We learned a week ago that Sony subsidiary Aniplex (not Aniplex USA) has acquired the anime division of Madman Media for $35 million AUD. Madman had previously been a minority investor in the company has taken over completely for this division now. That, naturally, has lead to a lot of wild speculation from some vocal corners about how they’ll be pricing everything Aniplex USA style.
Madman’s Sly Ip, product manager at the company for well over a decade now, elaborated more about the acquisition and what changes to expect:
None. We are also now majority owned by Aniplex which is a division of Sony Music Japan, not Sony Pictures which is who owns Funimation. We’re like distant cousins. All of our existing licenses and how we license moving forward doesn’t change, we are still Madman and we are not changing our name to Aniplex. The branding stays.
Cinema distribution remains the same, we assess all movies that get released if they are viable to do so and whether if we are able to obtain a license for it. Which films, in particular, are you referring to, as we have released many anime films in cinemas around 1 a month over the last few years?
Keeping in mind the key word here is viable. Not every film is a viable release if we do not believe enough of an audience will go to see a film it is not really worthwhile to spend extra effort to chase after a title, pay money to license it and then set a distribution plan. We have to prove to cinemas that certain titles are worthwhile doing and this is not always easy, I’d like to think that we have done a lot to expand the availability of content . We have great slate of films coming up including Fate/Stay Night Heaven’s Feel 2, Love Live! Sunshine!! and more. Not to mention we just did Dragon Ball Super at over 170 locations in our biggest release of an anime film ever in Australia history.
As I said previously, the initial idea of panicking over pricing as seen in the US is pretty nonsensical. Madman and other distributors have been bringing out Aniplex shows are lower pricing than the US division because those markets are different and those prices are not sustainable there.
Now, how they handle the various projects and agreements that exist as they go forward and as contracts end without potential for renewal, there’s a chance for a further shrinkage there. But, realistically, that’s not going to happen. With Sony having acquired Funimation previously and Madman having an existing distribution agreement for Funimation titles, it’s not like those titles will no longer be distributed through them. All of them are now under the Sony banner.
Regardless, it’s a further consolidation that on some level should be worrying as we wait to see what the real impact will be.
[Source: WTK]