2002 - Industry Review
by Isaac Alexander, The anime industry this year was a time of slower growth and consolidation. 2002 started off with a re-organization as Digital Manga was broken up into two separate companies. Studio Broccoli took control of the Anime Newtype.
2002 for the second year in a row had a new company formed. first title released here in North America.
One of the biggest industry stories of the year was that Yu-Gi-Oh!) under essentially one umbrella.
Here's how the anime distribution is being handled now in North America:
Sony Music Video Distributes for Manga in Canada).
It will be interesting to see for 2003 if some of the smaller anime companies in North America decide to sign up with a larger distributor of anime, or to continue on selling anime on their own.
One of anime's continued success in North America has been anime venturing out of the specialty anime and comic book stores and instead being available at mainstream retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Frye's, Gamespot, & Suncoast. Ten years ago, it was very difficult for consumers trying to purchase anime at mainstream retailers. Now, it's very common to find anime on store shelves. Other mainstream retailers are also starting to stock more anime titles in their stores and websites: Costco, Target, and Walmart.
One of the few confusion spots of the industry this year is the continual increase in the number of different ratings that anime companies use to mark their anime titles. 5 companies have chosen to mark their titles using the Pioneer Ratings System (Bandai, Urban Vision), or use the MPAA as their guide.
MPAA Ratings
Pioneer Ratings
ADV/Right Stuf Ratings
Tokyo Pop Ratings
Urban Vision
One of the industries that has probably helped most gain more sales for anime in retail stores has been sales of PlayStation 2 and Xbox game consoles. These two machines have been purchased so kids can not only play their games, but also watch DVD's potentially of new anime series.
Release times from when a product is released in Japan until it's released in North America continue to shrink. This follows a similar pattern in Hollywood now that is pushing world release dates for their titles, versus having multiple release dates for each region of the earth.
OVA.
In of the size of the market, ANN reported earlier this year the industry has not grown as much between 2001 and 2002 as in previous year, but continues to grow at a respectable rate. The value of the retail sales of Anime has been pegged at just over $500 million US Dollars.
The total home video (DVD + VHS) industry took in $12.1 billion in sales and $8.7 billion in rentals according to Video Store Magazine . We estimate that anime has about 6% of the home video sales, but less than 1% of rentals. Anime did not contribute much this past year in North American Box Office, which generated sales of $8.4 billion. Spirited Away was the largest grossing anime film this past year, taking in just over $5 million to date.
While Anime is still one of the smallest parts of the North American video industry, Anime is also one of the fastest growing and most vibrant.
2002 for the second year in a row had a new company formed. first title released here in North America.
One of the biggest industry stories of the year was that Yu-Gi-Oh!) under essentially one umbrella.
Here's how the anime distribution is being handled now in North America:
Sony Music Video Distributes for Manga in Canada).
It will be interesting to see for 2003 if some of the smaller anime companies in North America decide to sign up with a larger distributor of anime, or to continue on selling anime on their own.
One of anime's continued success in North America has been anime venturing out of the specialty anime and comic book stores and instead being available at mainstream retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Frye's, Gamespot, & Suncoast. Ten years ago, it was very difficult for consumers trying to purchase anime at mainstream retailers. Now, it's very common to find anime on store shelves. Other mainstream retailers are also starting to stock more anime titles in their stores and websites: Costco, Target, and Walmart.
One of the few confusion spots of the industry this year is the continual increase in the number of different ratings that anime companies use to mark their anime titles. 5 companies have chosen to mark their titles using the Pioneer Ratings System (Bandai, Urban Vision), or use the MPAA as their guide.
MPAA Ratings
Pioneer Ratings
ADV/Right Stuf Ratings
Tokyo Pop Ratings
Urban Vision
One of the industries that has probably helped most gain more sales for anime in retail stores has been sales of PlayStation 2 and Xbox game consoles. These two machines have been purchased so kids can not only play their games, but also watch DVD's potentially of new anime series.
Release times from when a product is released in Japan until it's released in North America continue to shrink. This follows a similar pattern in Hollywood now that is pushing world release dates for their titles, versus having multiple release dates for each region of the earth.
OVA.
In of the size of the market, ANN reported earlier this year the industry has not grown as much between 2001 and 2002 as in previous year, but continues to grow at a respectable rate. The value of the retail sales of Anime has been pegged at just over $500 million US Dollars.
The total home video (DVD + VHS) industry took in $12.1 billion in sales and $8.7 billion in rentals according to Video Store Magazine . We estimate that anime has about 6% of the home video sales, but less than 1% of rentals. Anime did not contribute much this past year in North American Box Office, which generated sales of $8.4 billion. Spirited Away was the largest grossing anime film this past year, taking in just over $5 million to date.
While Anime is still one of the smallest parts of the North American video industry, Anime is also one of the fastest growing and most vibrant.
bookmark/share with:
back to archives