Licensors don’t report the revenue splits (and they have no reason to), but a portion of it does go back to animation studios. Other revenue streams for studios include theatrical releases, producing animation for pachinko, and small portions of merchandise sales.
How Much Do Animators Get Paid Per Frame? The most common way of paying anime artists is by frame. In-between animators and key-frame animators can expect to make different amounts per frame. In-between animators, according to most sources, make ¥200 per frame or drawing. ¥200 adds up to be around $2.00 USD.
Most ero artists don't make as much because they don't produce as much content. Not sure how man an ero artist doing 20 pages a week would make. All the stars in the sky are waiting for you. How much do hentai artists make in comparison to their regular counterparts?
Typically a studio doesn’t get to choose the anime they work on but are paid upfront for the work. A late night anime can cost $5 million USD to produce, and that money has to be stretched to pay everyone working on the project.
The majority of anime revenue comes from character goods (over 70%), and then DVD/Blu-ray (15–20%). Apparently there are different kinds of companies involved in the anime making process, each with its own business model.
Anime brings in more than $19 billion a year. Its artists are earning barely enough to survive.
The anime industry grew to 2.5112 trillion yen (around USD$24.08 billion) in 2019, according to the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA). This figure, a 15.1% rise on 2018, is an all-time high.
Animation studios can make money by selling their projects to distributors, streaming sites, etc. A studio may begin work on an animated movie long before they've sold the project to anyone.
Animators were paid bottom rate on a recent Japanese production for Netflix, according to Ippei Ichii. The animator and storyboard artist took to Twitter to condemn the streaming giant, claiming that artists working on a Netflix show at Tokyo studio Mappa were paid as little as 3,800 (USD$34) per cut.
The records have not stopped there: it not only dethroned One Piece, it slaughtered it. One Piece's manga sold 7.7 million volumes in 2020, Kingdom somehow finally edged past it too with 8.25 million, and then Demon Slayer sold not 8.23 million but 82.3 million volumes, blowing everyone else out of the water.
10 Naruto Has Brought In Over $10 Billion Even though the anime is what helped propel Naruto into the mainstream, the manga series is still the highest source of revenue for the franchise. Naruto has impressively amassed over $10 billion since its creation.
• But, how much do the animators of a profitable series like Demon Slayer really make? Well, despite the implausible success of the franchise the animators still make less. The trainees earn an estimated total of 50,000 yen (US$433) while the contract based employees receive 150,000 yen (US$1,300) per month.
According to the data, the first quarter of 2021 has seen demand skyrocket up to 32% higher. The report, which can be seen above, also shows the trend for all of 2020. It seems like the third quarter of last year peaked for anime, but its fourth quarter remained strong.
Crunchyroll licenses anime, just like Funimation. That means paying anime studios for those rights. The money paid to those studios actively finances future anime projects. Compared to watching pirated anime which pays pirates only, not creators.
The main reason that an animator's salary is so low is that most studios pay by commission. The entry-level “in-betweener” who makes all of the individual drawings, only earns 200 yen per drawing, which is around $1.83 in US dollars. Keep in mind that a single drawing takes about an hour to make.
The Diverse Variety of Stories The wide range of genres in anime is the first reason why it is so popular. Every person enjoys a different story, genre, and style in anime! Romance, comedy, action/adventure, mystery/suspense, and horror are just a few of the many genres explored by anime plots.
In contrast, anime artists in the US make an average of $68,238 (Comparably). Notice that that’s for anime artists, not just animators. Like Japan, US animators have to diversify their portfolio with freelance work, commissions, and graphic design.
An episode of anime is produced frame by frame. A single episode may be composed of hundreds or even thousands of frames. A key-frame animator is one of the top positions available. These artists are responsible for the most important snapshots in the episode and the leading frames.
They typically work with lower-level animators, sometimes termed in-between animators. These animators handle the short frames in-between shots to animate the scene. This work is tedious and time-consuming for hand-drawn anime. Many anime artists work late nights and overtime in order to finish all their frames.
Typically only the creators of anime get a cut of the check , and the majority of the profits go to the studio (in fact, many creators of anime and manga see little to no of their merch profits–but that’s another story for another day).
Anime has grown even larger in Japan after it spread to international countries, further increasing its fan base and demand for more episodes and merchandise. Merchandise is another huge aspect of the anime industry. In some cases, merchandise comprises the entire profits for an anime.
It’s a common misconception that anime artists, especially those based in Japan, have some deep wallets. Some certainly do, but in most cases, these artists were the original creators of their series and have struck their gold in royalties and licensing rights.
One thing that is for certain is the anime industry continues to grow rapidly worldwide. Anime artists may not make a lot, but to them, it’s worth it. To see your hard work enjoyed by so many fans is enough for them, and it may be enough for you, too, if you’re considering a career in animation.
These people are the lifeblood of a great show, yet their pay is actually pretty awful. A 2013 survey (only available in Japanese) showed that the average animator salary was around 1.1 million yen or $10,000 US dollars a year.
The stars of the show, voice actors bring your favourite characters to life. Yet, for the first three years of their careers, they earn very little. Rank 15 voice actors make around ¥15,000 ($130) per episode, with agents and the taxman also taking a cut.
The director is the person who projects their vision of what a show should be, and makes it a reality. So how much do they earn? Well, that depends. According to the Shirobako team, the average salary is around $42,000 a year, but the JACA’s 2015 survey reported that it’s actually closer to $60k a year.
Anime is a brutal industry to work in. It takes real dedication and passion to avoid burnout, which could be why 80% of animators quit in the first three years. Most people don’t realize just how much work goes into making even a single episode of any given anime, and when the truth hits, it hits hard.
Stuff is made because some book company decides they want to fund a show, so they take money and pay a committee / studio to make one. That's one way money could come in. It could also be some investment that the studios is doing, because they want a try on that random number generator.
Point is, even if some shows don't make profit in the initial run, doesn't mean they will always not make a profit later on. It's usually not. Art is not profitable. You may find facts and stats around but some of the process isn't really holding up anymore now, the industry is not doing that well.
Most anime don't get out of Japan, even if we consider either worldwide legal or illegal services that offer anime, what is seen most are the most well-known series. Anime is not cheap to produce, we can consider that each anime episode is about 120000 US dollars. Anime is pretty time consuming to watch in general.