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Sony Pictures, Universal considering bid to acquire Funimation

X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...orter-funimation-said-to-tempt-universal-sony

Both Comcast Corp.’s Universal film division and Sony Pictures have weighed bidding for Funimation, a big U.S. player in Japanese-style animation, people close to the situation said. Universal, which has a multiyear deal to distribute Funimation’s DVDs, looked and decided not to proceed, said one of the people, who asked not to be named discussing internal matters. A separate Sony Corp. unit is a partner in the company’s streaming business.

Their interest highlights the pressure in Hollywood to find fresh material with a loyal fan base and the potential to become a multibillion-dollar film franchise. Funimation licenses anime and dubs the products into English. The company has something any Hollywood studio would relish these days: a growing theatrical and home-video business.

“Funimation has experienced annual double-digit revenue growth since 2013 for both our digital and physical collectible business despite industry trends in physical disc sales moving in the opposite direction,” Mike DuBoise, the company’s chief operating officer, said in an interview.

Total video-disc sales in the U.S. slumped almost 10 percent last year, declining to $5.49 billion, according to the Digital Entertainment Group, a studio-backed trade organization.

Funimation, based in the Dallas suburb of Flower Mound, confirmed in a statement it has received and weighed unsolicited interest from a variety of companies.

“The Funimation management team is more immediately focused on continuing to create compelling experiences for anime fans through physical, digital/streaming and theatrical efforts with goals of continuing to expand globally and maximizing shareholder value,” the company said.
Click to expand...

Funimation today has expanded into streaming via FunimationNow and theatrical distribution, through Funimation Films, which acquires anime and live action titles for U.S. audiences. The company recently teamed up with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. to release the original anime behind the Paramount Pictures feature “Ghost in the Shell” starring Scarlett Johansson.

Funimation generates more than $100 million in annual sales, with growth exceeding 10 percent a year since 2013, according to a spokesman. Because anime fans are collectors, Funimation has a growing DVD business.

In July 2015, it launched a streaming service with 10,000 hours of content. FunimationNow costs $5.99 a month and has just expanded into New Zealand and Australia. The service was built in partnership with Sony DADC, the disc and digital distribution arm of Sony Corp. The company has 200 full-time staff, from Texas to New York to Japan. It dubs an average 23 anime series a week out of its Texas studio and is planning to release 80 episodic anime series through the service this year.

In September, the company signed a deal to supply anime videos to Crunchyroll, a streaming service focused on Asian animation. It’s owned by Otter Media, a joint venture between AT&T Inc. and media executive Peter Chernin.
Click to expand...
 
X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
I don't trust either Sony or Universal when it comes to anime live action film adaptations though, going by this bit:

Their interest highlights the pressure in Hollywood to find fresh material with a loyal fan base and the potential to become a multibillion-dollar film franchise.
Click to expand...
 
G

Gentleman Jack

Member
Let's hope hope hope this means wider distribution for animated films funi localizes. Such a pain to find even a single theater sometimes.
 
L

Line_HTX

Member
Fresh material with botched casting processes and storyline execution.

I don't think they learned from the GitS disaster.

And they better not touch Your Name!
 
K

Korigama

Member
Their interest highlights the pressure in Hollywood to find fresh material with a loyal fan base and the potential to become a multibillion-dollar film franchise.
Click to expand...
One would think that the studios would back off of looking to anime properties for this after Ghost in the Shell flopped (but then, its appeal was far too niche to ever have that kind of commercial potential in the first place).
 
F

Fat4all

Banned
SonicMegaDrive said:
If there's anyone who could possibly make a worse live-action Dragon Ball movie than that last one, it's Sony.
Click to expand...
.
ssj4_paul_blart_by_terrafinrules-da6kms3.png
Click to expand...
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
SonicMegaDrive said:
If there's anyone who could possibly make a worse live-action Dragon Ball movie than that last one, it's Sony.
Click to expand...

I don't know, get The Rock to play Nappa and Tom Cruise to play Vegeta and I think it could be magical. Chris Hemsworth can play Goku because he can do big strong idiot well and Jai Courtny can be Yamcha. Danny Devito is Emperor Pilaf.
 
K

Kickz

Member
PeakPointMatrix said:
What?

I watch the One Piece dub on it every now and then, and the utter sharpness and clarity of the line work through the stream is staggering. Far and above anything Crunchyroll is doing.
Click to expand...

I cancelled about a month ago because their stream depending on the time of day would buffer and load like crazy. Never happens for me with Crunchyroll or Netflix

I searched the issue on their forums and apparently its been an open issue for last few years
 
T

thebeeks

Banned
They wouldn't move the Funi HQ, would they? Funimation's been very nice to us in the DFW area.

I ran Flower Mound High School's anime club in the mid 00s (cool kid alert, wee-oo wee-oo) and they often donated stuff for raffles and drawings. Nice folk. I still see their building every day on the way to work.
 
Z

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Korigama said:
One would think that the studios would back off of looking to anime properties for this after Ghost in the Shell flopped (but then, its appeal was far too niche to ever have that kind of commercial potential in the first place).
Click to expand...

Ghost in the Shell is only niche in the sense that anime is niche. It's not like they tried to make a big screen adaptation of Welcome to the NHK or something. Ghost in the Shell is as mainstream as it comes in an anime context.
 
S

shoelacer

Banned
Oh man, I can't wait for the inevitable shitstorm that happens when Sony gets their greasy paws on Funimation.

Picture it now; Kendal Jenner as Sailor Moon. Dragon Ball Z3D. FLCL with a cohesive and easy to follow storyline. Nerds on the internet are gonna lose their shit.
 
K

Korigama

Member
ZealousD said:
Ghost in the Shell is only niche in the sense that anime is niche. It's not like they tried to make a big screen adaptation of Welcome to the NHK or something. Ghost in the Shell is as mainstream as it comes in an anime context.
Click to expand...
Things like Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, and Naruto are mainstream. Few people who don't already watch anime with some regularity are familiar with GitS.
 
R

Ridley327

Member
Universal handles Funimation's home video distribution, but I did not know that Sony helped them out on their streaming service. That certainly makes for an interesting battle.
 
Z

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Korigama said:
Things like Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, and Naruto are mainstream. Few people who don't already watch anime with some regularity are familiar with GitS.
Click to expand...

You named three series that are more mainstream than GITS. You'd be hard pressed to name more than a couple more. Pokemon sure. Yu-Gi-Oh maybe? Like, the list probably ends there.

GITS is very mainstream as far as anime goes.
 
F

Fast Forward

Member
Funimation's DVD business is growing? Damn, that's amazing in this day and age, considering the DVD boom period ended over a decade ago, and physical movie sales are down.
 
B

BronsonLee

Member
ZealousD said:
You named three series that are more mainstream than GITS. You'd be hard pressed to name more than a couple more. Pokemon sure. Yu-Gi-Oh maybe? Like, the list probably ends there.

GITS is very mainstream as far as anime goes.
Click to expand...

They could easily adapt lesser known properties and try to make them a thing too like WB did with Edge of Tomorrow

Like shit, Eden of the East is begging for one
 
T

TronWayne

Member
The Funimation streaming service was terrible for me, didn't work on Safari, Chrome, PS3, or my Roku. Only worked on PS4. In theory it should be great but something was seriously wrong with the app's and website.
 
K

Kusagari

Member
ZealousD said:
You named three series that are more mainstream than GITS. You'd be hard pressed to name more than a couple more. Pokemon sure. Yu-Gi-Oh maybe? Like, the list probably ends there.

GITS is very mainstream as far as anime goes.
Click to expand...

Off the top of my head I'd list Bleach, Akira, Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion before GitS in terms of notoriety.
 
K

Korigama

Member
ZealousD said:
You named three series that are more mainstream than GITS. You'd be hard pressed to name more than a couple more. Pokemon sure. Yu-Gi-Oh maybe? Like, the list probably ends there.

GITS is very mainstream as far as anime goes.
Click to expand...
GitS is about as mainstream as Akira, in the sense that it served as a gateway anime for people who got into the medium then either stuck with it or fell off shortly after the '90s. Not something that people who otherwise don't pay attention to anime will be aware of specifically.

I'm still not really sure why you're insisting that the awareness of the property with the general public outside of Japan is in any way mainstream.
 
Z

Zubz

Banned
I really don't want to see anyone inch closer to a monopoly. But CrunchyRoll's pretty terrible as is, so...
 
Z

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Kusagari said:
Off the top of my head I'd list Bleach, Akira, Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion before GitS in terms of notoriety.
Click to expand...

On the same tier, maybe. But not ahead.

Akira is a definite less popular than GITS. The GITS movie alone is on the same tier as Akira and Ghost in the Shell has a full TV series, the Arise series, and multiple video games on top of that.
 
D

duckroll

Member
Ashby said:
Does Funimation even have any competitors in their space?
Click to expand...

Tons. In the quickly expanding streaming space they are directly competing with Netflix and Amazon now, who have way more resources, stronger platform branding, and an audience who watches more than just anime. That's what they have to partner with Crunchyroll for streaming now instead of treating them like a competitor. Amazon and Netflix can afford to shell out big buck for all the new big shows, plus spend even more to produce their own exclusive shows coming in the future.

In the rapidly declining home video space, they have Sentai and Viz to compete with in terms of companies who have anything worth buying, so they're still pretty strong there, but... it's a declining space.
 
C

Choppasmith

Member
Kickz said:
I cancelled about a month ago because their stream depending on the time of day would buffer and load like crazy. Never happens for me with Crunchyroll or Netflix

I searched the issue on their forums and apparently its been an open issue for last few years
Click to expand...

My only problem is that they're taking their sweet time making an Android TV version of their App. Haven't been able to watch on my Nvidia Shield.
 
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