News
Half-Year Anime DVD Sales Figures for Japan Released
posted on by Evan Miller
According to data released by the Japan Video Software Association (JVA), profits from the sale and rental of DVDs declined slightly in Japan for the first half (January through June) of 2007, but sales of Japanese animation DVDs have gone up. The data was released earlier this week.
The JVA report says that animation (both Japanese and foreign) makes up 45 billion yen (about US$390 million) of the total DVD rental and sales figures. Of that amount, 13.9 billion yen (US$120 million) came from video rental — a significant drop from the 16.7 billion yen (US$144 million) figure from the first half of 2006. Sales, however, went up to 31.2 billion yen (US$270 million) from 31.1 billion yen (US$269 million) last year.
Of that 31.2 billion yen made in sales, Japanese animation for general audiences (as opposed to Japanese animation aimed at just children) accounted for 28.5 billion yen (about US$246 million), a 15% increase from 24.7 billion yen (about US$214 million) last year. Since an overwhelming majority of the anime sold commercially is geared towards an older audience, it is highly likely that franchises popular with anime fans were a significant contributor to the increase in sales. Growth of profits is continuing at a pace similar to the increase from last year, indicating a steady progression towards greater profits from anime sales.
The JVA estimates that the total profit from DVD and video sales and rentals in Japan for the first half of 2007 is 147.8 billion yen (US$1.28 billion). If figures are accurate, anime represents 29.4% of that total.
Source: animeanime.jp
