Japan’s Toei Unveils Ten-Year Growth Plan After Death of President-CEO Tezuka Osamu

Japanese streamer U-Next has renewed its content deal with Warner Bros Discovery, under which it will continue to be the SVOD streaming home of HBO programming in Japan. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) has increased its stake in Japanese film and TV studio Toei Company, from 5% to 6.03%, according to a report by the Reuters financial news agency. The move comes shortly after Toei published a ten-year plan for international expansion. Toei includes film and TV production operations, the T-Joy cinema chain and Toei Animation. Last month, it said that it had beaten its film revenue record, thanks to the success of titles including “The First Slam Dunk,” “The Legend of Butterfly” and “One Piece Film Red.” The stake increase also follows PIF’s February announcement that it had increased its stake in Japanese games and console maker Nintendo to 8.26% and that (along with the Singapore state fund GIC) was a buyer of a $966 million bond issue from Korean entertainment-tech firm Kakao Corp.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Global streaming operation Netflix is forecast to spend $1.9 billion on local content in the Asia-Pacific region this year as group revenue from the region accelerates to 12%, according to a new report. The content investment spending figure represents a 15% hike. Netflix will grow revenues this year by 12% year-on-year to exceed $4 billion compared with 9% growth in 2022, says a new report published on Monday by Media Partners Asia.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Michelle Yeoh was already an actor star overseas by 1997 thanks to popular Hong Kong movies like “Police Story 3: Super Cop” and “Supercop 2,” but it wasn’t until the James Bond tentpole “Tomorrow Never Dies” opened that year that Yeoh had her Hollywood breakthrough. The actor played Wai Lin, a Chinese spy who is highly skilled in marital arts and bucks every “damsel in distress” and “Bond girl” stereotype. “The first movie I did after I came to America was ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ with Pierce Brosnan,” Yeoh recently told People magazine. “James Bond at that point had only been known as macho, and the girls were just the ones with cutesy names.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor AMC Networks’ Sentai Filmworks unit reached an agreement with Japan’s Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS) that provides exclusive rights for AMC’s anime-focused HIDIVE streaming service to distribute part of MBS’s future programming lineup in all global markets outside of Asia. The pact is Sentai’s biggest-ever deal for anime content, according to the company. The output deal encompasses MBS’s programming slate based on a collection of popular manga and light novel titles. All of the shows will be available exclusively on HIDIVE outside of Asia. Among the shows covered in the Sentai-MBS output is “The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior” (pictured above). The new show, scheduled to premiere in July 2023, is a 12-episode series based on hit fantasy light novel by Tenichi and published by Ichijinsha. The series is being directed by Norio Nitta and written by Deko Akao with animation by OLM.

BBC Studios Renews Pact With ZDF

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Multi-territory Asian streaming service Viu has publicly disclosed key performance metrics for the first time and said that it was cash flow positive on an annual basis in 2022. The company, which operates in 16 Asian and Middle East markets and is seen as a rare success story in regional streaming, counts Hong Kong conglomerate PCCW as its principal shareholder, which also unveiled its own profits and loss figures for the 2022 calendar year. Viu which operates both ad-supported and paying tiers, said that it had 66.4 monthly active users in 2022, an increase of 13% year-on-year. Paying subscribers increased by 45% to 12.2 million over the same period.

Gemini author and academic Jack Zipes maintains, “Fairy tales since the beginning of recorded time, and perhaps earlier, have been a means to conquer the terrors of mankind through metaphor.”National Tell a Fairytale Day on February 26 celebrates our grand tradition of subjugating horrors into happily ever after.Many of the tales we know and venerate today are credited to Aesop, a Greek slave and storyteller who used oral tradition to create ethical guidelines for his fellow man. OG fairy tales were decidedly darker than their Disney versions would have you believe; full of allegory and cannibalism, gruesome death and unheeded warnings.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japan’s online video market slowed in the fourth quarter of 2022, but ad-supported streamer TVer surged forward to overtake Prime Video as the most watched platform, according to a new report. The “Japan Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics” report by consultancy Media Partners Asia shows SVOD subscriptions slowing to their slowest pace since 2015. From an average of 6-9 million per year between 2018 and 2021, they fell to just 3.1 million in 2022. Premium video viewership grew 8% quarter on quarter to reach 31 billion minutes in the fourth quarter, with SVOD at 55% share; AVOD at 34% and freemium at 11%.

Shakira fans are taking sides!

Imax said today it expects return to pre-pandemic gross box office level of $1.1 billion in 2023.

.The US and UK currently don't offer this benefit as standard, but we hope that more governments will take inspiration from Spain—as well as Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea, and Zambia—in accommodating the impact of periods on our health.Studies have found that the workplaces ignoring the impact of periods on an employee affects productivity considerably, as well. that people who menstruate tend to work through their period pain, and it makes them less productive.

K-pop festival KCON has confirmed dates and venues for its 2023 events in Japan and Los Angeles.On February 21, the official KCON Twitter account shared a video announcement revealing the dates of its upcoming 2023 events in Japan and Los Angeles.Both events will take place over three days (Friday to Sunday), starting with KCON Japan from May 12-14 at Makuhari Messe, followed by KCON LA from August 18-20 at the Crypto.com Arena at the LA Convention Center.At the time of publishing, KCON has yet to announce the line-up for either festival.

Anyone who likes to get out into nature for a springtime walk has been warned to look out for a highly invasive weed.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Berlinale Special section of the Berlin Film Festival is a showcase for movies that are intelligent, but less arty than those in the main competition or festival sidebars. And in showcasing mainstream non-English-language films the section is also a springboard for performers who may be big news at home, but who are little-known outside their core markets. Japan’s Nakajima Yuto fits that description perfectly. He has a dual career as a singer with boy band Hey! Say! Jump! and more than a decade as an actor. His acting credits including the Mike Ross role in the Japanese remake of hit U.S. series “Suits.” In his position as a music idol appealing to a volatile, younger demographic, means that selecting acting roles is — normally — something requiring careful consideration.

. But the actor's 2.0 structural hairstyle for the , which are taking place tonight at London's Royal Festival Hall, has just cemented her reputation as an A-list hair chameleon.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Luc Besson’s ”Dogman,” starring Caleb Landry Jones, wowed buyers at the Berlin’s European Film Market, where it was screened for select buyers. “We hosted only one private screening of the completed film and buyers were stunned, they all came out saying that it was Luc Besson’s best film to date, his most mature movie and some even called it a masterpiece,” said Gregoire Melin, founder of Kinology, which is handling sales on the film. On the heels of the screening, Kinology closed deals with some of the biggest distributors in key international territories, including Italy (Lucky Red), Germany and Austria (Capelight Pictures), Spain and Latin America (Sun Distribution Group), Scandinavia (Svensk Filmindustri), Benelux (Belga Films), Switzerland (Elite Film), Middle East (Front Row), Poland (Monolith), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo Audiovisuais), Czech Republic and Slovakia (AQS) and former Yugoslavia (Blitz).

Kellie Pickler's husband has died. The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department told ET that Kyle Jacobs was found dead at the couple's Nashville home on Friday.

Moving on? Anna Marie Tendler seemingly has a new man in her life after her split from ex-husband John Mulaney.

Brent Lang Executive Editor CAA has signed Jonathan Rockefeller. The American-Australian producer, director, and writer, is the founder and owner of Rockefeller Productions. The production company has become a leader in family entertainment having partnered with the likes of Disney, Pixar, Lego, Colorado Rockies, Sesame Street, Eric Carle, Peanuts, and Paddington Bear to create large-scale puppetry stage adaptations and events across the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Rockefeller Productions is currently working on a number of shows, including “Disney’s Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation, which has a U.S. national tour, as well as a UK/Ireland tour, as well as “The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show,” which is based on the beloved children’s book by Eric Carle. Their recent productions include “Sesame Street: The Musical,” “Paddington Gets in a Jame,” and “The Golden Girls Show!: A Puppet Parody.”