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  * _Ghost in the Shell_ (1995): budget around $10 million, box office around $2 million ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_\(1995_film\)), [IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113568/))
  * _Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence_ (2004): budget around $20 million, box office around $10 million ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_2:_Innocence), [IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347246/?ref_=tt_rec_tt))

How can a series so good and influential flop financially? Even Rotten
Tomatoes gave the original one 95%, and it only gathered 2 million while
movies like _The Fifth Element_ at the same time raked in hundreds of
millions.

On its weekend, the 2004 one earned less than half a million dollars in the
US. The new movie which is not great got 20 million in its first week.

Am I missing something? Something doesn't add up. Do the box office figures
include income from Japan? Or DVD sales? Or something else? Surely they
wouldn't keep financing something unprofitable.


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ghost-in-the-shell
Have the Ghost In The Shell animated movies made any profit?


As mentioned above, there are several movies in the GITS franchise, and being
more specific would be helpful.

> **Have the Ghost In The Shell animated movies made any profit?**

Not according to box office sales for those movies released in theaters.

> **"How can a series so good and influential flop financially?"**

You are trying to correlate how a movie is received by critics and/or fans
with how well it does at the box office. But, unfortunately, there are many
factors that affect how well a movie does at the box office; positive reviews
don't guarantee financial success. Just to recap, I put the budget and gross
for the above mentioned movies based on IMDB, Box Office Mojo, and Wikipedia
for regional releases.

**Ghost in the Shell (1995)**

  * Budgeted: approx 5.4 million USD
  * Domestic Gross: $515,905
  * Foreign (Japan, UK only): $2.3 million USD

**Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004)**

  * Budgeted: approx 18 million USD

  * Domestic Gross: $1,043,896

  * Foreign Gross: $8,745,755

  * Worldwide: $9,789,651

> **Do the box office figures include income from Japan?**

In some cases, a movie may be released in different countries during different
times. You may be strictly looking at a specific regional release. Your
absolute best bet to look at Box Office - Worldwide, where both domestic and
foreign gross totals are included. This will give you a better idea of how
well the movie financially performed.

> **Do the box office figures include DVD sales?**

No. The box office gross is basically the total of all the ticket sales for
that movie.

> **Or something else? Surely they wouldn't keep financing something
> unprofitable.**

The GITS franchise does exist outside of box office movies. When you consider
other sources of revenue such as the manga, direct-to-dvd or blu-ray sales,
merchandise sales, international licensing fees, etc. you'll start to see the
bigger financial picture. It is not uncommon for manga publishers to use anime
to increase revenue for their source material which is almost always the
manga. In fact, if an anime release doesn't perform well, but it boosts manga
sales, it's not considered a loss at all. It's the cost of doing business. How
the anime industry produces profit is very fascinating because sometimes the
goal of anime isn't to produce a profit, it's to maintain viewership, or
promote source (or branded) material, and sales of merchandise.


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