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Originally Posted by DonQuigleone
An interesting case in point is what Aniplex did with the Garden of Sinners's USA release. They sold their Blu-ray in a boxset for 600$ (!) and actually sold out their release. Not only that, but it didn't include any dub. It was a pretty special looking release though.
I don't know what that volume was, but clearly that approach can work as well in the USA as it does in Japan. It certainly exceeded Aniplex's expectations... |
Citation needed, but I've seen it stated before that the quantity available to RightStuf for that special release was around 500 copies. So you figure 500 copies at $400 (after the discount, which is really just trickery about the value), and you've got $200k gross revenue, and they did it at rather little cost (since it's essentially the Japanese release (that had subtitles on it) with a translated booklet). Fate/Zero was released following the same sort of principle.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Urzu 7
So whatever they did, it worked for them. But how was releasing the series in a $600 box set with no dub a smart approach to all of this? How was that a creative solution?
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Because there is an audience willing to pay that much for a collector's edition type product (and you can do it at minimal cost), so why not take their money? People who don't want to pay the price either a) don't need the show on Blu-Ray that badly, or b) will just find other ways to watch it anyway, so are non-customers (for the product you're currently selling). And, a while later, you can always re-release it for a cheaper price (with less frills/bonus items) to attract people who weren't willing to pay at the higher tier. And for people who still aren't willing to pay, there are always other ways to watch it (like legal streaming).
Even though people may be willing to give you "some" money to buy something, the key calculation for a business is to figure out the point where you maximize your profit. And in this age of online streaming, the
need to "buy to view" is decreasing rapidly (particularly among the newer fans).
Edit: So the next question that may logically follow is "if that's the case, why don't the North American anime companies just do that for all shows"? I think they may gradually edge there, but I think right now the risk is too great. Right now, the minimum realistic size of a run for Blu-Rays is probably around 1,000 discs. At the current price point, they can probably eventually clear at least half of those somehow for most shows they pick up. And because the market in North America is so weak right now, the advances licensees pay are likely pretty small. If they started raising the MSRP significantly, the Japanese rightsholders would demand a bigger cut. And then it becomes that much more critical that you sell the lot. Right now, a single flop isn't necessarily going to kill them, because there isn't that much ventured. But the higher the bar is raised, the greater the risk/impact of a flop. The Japanese rightsholders can mitigate this risk in Japan through the production committee system (and collectively selling lots of different products besides Blu-Rays at all sorts of price points), but licensees don't have as deep of a well to draw from. But I think the guarded success of some of Aniplex's moves may start causing some people in Japan to realize that there
is a high-end collector's market in North America, and this could gradually cause pressure to raise the MSRP and collector's value to appeal to that audience (since the so called "casual buyer" market probably isn't going to grow much in this world of streaming).
I will say that, right now, there is a tiny portion of that potential high-end collectors market (of which I am a part) who are just importing Japanese releases directly and bypassing the North American market completely. But the shipping costs and language barrier certainly limit the potential growth of this audience. They may have money, but they don't necessarily want the hassle. If there were more Aniplex-style releases, that high-end market could probably be further-cultivated. But to do that in such a way that keeps costs down and mitigates risk probably does require the direct intervention of the Japanese producers/distributors, as Aniplex did... but this also causes some questions to be raised about the need for licensees. The world's continuing to change...