Toei Animation witnessed its best performance to date since FY2012 as net sales recorded for the six month period (from April 1 to September 30) flew as high as 42,450 million yen (≈290 million USD), a 42.74% increase over the same period the year before while net income rose 41.47% to 11,521 million yen (≈78.79 million USD), also its strongest since first half of FY2012. Both results were mainly driven by two titles, One Piece, particularly with the release of its latest film, One Piece Film: Red and Dragon Ball Super which started to derive sales from outside of Japan for its recent film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
Film Revenue from Both Domestic and International Market Exploded
As of the second quarter of FY2023, the company noted significant growth in its Movies market domestically with sales rising by as much as 2604.27% to 3,164 million yen (≈21.66 million USD) from just 117 million yen (≈801.12 thousand USD) it made the same period the prior year. The Overseas Film market on the other hand, further reinforced its Film business segment by recording a jump of 63.15% from 7,771 million yen (≈53.19 million USD) to 12,678 million yen (≈86.78 million USD), both thanks to One Piece Film: Red and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. Apart from the screening of the two aforementioned films, the same period also saw the release of Delicious Party♡Precure Movie: Yume Miru Oko-sama Lunch! in September which achieved 800 million yen (≈5.50 million USD) in box office revenue domestically, 150% more than its previous work. And for Others, sales are up by 9.94% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 2,124 million yen (≈14.55 million USD) amid strong sales of video distribution rights in Japan.
However, not all of its Film Business segments reported a climb from the year before. Out of the five, two segments: TVs and DVDs have experienced a drop of 2.69% and 15.89% to 1,701 million yen (≈11.65 million USD) and 180 million yen (≈1.23 million USD), respectively. The cause of the drop for its TV business here is attributed to the decrease in the number of titles aired within the half year period while DVDs, which is at its lowest since FY2012, were pummelled down due to a reactionary decline of packages of titles such as: Majo Minarai wo Sagashite (or Looking for Magical Doremi in English) and Digimon Adventure. Note that, according to its securities report, as of second quarter of FY2023, the company aired six works: Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken (which recently ended on October 22), One Piece, Delicious Party♡Precure, Digimon Ghost Game, Fushigi Dagashiya: Zenitendou and Oshiri Tantei.
In total, the entirety of its Film business was at 19,847 million yen (≈135.91 million USD), up by 68.45% y-o-y with an operating income of 6,353 million yen (≈43.53 million USD), an improvement of 37.72% from the same period the year before.
As for its Licensing business, it derived its highest yet for Overseas Licensing at 12,662 million yen (≈86.82 million USD), an increase of 17.91% y-o-y and its second consecutive rise since FY2021 due to a swell in sales via commercialization rights for the Dragon Ball, One Piece (including its development game rights, One Piece Odyssey) and Digimon Adventure series. Its Domestic Licensing too has rallied along, driven by strong sales posted through the merchandising rights of One Piece and Dragon Ball, triggered by the release of the two latest films. This brings its Overseas Licensing business to make up 62% of its total Licensing sales as opposed to the 38% share held by Domestic Licensing (refer to chart). With all that said, its Licensing business for the half year made 20,432 million yen (≈140.26 million USD) in sales for the company.
Sales have also gone up for its Sales of Goods business by 55.01% to 1,516 million yen (≈10.41 million USD) thanks to One Piece’s shop business and the Sailor Moon series, but it could not capture the same kind of performance as it did before the COVID-19 pandemic began. As a result, the business recorded an operating loss of 45 million yen (≈309.02 thousand USD). Still, a much better outcome than the same period the year before which it reported a wider operating loss of 108 million yen (≈741.65 thousand USD).
A snapshot of the Mugiwara Store that specializes in One Piece related products
Overseas Market has Outpaced the Domestic Market for the Fifth Time in a Row
The company continues to see the Overseas market as a major contributor to sales as it has overtaken the Domestic market for the fifth time, occupying 57.9% of its total sales while the other took up 42.1% (refer to chart). Sales from its Overseas market grew by 26.68% to 24,648 million yen (≈169.35 million USD) and the Domestic market climbed by 73.72% to settle in at 17,923 million yen (≈123.15 million USD), both are their best since FY2012.
As for the breakdown in sales from the Overseas market, the Asian region marked the largest contributor among the four at 11,159 million yen (≈76.70 million USD), a small rise of 2.64% y-o-y and taking up 45.3% of total sales. The U.S. is its second biggest at 8,934 million yen (≈61.38 million USD), up by 53.95% y-o-y with a market share of 36.2%. It is here that the company added that sales, particularly in North America and China were strong thanks to distribution rights helped by a weaker yen. Then, we have Europe, the third highest at 3,545 million yen (≈24.36 million USD), 56.44% more than the same period the year before and occupying 14.4% of its Overseas market while Latin America came in fourth at 1,009 million yen (≈6.93 million USD), a 96.30% growth over the same period last year with a 4.1% market share (refer to chart).
Dragon Ball and One Piece at Record Sales Thanks to Their Latest Hit Films
Toei Animation’s two best titles got even bigger with improvements recorded for both Dragon Ball and One Piece for all three segments: Domestic Licensing, Overseas Film and Overseas Licensing.
In the Domestic Licensing segment, Dragon Ball is still ahead of One Piece at 3,126 million yen (≈21.48 million USD), 14.46% up y-o-y, not its best performance by far, however, it is certainly a stronger outcome than its performance the prior year which was its lowest since FY2017. One Piece though, witnessed its best performance since FY2012. Sales have jumped 48.30% to 2,880 million yen (≈19.80 million USD) from the 1,942 million yen (≈13.35 million USD) for the segment the year before. Pretty Cure can be found as the company’s third best performer, also being on the chart consistently since FY2012. Sales have increased for the series by 9.09% to 228 million yen (≈1.57 million USD), and like Dragon Ball, not its most powerful, but it is a welcoming upgrade for sure considering the prior year it made only 209 million yen (≈1.44 million USD), its worse since FY2012 (refer to chart). Then, we have the Sailor Moon series taking the fourth spot after being absent for quite some time (since FY2020). For the half year, it generated 144 million yen (≈989.43 million USD) in sales for the company. It stands that for the segment, Dragon Ball takes up 40.2% of the total sales, One Piece is at 37.1%, Pretty Cure at 2.9%, Sailor Moon at 1.9% while Others is at 17.9% (refer to chart).
As for Overseas Film, Dragon Ball and One Piece dominated the list, though the position was reversed from the year before. This time, Dragon Ball has overtaken One Piece to be the best performer at 3,938 million yen (≈27.07 million USD), 141.60% more than the year before. Understandable, since it started to derive sales from its Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero film outside of Japan while One Piece Film: Red had only been out in a few countries since August 10, but will see a stronger outcome once more countries start to screen it, especially from November onwards. As such, sales for One Piece for the segment is second to Dragon Ball at 3,573 million yen (≈24.56 million USD), an improvement of 39.62% y-o-y. Note that for the two titles, both are at their highest since FY2012. The Overseas Film also saw the re-emergence of two titles: Saint Seiya and Digimon which were nowhere to be found the same period the year before. The two sit at Number 3 and Number 4 at 581 million yen (≈4.00 million USD) and 487 million yen (≈3.35 million USD). As for the share held by each title: Dragon Ball has the biggest slice at 31.1%, One Piece at 28.2%, Digimon at 4.6%, Saint Seiya at 3.8% whereas Others is at 32.3% (refer to chart).
The Overseas Licensing segment has Dragon Ball yet again topping the list, continuously since FY2017 (before that it was One Piece from FY2013 to FY2016) at 5,778 million yen (≈39.73 million USD), a rise of 10.52%. One Piece, the second best performer here, jumped by 29.91% to 2,315 million yen (≈15.92 million USD), both of which are their largest since FY2012. Third place belongs to Digimon that has gone up 66.62% y-o-y to 1,158 million yen (≈7.97 million USD), its second consecutive appearance and Slam Dunk, which is on its third appearance, retreated by 53.98% to 485 million USD (≈3.34 million USD). Here, Dragon Ball makes up 45.6% of the total share, One Piece at 18.3%, Digimon at 9.1%, Slam Dunk at 3.8% and Others at 23.1% (refer to chart).
All in all, the Dragon Ball series recorded a total of 12,842 million yen (≈88.22 million USD) in sales for Toei Animation throughout the half year, up by 33.92% y-o-y as it edged out One Piece which came in at 8,768 million yen (≈60.23 million USD), improving most of the two by 46.55% y-o-y. Dragon Ball accounted for up to 42.8% of the total sales for all the segments here combined while One Piece is at 29.2% (refer to chart). However, what makes it even more impressive is, if added together, the two alone accounts to 72% of all total sales.
The Statuses of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero and One Piece Film: Red
As of the time the report was posted, the box office revenue for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero stood at 2,500 million yen (≈17.19 million USD) for the Domestic market alone with box office revenue derived from the Overseas market at 11,300 million yen (≈77.68 million USD). Together, that is 13,800 million yen (≈94.87 million USD) in box office revenue. The film had also been screened in over a hundred countries, including placing 1st at the international weekend box office revenue in the first week of its release.
One Piece, which was released in Japan on August 6, 2022, as of the time the latest financial result was posted, made 17,300 million yen (≈118.97 million USD) in box office revenue in the domestic market alone, 14,800 million yen (≈101.78 million USD) more than Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. According to Toei Animation, it is currently in the process of breaking the company’s own domestic box office record.
Both One Piece Film: Red and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero have contributed greatly to Toei Animation’s
stellar performance for the half year of FY2023
Future Developments
Now, for the next two quarters, we will see the entrance of The First Slam Dunk film that will be released on December 3 and will see it contribute further sales for the company’s Film segment. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Cosmos Movie, Kitarou Tanjou: Gegege no Nazo, the live-action adaptation of Saint Seiya in its film format and Akuma-kun are all set for release in 2023, but they are not going to be in the full-year results considering their release windows. Then, we have Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning, which is planned for release, but its exact dates are still not known.
The First Slam Dunk
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Cosmos Movie
Kitarou Tanjou: Gegege no Nazo
Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning
Toei Animation Ownership Chart for Reference
Toei Animation Co., Ltd. is incorporated in Japan with its head office in Nakano-ku. It is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under ticket symbol: 4816.
Note:
All currency conversion was done at the time of writing.
Sources:
Second Quarter Report FY2023
Briefing Material Second Quarter FY2023
Data Sheets Second Quarter FY2023
NOTICE OF THE 84TH GENERAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS (June 2022)
Google Charts:
Toei Animation Net Sales and Net Income
Toei Animation by Film Segment
Toei Animation Licensing
Toei Animation by Regions
Toei Animation Overseas Market
Consolidated Sales of Major Titles by Segment (Domestic)
Consolidated Sales of Major Titles by Segment (Overseas)
Consolidated Sales of Major Titles by Segment (Overseas)
Consolidated Sales of Dragon Ball
Consolidated Sales of One Piece
Consolidated Sales of Dragon Ball vs One Piece
Visualisations:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Consider following my blog by clicking on the button below: Follow Erzat on WordPress.com