Sony Burned Billions on Anime Theaters, Then Quit

Lionsgate just signed a distribution deal with Toei Animation to bring anime films to U. S. theaters starting with Monkey Quest in 2027 — walking into the exact structural trap that destroyed a $120 billion company's anime subsidiary five years ago.

In 2017, Sony acquired Funimation, the dominant U. anime distributor, reportedly for nine figures. Sony had the capital, theatrical infrastructure, supply chain. Global weight that streaming-only Crunchyroll lacked, and for a moment it looked like the market problem was solved.

By 2022, Sony folded Funimation entirely into Crunchyroll, killing the theatrical operation. The subsidiary had burned through enough money to matter even to a conglomerate with Sony's resources. It had not generated the sustained box office habit that justified the losses.

What actually kills anime distribution in the U. is not about the product — it's about the cost structure. Building a theatrical audience for anime requires years of consistent releases, marketing spend that loses money upfront. Infrastructure that sits idle between films, because American audiences have never been given a reason to expect anime films regularly. You build that habit by losing money year after year, and Sony chose not to.

Lionsgate, a midsized studio with a market cap around $1. 2 billion, has now decided it can afford what Sony decided against. What's different is not the economics, only that Lionsgate's board may not yet understand what Sony learned. Watch whether they're willing to green-light ten anime films that bomb before the eleventh one works. That's not a question about anime, it's a question about whether any company will choose sustained loss as a business strategy when the market could turn profitable if they simply stayed.