Japanese animation studios take record $2.34bn as sector booms

Japanese animation studios brought in a collective $2.34bn (¥339bn) of revenue in 2023, the highest number on record and 30% increase year-on-year, according to a new report from data firm Teikoku Databank.

Studio revenues for 2024 are predicted to remain around the same level.

Teikoku Databank’s report credits the theatrical anime market as a significant contributor to studio revenues, citing films such as Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume, which earned $133.4m worldwide and is Japan’s 11^th biggest ever title at the local box office, and Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy And The Heron, which earned $173.5m worldwide and won the Oscar for best animated feature.

Furthermore, the report indicates that studios have been shifting production resources from broadcast anime series to original streaming titles for firms like Netflix and to theatrical versions of previously existing anime series, which can offer high return on investment.

Examples from this year include Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle, a cinematic sequel to a TV series about volleyball players, and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom, which continued the story of a fan-favourite robot series from the early 2000s. Respectively, those films have earned $79.8m (¥11.55bn) and $33.6m (¥4.86bn) in Japan.

However, last year’s record studio revenues were not shared equally among the industry. Of the 301 studios for which year-over-year was available, just 112 showed increased revenues from 2022 to 2023. Studios which saw the largest revenue increase were generally large studios, while smaller specialty subcontractors saw only modest year-over-year growth on average. Some 77.5% of major studios turned a profit in 2023 compared to just 57% of subcontractors.

The primary difference is that larger studios are more likely to be a part of production committees that fund titles and thus own a slice of IP, reaping the benefits when a title becomes a hit. Smaller studios, hired on a purely contract basis, do not receive the same windfalls.

Looking to the future, the report says that challenges for the industry include how to return IP revenues more evenly across sites of production as well as protecting anime from copyright infringement due to rapidly evolving generative AI.

The Japanese animation industry overall, including films, TV series, merchandise and events, was worth $20bn (¥2.9tn) in 2022, the latest year for which numbers are available, according to the Association of Japanese Animations, marking a 6.8% increase on 2021 and the highest number on record.

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