all the films he has been the lead in in the US.

  20. Hey Mikey,

    1) It looks like shit because the entire premise is stupid for a live action film

    2) Dragonball does NOT make “billions of dollars in merchandising worldwide”. Show me ONE legitimate statistic backing that claim up.

    3) General movie goers will not care, and there aren’t enough “hard core fans”.

  21. Gutpunch. 1.How does this movie look like shit when you haven’t even seen a glimpse of the movie yet? 2.If nobody cares about Dragonball then how it continues to make billons of dollars merchandising worldwide? 3.It will be advertise to its hardcore fans and general movie goers.

  22. Obviously you don’t know anything about Japanese movie posters when you utter this bullcrap. Or Japanese movie making for that matter since you seem to be comparing movies to posters.
    Does this look like shit?
    http://www.mypostercollection.com/godzilla%20final%20wars%20b1ssh.jpg
    I thought not.

    Wow since Wolvie said it then it must be true.

    Speed Racer and Dragonball have a few things in common. They are japanese, they are cartoons with a small fanbase (in the states) and they are both films that nobody is interested in and look like shit. One of them became the biggest box office flop this year and the other one is about to become one next year. So they have allot in common.

  23. Gutpunch

    1. this picture is the japaneese version- it looks shitty and its a fake, of course it looks like crap. have you SEEN the japaneese godzilla movies?

    2. as wolvie pointed out…a lot of people “care” about dragonball. read his comment and hes dead on right

    3. yes. they do. people who watched the show. SPEEDRACER didnt know who to advertise it to- they made it for the wrong generation- please stop comparing speedracer with dragonball they have NOTHING IN COMMON

  24. “minor franchise”??

    umm.. The DragonBall franchise has probably banked more money than transformers. Dragon ball becoming popular in the US years after transformers.. and incredibly popular as well.

    plus.. its cartoon didnt suck.

  25. “OK GUTPUNCH forget everything i posted, why do you think this movie will fail?”

    The same reason I thought Speed Racer would fail.

    1. Cause it looks like shit.
    2. Nobody cares about Dragonball.
    3. The producers have no clue who to advertise this film for.

  26. The following has nothing to do with it. So far it looks like it’s going to be a very bad movie. From the trailers Speed Racer looked horrible and that is why people haven’t gone out and see it. If the trailer for this Dragonball movie doesn’t look awesome fans and un-initiated will not go see this movie. Follow has little impact in my opinion.

  27. As a long time DBZ fan, before it was popular in America, I have no interest in seeing this movie. I think the ship has sailed as far as this franchise goes. It should have came out around the time matrix was made. This movie just like the new street fighter movie will flop hard and I hope they do. When will these corp. learn to make these movies with the fan base in mind. I don’t want to see justin chatwin as goku(but in the movie poster he look’s like teen gohan) Jesus Christ they can’t even get that right.

  28. “It is also based on the notion that Dragonball is one of those franchises that works fine in one medium, but I don’t believe for one second will work in another.”

    I feel your mistaken on this on John because Dragon Ball was a manga series first, then a cartoon series and also a string of hit video games. Thats 3 diffrent types of media that Drangon ball has done well in. However, I do understand that those 3 media had one style which was done in cartoon form. I really do agree that this franchise can only have one style

  29. Mikey. When people hear Dragonball, they either think: “Huh? What the fuck you talking about?” or they think about the guy with the spiky hair, orange pajamas and a glowing ball. They see no difference between Dragonball or Dragonball Z. The only people who know there is a difference are people who are in to it.

  30. JOONAVAR. Your talking about Dragonball or Dragonball Z because in Dragonball they don’t power up, this movie is based on Dragonball NOT Dragonball Z the series before Dragonball Z.

  31. joonavar

    they already made an animated movie of this and it sucked enormously, a live action film of dragonball is perfect but…not like this….

    and just because the show was 80% staring into each others eyes getting ready for a 3 minute fight doesnt mean the movie will be like that..that would be insane

  32. btw as much as even i hate this poster is does encorporate the original db STYLE…so hate on it but it looks like something i would expect

  33. ha john

    “Production cost about $120 million
    Marketing was about $30 million
    Theatrical take about about $25 million”

    ya but this movie has the option of having toys and other crapped marketed after it…..fricken happy meals with dragon toys n crap…..your opinion is your opinion but dont you think your negative thoughts on it actually help make people decide not to see it…..so basically movie co. better start making bloggers happy or else they will make there movie’s fail!?!?

  34. half the movie is going to be spent showing them powering up. You could go home, make your own popcorn then return to the movies and they would still be at it. I’ve watched a few episodes of this, and don’t think it was a wise idea to try and translate this over from anime to movie screen – unless they kept this animated, which could have worked, but I am skeptical.

  35. GUTPUNCH. When people think about Dragonball Z they think of Double Dragon, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, Dragonball is not like that maybe Dragonball Z but not Dragonball get my point. It’s more story focus then over the top action like Dragonball Z.

  36. To me it looks as though someones mum has just finished her first photoshop assignment. Where can I get a glowing cookie, they look tasty.

    gutpunch i agree. A TMNT style animation would have suited this genre perfectly.

    I wont be surprised if this film makes a 100 million…. yen that is.

  37. I’m a DB fan and I’ve got to admit, this picture of Goku is pretty damn sweet. It’s pictures like this that give me hope for this Dragonball movie. Now just because it’s a pretty good picture doesn’t mean the movie is going to rule or anything. But at least the character looks right so far and that makes me happy for now.

  38. Mikey. Who cares and what difference does that make. For the majority of the movie going public they don’t give a rats ass about Dragonball or Dragonball Z, what ever the difference is.

    North America has a small fan base, mostly pre teens and kids and then a handful of grown ass men who like to partake in cosplay.

    Asia has the largest marked but films that were based on popular franchises have bombed there so there is no guarantee that it will do good business.

    When I look at the poster I get the same feeling that I got when I saw the Double Dragon poster. And that’s not a good thing.

    They should have done this as an animated film TMNT style.

  39. Well John may be Dragonball Z movie won’t appeal to much to the audience but this is a Dragonball movie not Dragonball Z the series before Dragonball Z.

  40. I dont know anything about this show/cartoon or whatever it is but isnt this movie a few years too late? I remember this was big in like 2000 or 2001 but I havent heard of it much since then.

  41. What you need to realize John is that even if this movie doesn’t do well in North America they still have JAPAN. The place where Dragonball was born. No matter what it will make a some good fat nerd cash there. Add some other overseas markets that eat up action+sfx heavy movies that look cool and you will get a decent money maker.

    If you think they are going for a speed racer style type action then you sir are really wrong.

  42. Hey Miles,

    It made about $85 million world wide.

    Keep in mind:

    Production cost about $120 million
    Marketing was about $30 million
    Theatrical take about about $25 million

    They took a bath

  43. Making this movie is a mistake. As has been mentioned it works fine in one medium. But looking at it with any kind of sensible eyes, there shouldn’t be any reason to adapt this. And plenty of reasons not to.

    1) The original story is a fluffily serialised affair, with too many characters to ever have in a thetrical feature.

    2) Even minimising the cast of characters to it’s bones will result in the loss of most fan favourites (lets face it for those who read the comics or saw the cartoon – half the characters were completely irrelevant shortly after their introduction, but they stuck around until the end, ALL OF THEM – seriously, even the ones that died.) and should they cut it down to the fan favourites there wouldn’t be the character basis for an all too interesting plot because all of the favourites are in essence the same frickin’ character with differently shaped fireballs shooting from their hands.

    3) Virtually NONE of the characters would EVER translate to the live action screens. They would either come off as uintentionally hilarious or would have to be reworked until you ask yourself why they bothered to adapt this franchise in the first place

    Which leads me to:

    4) as has been mentioned, noone really knows who the audience for this is? Though the high school setting seems to appeal to teenagers, this may be too low brow for an audience that likely grew up with ‘The Matrix’ – then again… Transformers was a box office hit. If this is for hardcore fans, they underestimate their fanbase and probably piss a few of them off with the radical setting and character changes they have already made.

    Basically what I’m trying to say is: Tough the movie may make a profit because of effects and visuals (And because cinema-goers are likely to eat up steaming shit these days), it will likely be neither a critical succes nor a particularly good movie.

    Wow, you’re still here?… thanks for sticking with me through that rant.

  44. That same measuring stick that I have used John agrees with.

    I don’t have a problem with predictions. I predicted Speed Racer would be a lot of fun in its over stylized acid trip race cars. I apparently was mislead.

    The same can happen here.

    Predicting the movie is going to be bad based on your limited exposure to it is fine. We all develop opinions before a movie comes out. However saying a movie IS shit and never watching it is the challenge I have repeatedly offered.

  45. Hey Darren

    If I had seen the movie that would pretty much defeat the word “prediction” wouldn’t it?

    My prediction isn’t based on a trailer (which all look good and therefore don’t really tell you anything). My prediction is based on an overestimated popularity of a minor franchise that doesn’t have broad enough reach to appeal to a large enough audience.

    It is also based on the notion that Dragonball is one of those franchises that works fine in one medium, but I don’t believe for one second will work in another.

  46. Looks more Quark than Photoshop. but it doesn’t look that special in any case. Since this IS a Japanese poster, it may not be (aside from language, of course) the same poster for North American audiences. I hope not.

    For there is a track record that I don’t know if people are aware of: never have characters show their backs to the viewer. Posters that promote their films this way tend to have weak box office performances, regardless of quality.

    But we have not seen a trailer yet, so what this picture may look like/feel like is yet to be seen. I’ll need to see more before I decide to skip it or not.

    BTW, I got a bone to pick.

    “another great disaster of a movie on the horizon is Dragonball”

    “destined to be a box office flop”

    This past weekend, some int’l friends were taken to task with the same opinion on Dragonball and Tekken, so by the same measuring stick Rodney put out, I will put it to you, John.

    Have you seen the film yet?
    Any trailers?

  47. It’s not about fan base. Speed Racer looked like crap so no one went. Iron Man didn’t have the world’s biggest fan base, but the trailer kicked ass and people went. People are smarter than any fan base.

  48. Bruce has a point. Dragonball is huge with the younger generation. The video games are extremely popular with kids today. Even though the series isn’t even on tv anymore. But the big thing is how good the trailers look for this movie. If the trailers are good, I think this will be a huge hit. I think young teens and young adults will make this a hit. Think of the first trailer where you get to see all the flashy special effects, people shooting fireballs and enermy beams, people flying around and kicking the crap out of each other.
    I do agree with you that this poster is terrible though.

  49. This will bomb like nobodies business.
    And nobody will eat this up cause the mainstream fan base isn’t there and it looks like the producers have no idea how to marked this thing. For adults? Kids?
    This poster looks like a photoshop job from a cosplay website. There are things that work as a cartoon in terms of looks but look like shit when turned to live action, case in point, this fucking costume.

  50. I dont think its in the same vein as speed racer. People will eat this shit up because its still within this generation. Speed racer was from the 60’s and its not like we are going to see our dads go to a kids movie for a good night out.

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