Chinese Distributor Road Pictures Makes Major Expansion Into Anime IP Business (Exclusive)

Road Pictures, one of China’s most consistently successful distributors of Japanese anime and international prestige cinema, is preparing a major expansion into the anime IP and physical entertainment business. At the upcoming TIFCOM content market in Tokyo this week, the Beijing-based company will unveil a new venture to license, promote and monetize high-value ACGN properties (animation, comics, games and YA novels). Road Pictures says the new entity, which will go by the name GuGuGuGu in Chinese and Animation Valley in English, will pursue three core activities — content distribution, merchandizing and experiential services — carried out by both online and offline channels, including a network of proprietary IP stores, themed cafes and theme parks. Road Pictures first caught the international film world’s attention in 2018, when it marketed and distributed Nadine Lebaki’s small-budget arthouse drama Capernaum to a bofo $54 million box-office total in China. In 2023, the company generated two huge hits by marketing and distributing Japanese anime features in China — first with Mokoto Shinkai’s Suzume in March ($110 million/RMB 808 million) and again with Toei Animation’s The First Slam Dunk ($90 million / RMB 660 million) in April. The scale of those successes proves the market demand
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