News Reporting

Legendary Entertainment Angling For Pokémon Film Rights


Pokemon Netflix 001 - 20140228It seems that Legendary wants to be the very best, like no on ever was!

Entertainment news source Deadline reports that Hollywood is renewing the chase to produce a live-action Pokémon film. Legendary Pictures is “moving toward a deal” for the property, though specifics are still unknown. As of press time, an agreement hasn’t been finalized.

According to Deadline, the deal will be in the realm of $5 million for the rights, as well as 5% of first-dollar gross.

In April, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Legendary, Sony, and Warner Bros were engaged in an auction for the rights. Warner previously released several of the Pokémon anime films, including Pokémon: The First Movie, Pokémon 2000, and Pokémon 3 – The Movie.

Legendary Pictures is a subsidiary of Chinese company Wanda Group. Earlier this year, the company released the Warcraft movie, which was co-produced with Blizzard and Atlas Entertainment. The feature saw strong ticket sales across the globe, grossing $450 million to become the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time.

Pokemon Go Logo 001 - 20160713The Pokémon Company and Niantic Entertainment launched smartphone game Pokémon GO in the United States, New Zealand, and Australia last week. The title quickly shot to the top of the revenue charts, reaching the #1 spot in under five hours on the iOS App Store, and within four days on the Google Play Store. The title currently enjoys the honor of fastest-selling mobile app ever on both storefronts.

Previously, the honor was held by Supercell’s Clash Royale, which needed two days to top the iOS market and a week to dominate Google Play.

Pokémon GO‘s strong performance saw Nintendo’s stock price rise by over 33% since Friday, with the big N enjoying its biggest one-day boost since 1983. As of press time, Nintendo’s stock stands at 23,765 yen ($227.97 USD) per share.

Source: Deadline (Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the tip!)

About the author

Samantha Ferreira

Samantha Ferreira is Anime Herald’s founder and editor-in-chief. A Rhode Island native, Samantha has been an anime fan since 1992, and an active member of the anime press since 2002, when she began working as a reviewer for Anime Dream. She launched Anime Herald in 2010, and continues to oversee its operations to this day. Outside of journalism, Samantha actively studies the history of the North American anime fandom and industry, with a particular focus on the 2000s anime boom and bust. She’s a huge fan of all things Sakura Wars, and maintains series fansite Combat Revue Review when she has free time available. When not in the Anime Herald Discord, Samantha can typically be found on Bluesky.

Anime Herald

Support Anime Herald

Anime Herald is brought to you through our Patrons and Ko-fi supporters. Consider backing us for as little as $1 a month to help us keep the site ad-free and pay a fair rate to our writers.

Patrons and backers can access several benefits, including Early Article Access, our members-only Discord, and the ability to suggest articles for our team to write on your behalf.



Latest Posts

Columns

The Evolution of Abridged Anime Part 4 – No Screwing The Rules

Fears about legal ramifications were fairly common in the world of comedic anime fandubs, despite some arguing they might be protected under parody laws. Philip Sral of Sherbert Productions shared a story of how three fans caused a large amount of stress while trying to get a copy of one of their works by pretending […]

By Borealis Capps