You have to admire the dedication of the Alita: Battle Angel fanbase, who continue to try and drum up support for a sequel, even though the chances of it actually happening are very slim. After two decades stuck in development hell, the sci-fi blockbuster finally made it into theaters last year, where it pulled in a solid if unspectacular $405 million at the box office.
However, with a budget reported to be close to $200 million and extensive marketing costs, the manga adaptation’s profit margins were pretty slim, meaning a second outing was unlikely to get the green light even before Disney acquired the rights following their takeover of Fox. Of course, we all know that the Mouse House don’t tend to spend huge sums of money on movies that aren’t guaranteed to make a healthy return on their investment, meaning that the idea of an Alita sequel is rooted more in optimism than reality.
That hasn’t stopped the campaign from rumbling on, though, and the diehards are now getting more creative in their efforts to drum up some publicity. The latest attempt to generate interest in a potential franchise is calling on fans to bombard Cinemark Theaters’ social media accounts in a bid to get the chain to re-release Alita: Battle Angel on the big screen, as you can see below.
#AlitaArmy,
Please share this flyer far and wide. We need all hands. The trending-event will go down on:Oct 1st, 7AM PST/11AM UTC
Use #/RereleaseAlita and tag @/cinemark.
Checkout this timezone tool if you are unsure about your timezone:https://t.co/iQiVa3XBpL pic.twitter.com/7p6R4flOdD
— Warped Perception (@war_pec) September 23, 2020
You can’t fault the fans for exploring new avenues, but whether the latest campaign will succeed or not is up for debate. The theatrical industry is still struggling badly, and re-releasing a title that hardly did gangbusters the first time round might not be a feasible option. That being said, if it gathers enough support, then Cinemark could very well listen, as any sort of publicity that may bring people back to their local theater would be a huge help at this point.
