Market share of movie

Japanese movie industry has been sluggish compared with the world!

The market size of movie industry in Japan is about 740 billion yen(about 7.4 billion dollars) according to the total sales of 21 Japanese movie companies in Japan. The movie revenue of Japan in 2017 is about 230 billion yen according to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan. This revenue was near its peak in 2016 from 1945.

Japanese movie industry has been sluggish compared with the world movie indutry though its movie revenue peaked in 2016. The movie revenue of USA increased from 80 billion yen in 2011 to 1.3 trillion yen in 2015. It of China was 820 billion yen in 2015, that increased five times during four years from in 2011. Japanese movie revenue ranked the third of world's movie revenue ranking because it of China overtook Japan in 2015.

In addition, the number of movie theaters in Japna is decreasing year by year because of video diversification. This number was decreasing due to diffusion of TV, VCR, PC and smartphone. It looks like that this number hit bottom in recent years. The reason is because the number of cinema complex (cinecom) increased in recent years. Indeed, the number of costomers by screen is decreaing.

There are three major movie companies in Japan, Toho, Toei and Shochiku. Toho has the top share of Japanese movie market, and accounts for about 36% of this market. It distributes many Japanese animation movie, such as Doraemon, Ghibli's anime, Pokémon anime. On the other hand, its theater named TOHO Cinemas shows Beauty and the Beast, Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean and more.

The three major movie companies are proactive in expanding overseas because Japanese movie market is an oligopoly and a mature market. They sold Japanese movies at eight billion yen from 2000s. The amount of sales peaked at 14 billion yen in 2015. Chinese theaters showed 11 Japanese movies in 2016, especially Doraemon series is very popular. About 60 Japanese movies are showed in Southeast Asia.

By the way, there are many comapanies which provide OTT(VOD) services in Japan, Gyao, AbemaTV, hulu, Netflix, DAZN, Paravi, dTV and more. Satellite broadcasting companies also provide OTT service for customers. On the other hand, bonobo servise which led by movie companies, Toho, Toei, Disney and FOX, ended on June 30th 2017.

Movie companies and theaters are proactive in the next generation movie instead of bonobo service. For example, 4DX movie is 3D movie added wind, spray, smell, smoke and bubble. MX4D movie is 4DX movie added seat feeling, moving and rumbling. Especially, IMAX cinema projection which is showed with high-resolution cameras, film formats and film projectors is becoming popular little by little. The customer satisfaction of it is over 90% by survey after watching it.

Toho(TYO:9602), Toei(TYO:9605) and Shochiku(TYO:9601) are listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Foreign investors can invest them through many ETFs, iShares MSCI Japan ETF(EWJ), Wisdomtree Japan Hedged ETF(DXJ) and more. Many Japanese companies increase their sales and profit with weak yen. If investors want to hedge an impact of fluctuations in foregn exchange rates, they should invest currency hedged ETFs, Deutsche X-trackers MSCI Japan Currency-Hedged Equity Fund(DBJP) and iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Japan ETF(HEWJ).