Did anime sales for 2002 equal $700 million?

I've seen the $700 million figure tossed around in a few posts but I can't find anything to back it up. The last more or less authorative figures for 2001 was $250 million ( I believe that came from an ADV rep). It seems hard to believe that the anime market nearly tripled in one year. Does anybody know if this figure is true? Or have the true figures for 2002? I'd really like to know. Thanks!

I've found the following estimates:

1. ICv2, a website that 'provides news and information for pop culture retailers from 'inside the world of pop culture products'' estimated in November that the market for anime in the US 'approaches a half billion dollars a year at retail.'
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/2016.html

2. At the Big Apple Anime Fest in 2001, John O'Donnell of CPM reported that the US market for anime in 2001 was '$250 million based off of wholesale figures, which is 20% growth from the previous year.':
http://www.animeondvd.com/press/conventions/axny2002/ anime101.php

So maybe O'Donnell was a little low, or ICv2 was a little high, but either way $700 million seems high - but not by more than a binary order of magnitude.

On the other hand, the growth in the *number of anime DVD titles offered for sale* has grown much more than 20% a year from 2000 through 2002, according to AoD's yearly title 'checklists'
http://www.animeondvd.com/releases/checklist2003.php:

??? in 2003 - but 178 so far, as of 29 March. 499 in 2002 (98 prior to April 1) 330 in 2001 (70 prior to April 1) 163 in 2000 (25 prior to April 1)

Anybody wanna guess how many copies an anime DVD must sell before it breaks even? That would provide an alternate 'lower bound' as to yearly anime revenues, assuming that the industry as a whole must be at the minimum breaking even on the 'average' anime DVD.

Well, that amount probably depends on the cost of licensing, which will probably vary quite a bit, but we can probably take AnimEigo's preorder conditions as a guide: 800 direct sales to take care of a product which was otherwise ready (UY), 1500 direct sales to take care of a product which required licensing & translation (YUA TV), and I think it was 2/3 times that to include dubbing (YUA TV, again).

And we've seen sales figures close to half a million units for *each* volume of certain popular series. Estimates of 1-2 million units per volume for very popular series. (which would account for over 1/3 of the estimate) The guess at this point is there are close to 100 actively selling DVD-based anime series on the market right now. Note this doesn't count M&L, international sales, advertising and promotion, publishing, features or collectibles. Just domestic home video.

Based on those numbers, $700 million retail is an accurate estimate.

Madman have made repeated statements that their breakeven point is somewhat under a thousand, but decline to go into further details.

Except to state that Cardcaptors didn't make it.

It's really too difficult to tell, because of the number of variables. The cost of licensing shows varies (I'm not sure how widely, but I'd imagine a fair amount, based on popularity in Japan and newness), and companies apparently use different technology to encode and master their DVDs. Depending on how good their quality control is, they may have to do this multiple times.

Costs for dubbing, duplication, and such are probably a bit more equalized, at least on a per-episode basis.

Advertising can run the gamut from nearly nonexistant except for the barest of presence at cons and a webpage to very pervasive. This would vary depending on the cost of the series (more expensive series are likely to have a larger, more expensive campaign) and the company releasing it (ADV seems to spend a lot more than CPM, for instance.)

Finally, depending on how the series is released (4/3 format, 5/4 format, 6/5 format, or 6/7 format) the break even point will vary.

That aside, except for a few cases, we don't really have many views into the behind the scenes costs of anime. I know AnimEigo provided fairly complete info for the KOR TV series a few years back. And some companies used to be fairly open with the approximate number of sales for any given volume.

Damien Roc

Too optimistic. Back when Kiki came out ~4 years ago, it sold just over a million copies in the US and is considered the most successful anime release. Although that was years ago, I doubt NA anime companies could match. Kiki was also backed by the Disney machine, Miyazaki's name, and that it cuts across multiple demographics and tastes - luxury missing among NA companies.

Rather, I'd guess that most successful anime volumes obtain no more than 300 000 sales because that's also for Shonen Jump USA, the most successful manga publication in the US. For both, about the same target demographic, but Shonen Jump is even cheaper and more approachable.

Anyway, here's the article ya guys are looking for:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=2808

Laters. =)

Stan

Great article! Thanks for pointing that out. So we're looking at $250 million being divided (unevenly) between 12 (is it that many?) companies. That's not a lot of money compared to what Disney rakes in. I guess that explains what a rep told me at a con last year. 'This isn't a rich industry but it sure is fun.'

Sara

Do you have a source for that number? Just wondering where to find that sort of data, thanks.

And here's ther article from 2001 in which Craig O’Connor of ADV stated that 'Anime has climbed from a niche to a $500 million business':
http://www.hive4media.com/news/html/ industry_article.cfm?article_id=1929

Wholesale is when an item is sold at exactly how much it costs to make the product. Let's use product X as an example. Say it cost 2 dollars for materials and 3 dollars for labor to make each unit of product X. That is 5 dollars all together for each unit. So, the company has to sell each unit for at least 5.01 in order to make any profit. But, if they sold product X for 5 dollars, it would be called 'Wholesale.'

There, don't you feel smarter now?

According to a Charles Solomon article, entitled 'Dirty Harry in outer space?' at:
http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/cl-ca- solomon30mar30,0,6906454.sto...

In regard to Cowboy Bebop - 'VideoScan ranks it as the bestselling DVD animé series in North America.'

It would be nice if they mentioned actual per volume figures, but you'd probably have to pay a fee in order to see their figures. And no mention of Pokemon or Yugi, though those two could be higher vhs sellers than dvd sellers.

Here's their website for more info on them.