How Much Money The Author Of Demon Slayer Made From The Mugen Train Movie?
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train is the most successful anime movie of all time. In terms of both popularity & profit, the movie broke nearly all box office records worldwide becoming the highest-grossing anime movie ever made. But, of all this profit how much did the creator of the series, Koyoharu Gotouge did really make? Surprisingly, not enough!
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train grossed over 57 billion yen ($500 million) worldwide. It also became the highest-earning movie of 2020 and the first non-Hollywood film to do so. But, despite all this success, the author made just a mere portion of it. Out of the $500 million, Gotouge made an estimated total of only $17,380 bucks.
This data comes from a Japanese editorial website, Business Journal which dives deep into the business side of various industries. In an interview, the editorial staff spoke with Japanese film insider & writer Hotaka Sugimoto about the distribution of box office revenue of Demon Slayer between the creator, publisher, and the production committee.
Sugimoto explained that because Demon Slayer is Gotouge’s first serialized work, they are treated as a new writer, so the upfront fee for use of the work as a theatrical film can be incredibly low. He further added that Mugen Train was only decided to become a film during the early broadcast of the Demon Slayer TV anime series when it wasn’t that much popular as it is now.
Both of these two aspects mean that, at most, the fee given to Shueisha for the rights of the story was only around 4 million yen ($34,767), with only half of it, i.e. 2 million yen ($17,383) going to Gotouge directly for the theatrical release of Mugen Train.
Sugimoto pointed out that because Shueisha is one of three companies on the production committee for the film including Aniplex and Ufotable, they will receive a hefty amount back from the box office profits. And, this is after the theaters take their cut as well which is estimated to be 50% of the box office profits in Japan.
Now, it’s on Shueisha whether they pass the profits onto Gotouge or not and that depends heavily on their contract with the publisher, which is undisclosed to the public. However, Sugimoto mentioned that as a newer writer in Weekly Shonen Jump, Gotouge’s contract would likely not have any royalty payments built-in for the theatrical release of Demon Slayer: Mugen Train.
In 2015, Hideaki Sorachi, the creator of Gintama, released a statement on this matter as well by mentioning that “regardless of how many people watch the film or how much the gross earnings are, not a single yen goes to the author. We are only paid an upfront license fee.” So, all the profits from the theatrical release of the movie hardly go into the creator’s pocket.
However, it’s not totally true that the author of Demon Slayer didn’t make a single penny from the film. Gotouge may actually receive some royalties from “secondary usage fees” in regard to the film. Sugimoto explained that a theatrical screening is classified as an “original usage fee” which is usually only an upfront payment, but home video rights are classified as “secondary usage fees.”
In these cases, the original creator would receive some royalties based on DVDs and Blu-rays rented and sold. On average, an original creator of a work would receive 1.75% royalties on a purchase of a home video release in Japan. So, basically, whatever the movie makes from the DVD sales, a portion of it goes to the creator though it’s still very low.
At last, Sugimoto added that even though the box office gross royalties may not be paid out to the original creator, it’s still a win-win situation for the creator because sales of the original work go up if the movie turns out to be a blockbuster. And, for Demon Slayer it did happen.
The sales of the manga rose to record highs, selling over 82 million physical copies in 2020 alone! As of 2022, the series has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide. In addition to it, the goods sold at the theaters in Japan also give commission to the original creator, giving them some royalties back on those sales as well.
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Source: Crunchyroll
