My Little Pony: the Movie grossed $8,885,899 over the weekend in North America which was good for fourth this weekend at the box office. It grossed an average of $3,515 on 2,528 screens which was good for third among all movies that weekend. Blade Runner 2049 led the way with $32.8M and an average of over $8,000 per screen over 4,058 screens. The Mountain Between Us was second overall ($10.6M) and It finished third ($10M).

Below are the Tomatometer, RT Audience Score, and IMDB rating of the top ten grossing movies as of October 9th, plus the animated movies that have come out this year for comparison:

Of course, a far greater number of ratings have been given to most if not all of the movies on this list besides MLP, but take what you will from it.

As I mentioned, the reviews have been majority good, yet among those who gave it bad reviews, it should make you wonder what these reviewers were playing at. One reviewer thought Rainbow Dash was a boy. Another felt it would rival The Emoji Movie as the worst animated movie of the year. Another all but admitted his irritation that the movie even existed. Finally, the most absurd review came from Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com where she admitted that this film isn’t her cup of tea and claimed that she encouraged her son to keep an open mind heading into the film and then said (“Sorry, kid,” I told him. “Not everything can be ‘Dunkirk.’”) Of course, not every movie has all sorts of explosions, violence, and people drowning in flaming oil on the ocean. It’s not like this was ever going to be Ben Hur. Makes me wonder what are the doing reviewing the movie in the first place if they were so cynical about it.

My problem here is that people not coming into this thing blind, but coming into this with their cynicism of most non-Disney animated fare that isn’t The Simpsons, South Park, or Spongebob Squarepants. I’m always going to have a problem with someone who automatically dismisses either the show or the movie because of its connections with Hasbro or that it was “meant for little girls.” (We as a fandom could be a little less introvert.)

What do I think? The movie is not perfect, but I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. The pacing could have been better and some elements could have been fleshed out more, but that didn’t deter too much from the movie. The animation was stellar as was the music from Daniel Ingram. Could it have done a better job of introducing the characters to people who are not in tune with the show? Maybe, but then you would have a two-hour movie and kids are unlikely to stay attentive for that long and the other option is to cut one significant portion of the movie. I feel most fans of the show will have, or will enjoy the movie. I’ve heard a few naysayers, but they are in the minority.

Should this movie have happened sooner? Define sooner. Mind you we didn’t know if the show was even going to continue after episode 65 (we’re at 165 and will go to at least 195). We’ll know later on in the month how Hasbro will view this movie when it announces its third quarter earnings. Chances are most of MLP’s numbers for the movie will occur in the fourth and final quarter of the year.

So in hindsight, the numbers are not the most stellar for the Movie to the outsider’s eye and to some in the fandom. For others, the wait was very much worth it and will dismiss (if not dispute loudly) the critics. No, the movie is not perfect and some will not like it for whatever reason. But to many fans, this was the movie they were waiting over two years for and it was worth the wait.

StatManDan