Ask John: Why Hasn’t Hollywood Taken Advantage of the Popularity of Anime?

Question:
Why is it that Hollywood never really seems to take advantage of anime’s huge fanbase? I mean, sure, every once in a while they do a remake with a-listers or do a DVD port, but why not use this fanbase and make full-length feature films based on good, long-running, popular anime?

Answer:
Hollywood is definitely not oblivious to the American commercial potential of anime and its fans. Rather, it seems as though Hollywood is very acutely aware of the exact financial power of America’s anime fan community and the American commercial potential of anime and manga. American fans may believe that there’s a huge interest in manga and anime in America, but relative to mainstream Hollywood productions, the market for anime, and the commercial potential of anime in America are both rather small. Hollywood isn’t unaware of the potential of anime; they’re just not very tempted by it.

In 2002 Twentieth Century Fox acquired the rights to produce a live action Dragonball movie, and Threshold Entertainment announced plans for a live action Ninja Scroll movie. Plans for an American Lupin III movie first surfaced in 2003. In 2005 Comic Book Movie, LLC. announced plans to develop American movies based on Shotaro Ishinomori manga, and New Line acquired the rights to film a live action version of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster. The Wachowski brothers are reportedly pressing for a live action Speed Racer movie. And director James Cameron has discussed his plans to create a trilogy of Battle Angel movies. However, nearly all of these projects seem to be indefinitely stalled or shelved. It’s quite possible that what seemed like a good idea at first became less viable after thorough consideration. There’s simply not as much interest in Japanese comics and animation in America as many hardcore fans believe. And investing in live action adaptations of anime and manga may not generate substantial returns.

The best single year sales record for an anime DVD is held by The Animatrix, which sold 2.7 million copies worldwide in 2003. That record may end up being equaled or even surpassed by this year’s release of Final Fantasy: Advent Children, which has sold 2.4 million copies worldwide as of this past June. By comparison, Pixar’s animated movie DVDs sell 15-20 million or more copies. While an anime film like Innocence or Spirited Away may get screened in a few hundred theaters nationwide (or in the case of the Fullmetal Alchemist movie, less than a hundred), major Hollywood genre pictures like X-Men 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, and Superman Returns get theatrical distribution in thousands of theaters, and earn $200 million or more in just box office receipts. To put it simply, anime is jut not profitable enough to consistently attract the attention of major Hollywood studios. No major Hollywood studio has been willing to risk investing heavily in a live action anime adaptation because there’s no evidence that a live action anime or manga adaptation would be highly successful or profitable in mainstream American release.

I don’t oppose the idea of live action adaptations of anime or manga. Japan has a long history of such productions, and the West is capable of filming excellent adaptations, as Crying Freeman and Guyver 2: Dark Hero attest. I’d like to see Hollywood produce live action adaptations of anime and manga as much as any fan. Major Hollywood films including Dark City, The Matrix, and Blade 2 have skillfully exhibited influences from anime, making me confident that Hollywood’s movie industry is capable of producing outstanding anime adaptations. But Hollywood works on money, and I don’t see any compelling evidence that a major American live action adaptation of anime or manga would recover its multi-million dollar production cost. There may be a lot of interest in anime and manga in America, but there aren’t enough Americans willing to pay for anime and manga to make frequent live action adaptations viable and profitable.