May 23, 2021 (Nikkei) - After more than a year of binge-watching their way through the coronavirus pandemic, American audiences still cannot get enough of Japanese shows and movies.
That is according to a recent report by Parrot Analytics and media consultancy Global Connects, which shows Japanese-language content outperforming all other non-English offerings.
Animated offerings, in particular, are attracting eyeballs.
"Anime is the gateway drug to Japanese culture for many Americans," said Douglas Montgomery, CEO of Global Connects and a former executive at WarnerMedia. "Any way you slice it, the box office and TV demand data show a growing appetite for Japanese content with American audiences, with plenty of room to run."
American viewers have a growing appetite for stories from around the globe. South Korean films and dramas have swept U.S. audiences off their feet, most notably Oscar-winner "Parasite." The numbers, however, indicate that Japanese films have quietly come out on top, according to the Global Connects and Parrot Analytics report.
In 2019, Japanese films recorded over $33 million in total box office revenue, edging out South Korea's $31 million. The anime movie "Dragon Ball Super: Broly" alone raked in over $30 million. English-language remakes of Japanese properties also did well at the box office, including "Pokemon: Detective Pikachu," "Godzilla: King of Monsters" and "Alita: Battle Angel."
In April, the anime film "Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train," based on a popular manga series, made a splash in the U.S., raking in roughly $21.1 million in its opening weekend. The feature film broke the country's box office record for biggest foreign-language debut, according to distributors Funimation and Aniplex of America.
"Japanese content has been a slow burn in the U.S. for 50 years. A lot of it has been remade, and the ideas came from Japan," said Montgomery of Global Connects, citing the "Transformers" series, which was originally a Japanese property. "What's interesting is that [the demand] is becoming more of a native content as opposed to the remakes."
Films are not the only Japanese entertainment pulling in American viewers. The most in-demand non-English language content in the U.S. is Japanese, even though Spanish is the second most-spoken language in America, according to Parrot Analytics. Over the past six quarters, series originally in Japanese consistently accounted for roughly one-third of the total demand for non-English series. The company's measurement of demand includes not only video consumption but also online activity such as social media engagement and searches for a particular show.
