Heaven, Hell, Reality: Three Looks at the Business of Animation Production: Part 1. The Animation Industry’s Circumstances and Challenges

February 27, 2008 at 3:00 · Filed under Animation, Financials

(this is the first segment of a three-part article reposted from ADTRW for posterity)

THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY’S CIRCUMSTANCES AND FUTURE

June, Heisei 15
METI Cultural Industry Division

(1) The Scope of the Animation Industry

  • In the year 2002, animation productions grossed a total of 207,900,000,000 yen.
    • (These figures include film, video, and television sales. Taken together, products produced under character licences grossed approximately two trillion in the same period.)
  • The reasons for 2002’s sales:
    • DVD uptake (”Spirited Away” DVD over one million units sold)
    • Rapid increase in television productions (86 episodes per week, as of May 2003)

Industry Gross

(2) Theatrical Animation Take

Theatrical Take

The animated film Spirited Away (Director: MIYAZAKI Hayao) received the Academy Award for best feature animation (March 2003). Over 23,000,000 tickets were sold, and its total take has surpassed \30,000,000,000, setting a new record domestically for both domestic and foreign film.

(3) Television Animation Programs

(1) Average Rating
After a long drop, 2000 saw a small recovery.

Avg. Rating

(2) Yearly Episode Count
The Spring 2000 season’s weekly episode count was 60. On the year, 2286 episodes were broadcast in 2000, a decrease of 267 that cut across time categories. However, 2001 and 2002 saw a rebound, with weekly episode counts as of May 2003 at approximately 80.

Ep Count

(4) Television Animation Business (sample)

Business

(5) Spread of the Animation Business (IP Business)

Spread

(6) Spread of the Animation Business (Foreign Expansion)

  • The animation Pokemon has been broadcast in 68 countries, and shown in theaters in 46 countries for a gross of 280,000,000 dollars.
  • Hollywood film companies are beginning to acquire rights to Japanese animation products.
    • 20th Century Fox has acquired the rights to Dragonball (based on works by TORIYAMA Akira) and are producing a live-action film with a budget in the tens of millions of dollars for release as soon as ‘04.
    • Warner Brothers has acquired the rights to produce a live-action version of Akira (based on works by and directed by OTOMO Katsuhiro.)
    • Sony Pictures Entertainment is basing a CG animation Astro Boy off Tetsuwan Atom, for worlewide release in ‘04.

(Challenges:

  • Cultivating relations with overseas produces.
  • Creating markets for sale of animation properties (Tokyo Contents Market, Tokyo International Animation Fair, &c.))

(7) METI’s Actions Regarding the Animation Industry

  • To ensure the independence of the animation industry, we support an industry organization (the Association of Japanese Animations.)
  • To ensure just compensation and retained rights for authors, we develop and distribute model contracts.
  • To prevent abusive preference of broadcaster’s house productions, we strictly apply antitrust law.
  • To support independent production, we negotiate fundraising conditions with financial institutions.
  • To support international sales, we organize the trade show “Tokyo Contents Market 2003/Fall”.
  • To allow distribution via internet and overseas licencees, we promote a business model that does not rely on key stations.
  • We support the development of digital animation production techniques.

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