As silurica said, it's important to remember that we're still very much in a pandemic. The coronavirus is inarguably what contributed the most to Koko's poor performance (which still stands as the all-time franchise low point in box office numbers, if I recall correctly). The film was bumped from its traditional summer premiere date. The number of families interested in... you know, not dying, meant a lack of butts in theater seats. It was a perfect storm of horrible events and the annual Pokémon movies were far from the only casualty. I'd be curious to know whether or not the film's home video sales made up for this in any meaningful way.

But while COVID's an easy thing to blame, we can't forget that the Pokémon movies weren't exactly enjoying a massive wave of success even prior to the pandemic. I Choose You gave the franchise a much-needed shot in the arm at the box office and Mewtwo Strikes Back EVOLUTION did okay (although for a CG film I'm sure they were expecting more), but aside from that the film series was (and still is) in a pretty severe state of jeopardy. Box office returns had been getting progressively worse with every new movie during the Best Wishes! and XY eras, and even cultural phenomena like Pokémon GO didn't seem to conjure any meaningful boost in theaters.

"Well, it's the movies' fault for not being very good!", I hear you say. "They're just these silly little one-off stories that feel like extended episodes!" And you'd have a point, except... that's exactly what series like Doraemon and Detective Conan do and their yearly films continue to enjoy HUGE success theatrically (with the latter continually breaking box office records). This is a problem very specific to this franchise. Ignoring the pandemic, the annual Pokémon summer blockbuster is no longer the must-see movie event for Japanese audiences that it used to be, and the production staff is clearly having a very difficult and stressful time identifying why that is.

I suspect they'll try again in 2023, no doubt leaning on the franchise's extended absence from theaters as a marketing ploy. ("We're finally back!") What form that movie will take (and whether they even try to sustain annual installments after this) is anyone's guess. The Sun & Moon era has proven that the movies don't need to be based on a currently-airing TV series to be successful. It's a blank canvas; they can be anything. That's great for creativity, but horribly stressful when trying to figure out what audiences want. There are many pillars of success that keep Pokémon afloat, but I think it's become increasingly obvious by this point that the yearly film series isn't one of 'em.

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