A Silent Voice The Movie Budget

What Is the Budget of A Silent Voice: The Movie (2016)?

The exact production budget of A Silent Voice: The Movie has never been publicly disclosed. The picture was produced by Kyoto Animation, the renowned Japanese studio behind K-On! and Free!, with director Naoko Yamada leading her second theatrical feature after Tamako Love Story (2014). Industry coverage of comparable Kyoto Animation theatrical features places the production budget in the $4 million to $6 million range, typical for a major Japanese anime theatrical release.

Production took place across approximately two and a half years from late 2014 through summer 2016. The picture was the first Kyoto Animation theatrical feature adapted from a non-original property, drawing on Yoshitoki Oima's award-winning Weekly Shonen Magazine manga of the same name.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

• Animation Production: A roughly two-and-a-half-year animation production at Kyoto Animation in Uji, Kyoto, overseen by director Naoko Yamada and character designer Futoshi Nishiya.
• Voice Cast: Miyu Irino as Shoya Ishida, Saori Hayami as Shoko Nishimiya, Aoi Yuki as Yuzuru Nishimiya, Kensho Ono as Tomohisa Mashiba, plus a supporting ensemble. Specialized direction was used for Saori Hayami's portrayal of Shoko's atypical speech patterns.
• Sign Language Consultation: Extensive consultation with Japanese Sign Language experts and the deaf community to ensure accurate depiction of Shoko's signing and the picture's communication-access scenes.
• Background Design: Detailed cityscape and rural-Gifu background art by Mutsuo Shinohara, providing the picture's distinctive sense of physical place.
• Music and Score: Kensuke Ushio's electronic and orchestral score, plus the Aiko theme song "Koi wo Shita no wa" and licensed The Who recording "My Generation" used over the opening sequence.
• Distribution and Marketing: Shochiku's Japanese theatrical campaign for the September 17, 2016 wide release plus the various Western theatrical and home video rollouts through Eleven Arts, Anime Limited, and Anime Limited.

How Does A Silent Voice: The Movie's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

• Your Name (2016): Budget undisclosed | Worldwide $358,000,000. Makoto Shinkai's anime release the same year on a comparable production scale with vastly larger global commercial success.
• When Marnie Was There (2014): Budget undisclosed | Worldwide $35,300,000. A comparable Studio Ghibli theatrical feature with similar commercial reception.
• In This Corner of the World (2016): Budget undisclosed | Worldwide $20,400,000. A comparable Japanese theatrical anime release the same year with similar awards reception.
• Liz and the Blue Bird (2018): Budget undisclosed | Worldwide $3,700,000. Naoko Yamada's subsequent Kyoto Animation theatrical feature on a similar production scale.

A Silent Voice: The Movie Box Office Performance

A Silent Voice: The Movie opened in Japan on September 17, 2016, debuting at second place behind Your Name at the Japanese box office. The picture ran sustained release across the fall and was Kyoto Animation's highest-grossing theatrical release to that point.

• Production Budget: undisclosed; estimated at $4,000,000 to $6,000,000.
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): approximately $3,000,000 across the Japanese campaign and the various Western rollouts.
• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $7,000,000 to $9,000,000.
• Worldwide Gross: $33,054,919.
• Net Return: approximately positive $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 after the various exhibitor splits.
• ROI: approximately positive 200 to 300 percent on total investment before ancillaries.

For every $1 invested, Kyoto Animation and Shochiku recouped roughly $3.00 after the various territorial exhibitor splits, with home video and digital revenue further widening the margin.

International accounted for 99 percent of the picture's worldwide grosses outside North America. Eleven Arts' US theatrical release in October 2017 was modest but the picture has retained sustained Western home video and streaming presence through Anime Limited and various rights holders.

A Silent Voice: The Movie Production History

A Silent Voice: The Movie was adapted from Yoshitoki Oima's Weekly Shonen Magazine manga of the same name, which ran from 2013 to 2014 and won the Kodansha Manga Award. Kyoto Animation acquired the rights and assigned the project to director Naoko Yamada, marking the studio's first theatrical feature adaptation of a non-original property.

Yamada and screenwriter Reiko Yoshida worked extensively with Yoshitoki Oima and consulted with deaf-community advisors on the picture's depiction of sign language and communication access. Voice cast member Saori Hayami trained specifically to portray the atypical speech patterns of a person who became deaf in early childhood.

Production took place at Kyoto Animation's Uji studio across approximately two and a half years. The picture's release in September 2016 came almost exactly one month after Your Name and contributed to a watershed moment in the international visibility of Japanese theatrical animation.

Awards and Recognition

A Silent Voice: The Movie won the Best Animation Film prize at the 71st Mainichi Film Awards and the Best Animation prize at the 26th Japan Movie Critics Awards. The picture was nominated for the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year and received numerous additional Japanese industry honors. The Annie Awards recognized the picture in their Best Independent Animated Feature category. The Crunchyroll Anime Awards nominated the picture in multiple categories. The picture has appeared on numerous critics' polls of the greatest anime theatrical features of the 2010s.

Critical Reception

A Silent Voice: The Movie holds a 95 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 78. The picture did not receive a CinemaScore due to its limited US theatrical pattern. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote that "Yamada has made a quietly devastating film about empathy." Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave it four stars and called it "one of the most beautifully animated films of the year." Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the picture "is heart-rending in its precision." David Ehrlich of IndieWire ranked it among the year's best films internationally. The picture's depiction of disability, bullying, and adolescent depression has drawn sustained academic and critical attention. The picture has retained a strong reputation as one of the finest Kyoto Animation theatrical features and a regular reference point in writing on contemporary anime.