Ask John: Why are Anime DVDs So Expensive?

Question:
Why do anime DVDs seem so overpriced compared to other DVDs here in America? If I didn’t have to pay $20-$30 for 3 or 4 episodes of a show, I think I would buy so much more anime than I do now. Instead I have to watch everything on Youtube.

Answer:
This is another topic which I’ve covered before that bears occasional fresh discussion to remind veteran fans, and inform readers new to the anime hobby.

The cost of anime on domestic DVD reflects its expense and market share. I assure you that American anime distributors would eagerly sell anime cheaper if they could, but even at $30 per disc for current new anime DVDs, there are many series released in America that never earn any profit.

Domestic television series on DVD are relatively inexpensive for two primary reasons. Television series released on domestic DVD have already recovered their initial production costs during their original broadcast and possible syndication. The advertising and merchandising revenue these programs earned when they were new was their originally intended revenue source, so a later DVD release is merely a bonus, additional revenue source. Therefore the DVD release can be sold relatively cheap. Second, domestic DVDs sell many times more copies than anime DVDs. Popular mainstream American DVD releases may sell hundreds of thousand or even millions of copies. They can be sold relatively cheaply because they earn their profits from sheer number of sales. On the other hand, domestic anime DVDs almost never break a million copies sold. In fact, the overwhelming majority of American anime DVDs never even reach a hundred thousand copies sold. There are many American anime DVDs that literally sell only a few thousand copies during their entire American lifespan, and some American release anime DVDs sell literally only a few hundred copies during their entire American availability period. An excellent illustration of this principle is Media Blasters’ CEO John Sirabella’s public statement that he doesn’t expect the first Ah! My Goddess television series to ever turn a profit in America. The licensing cost of the series was so high that Media Blasters is just hoping to sell enough copies to break even on the series before their distribution license expires.

According to unconfirmed report, average contemporary anime licensing starts at around $20,000 per episode and can go as high as $80,000 per episode! And adding an English dub can easily double the cost of releasing an anime series in America. When just getting an anime series onto American DVD may cost hundreds of thousands, or even millions, yet the series may sell only a few thousand copies, it’s just not financially possible to release the series at a price that competes with domestic Hollywood releases. I believe it’s a safe estimate to say that Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest DVD sold as many, if not more copies on its release day alone than the cumulative total of all the Cowboy Bebop DVDs ever sold in America. That’s not an exaggeration.

The retail cost of anime in America cannot be directly compared to the retail price of domestic American DVDs because the investment necessary to release anime on American DVD is far greater, and the sales potential of anime in America much smaller than average American mainstream DVDs. Domestic retailers can only release inexpensive anime DVD sets after they’ve broken even on the series’ licensing and localization costs from the sale of individual discs, or if the company is consciously taking a loss on releasing the discount priced sets just to get the show to market. Anime is regrettably not a cheap hobby, and it never will be. Licensing and translating anime is an expensive endeavor, and anime is likely to never be commercially successful enough in America to compete with the sales statistics of mainstream American DVDs. That’s why anime can’t compete or compare with the cost of American DVDs.

There are no multi-millionaires in the American anime industry. There are no fat-cat CEOs that earn outrageous salaries generated from inflated prices on DVD sales. American distributors don’t sell anime DVDs at $30 a disc because they’re trying to gouge consumers. In fact, even at $30 per disc many series are never profitable. The American anime industry has consistently maintained a $30 per volume price point for years because that’s the cost necessary to keep the American anime industry in business. I understand that fans can’t be expected to buy every anime release, and consumers have a right to set their own, individual sense of value, but fans buying DVDs with a $30 retail price are literally the consumer base that keeps the American anime industry afloat.