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Answerman - Why Aren't More Anime Movies Available For Streaming?




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HeeroTX



Joined: 15 Jul 2002
Posts: 2046
Location: Austin, TX
PostPosted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 1:01 pm Reply with quote
Another thing that comes into play (IMO, dunno for sure) is pretty much exactly what is stated in the original question. It is EASIER to get people to watch a movie rather than a longer TV series, ie. it is easier to SELL a movie rather than a multiple disc series. So in that sense, I assume all the companies involved would MUCH rather move special disc copies of anime movies rather than see how many streaming numbers it might pull. Kind of like Hollywood tries to milk a theatrical run as long as possible before releasing the home version, I assume the anime industry tries to milk as many disc sales as they can before putting a movie online. Heck, 5 or so years ago it was noted that companies vastly preferred disc sales and were only doing streaming at all basically to try to head off piracy.

Since movie fansubs usually wait for the disc release in Japan, it makes sense that if they time it right, they can try to get a lot of disc sales before worrying about streaming at LEAST for theatrical movies. (In the case of OVAs, I think there might be some internal debate about if they can follow the Japanese model and make those "bonus" material to help sell disc sets, Sentai has already tested the waters on making dubs a "premium" feature)
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CheezcakeMe





PostPosted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 2:41 pm Reply with quote
Dang, guess I'll be waiting quite a while to see A Silent Voice. At least I'm fortunate to live in a city that has a few theatres that play anime movies so the wait won't be even longer as I wait for a DVD release.
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WingKing



Joined: 27 Apr 2015
Posts: 617
PostPosted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 3:06 pm Reply with quote
Adding to this, as someone who runs a public library anime club, I'm used to communicating with licensors and asking for permissions to legally show stuff at my club, and the majority of the North American licensors tell you right up front on their web sites that they can't give you permission to publicly screen of most of the movies that they've licensed, or at least not for free. TV shows, no problem - I've never had a request to screen a TV show turned down, as long as the company had it out on DVD so I could screen it using their product. But it's a lot harder to find movies I can show my group. Anything on Crunchyroll's fine (those are covered by our institutional subscription) and Funimation makes a decent part of their movie catalog available to clubs too. But if it's a movie from Sentai or Aniplex or one of the other, smaller anime publishers, most of the time the odds of getting permission to screen one of their licensed movies are somewhere between "slim" and "none."
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CCTakato



Joined: 24 Jul 2015
Posts: 514
PostPosted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 3:28 pm Reply with quote
Movies also take up less physical space than TV series boxsets so fans don't mind buying them as much and there's the incentive of extra features. Still it'd be nice if Funimation would stream the One Piece movies or something. Hulu actually had a fairly decent sized selection of anime movies streaming before the Great Anime purge but I'm not sure what's left.
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Lemonchest



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
Posts: 1771
PostPosted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 3:35 pm Reply with quote
I'd have also thought, from the perspective of CR etc, that films aren't as attractive a proposition for streaming sites. They need product that will keep people subbing monthly, & seasonal simulcasts of TV series are a much better way of keeping subs going than films, which are a one shot & your done affair. After all, get one hot show & you've guaranteed 3 months of viewing minimum. Get one hot film & a day later you've got nothing. Since I imagine the licensing fees for both are broadly similar, the streaming sites probably get a much better deal from TV shows.
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3767
PostPosted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 12:37 am Reply with quote
From someone who lived in an area that didn't get any anime movies until a few months ago, streaming anime movies was something I wanted (and still want) to happen more. Garakowa, which aired the beginning of this year, was the only one I know of that was more or less simulcast, which I greatly appreciated. It's a shame they can't (or won't) do that more often. It's less of a problem for me now that I'm living in the DC area, which is not passed over by anime movie theater runs like the Philadelphia area is after the first two Madoka films. I'm actually going to be watching an anime movie in theaters for the first time next month (the second Kizumonogatari film) aside from the Pokemon and Yugioh ones I saw as a kid.
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 2:22 am Reply with quote
I always had the feeling that anime movies, compared to TV shows, are incredibly hard to get the rights to or incredibly expensive, or both. But I was basing that on the relationship between movies and TV in Hollywood. I'd guess that for anime, TV shows are seen as more financially viable and the main thing whereas movies exist in a subservient role to TV shows, inverse to what I'm used to.
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Morry



Joined: 26 Jun 2016
Posts: 756
PostPosted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 11:42 am Reply with quote
Personally, I'm always glad whenever I do see a film I was interested in watching pop up on Funi or Crunchy. I've put off watching a lot of films because they're only available on disk and I'd rather stream a TV series instead.
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Agent355



Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Posts: 5113
Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready...
PostPosted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 8:03 pm Reply with quote
I'm not a disc buyer, and I have a confession to make...I haven't seen *most* of the Ghibli catalog :blush: I'd be interested in streaming them, but they aren't available on any of the legal sites, as far as I can tell. Since Disney has the distribution rights for most Ghibli movies, will the new Disney deal with Netflix mean that some Ghibli movies will be made available on Netflix?
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 2658
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 9:06 pm Reply with quote
HeeroTX wrote:
Heck, 5 or so years ago it was noted that companies vastly preferred disc sales and were only doing streaming at all basically to try to head off piracy.


So here we are five years later and they are doing an abysmal job at trying to head of anime movies piracy. I understand that the "free" mantra can't apply, but why not use the tried and true VOD (video on demand) system that directv, dish networks, etc. are already using? In layman terms, after they stop showing a movie in japanese cinemas, they could start renting for 24 hours a stream to said movie for ($/€/£) 4.99 SD/5.99 HD, then when the movie starts selling in disc (in japan) lower the price to (last chance) 1.99/0.99 and a month later remove it until (months later) hopefully it can be finally added to the free content catalog.

As things stand now, if there is interest in watching anime movies, a fan outside japan can either download a raw, wait for a fansub or pray you are part of a select group where said movie is shown in a local cinema (and risk hearing about it after they have already removed it from the theaters, true story -_-). There is also the possibility of buying years later if it is ever sold over here, but buying a high priced movie you have never watched reeks of the per-collapse american anime industry IMO.

Crunchy/Funi are in fall season negotiations atm, would it hurt them to ask for a couple low profile movies *cough* planetarian *cough* WIXOSS *cough* to make a run trial? Once the money starts coming in, I am certain people will notice and get interested.
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 10:44 pm Reply with quote
mangamuscle wrote:
So here we are five years later and they are doing an abysmal job at trying to head of anime movies piracy. I understand that the "free" mantra can't apply, but why not use the tried and true VOD (video on demand) system that directv, dish networks, etc. are already using? In layman terms, after they stop showing a movie in japanese cinemas, they could start renting for 24 hours a stream to said movie for ($/€/£) 4.99 SD/5.99 HD, then when the movie starts selling in disc (in japan) lower the price to (last chance) 1.99/0.99 and a month later remove it until (months later) hopefully it can be finally added to the free content catalog.


Since the production committees for anime on TV are extremely reluctant to provide non-physical means of home viewing at any cost, it does make me wonder if the same applies to anime movies too. That is, if the same people are in charge, it'd make sense that if they are afraid of streaming TV shows, they'd similarly be afraid of video-on-demand services.
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#861208



Joined: 07 Oct 2016
Posts: 423
PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2016 9:14 pm Reply with quote
Luckily, we had K: Missing Kings on Hulu for a whole year. (and screenings in theaters in some places along with Japan)

Unfortunately, it only got put up after season 2 started airing, and some people got some pretty big spoilers from watching the first episode of Return of Kings first. Like who the new spoiler[Red King] is. Yeah.

. . . . and there's still nothing with Code Geass: Akito the Exiled, except for one convention screening of one episode. And subbed import blurays.
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