Dragon Ball Super Broly Budget

What Is the Budget of Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018)?

The production budget of Dragon Ball Super: Broly was approximately $8,500,000, financed by Toei Animation, Bandai Namco, Bird Studio (Akira Toriyama), and Fuji Television. The figure represented a meaningful step up from prior Dragon Ball theatrical features and reflected director Tatsuya Nagamine's significantly more ambitious animation style, the expanded canvas Akira Toriyama provided in the screenplay, and the international theatrical-release ambitions Toei had set for the title.

Toei Animation produced the picture across approximately two years from 2017 through late 2018, with animation supervisor Naohiro Shintani overseeing a substantial visual redesign of the principal characters. The picture was the first Dragon Ball theatrical feature to receive a sustained international theatrical release through Funimation Films.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

• Animation Production: A roughly two-year animation production at Toei Animation overseen by director Tatsuya Nagamine, animation supervisor Naohiro Shintani, and lead animator Yuya Takahashi.
• Voice Cast: Masako Nozawa returning as Son Goku, Ryo Horikawa as Vegeta, Bin Shimada as Broly, Ryusei Nakao as Frieza, plus the broader Japanese voice cast, and parallel English voice work by Sean Schemmel, Christopher Sabat, and Vic Mignogna for the international rollout.
• Character Redesign: A significant visual redesign of the principal characters by animation supervisor Naohiro Shintani, bringing the Dragon Ball franchise closer to Akira Toriyama's original illustrative style.
• Music and Soundtrack: Norihito Sumitomo's orchestral score and the franchise's vocal theme work, plus the Funimation English-language dub recording.
• Marketing and Distribution: Toei's Japanese theatrical campaign for the December 14, 2018 wide release and Funimation Films' subsequent US, UK, and global theatrical campaigns.
• Akira Toriyama Story Credit: Toriyama's direct involvement on the original screenplay, the first time he had written a full Dragon Ball theatrical screenplay since the 1990s.

How Does Dragon Ball Super: Broly's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

• Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (2022): Budget approximately $10,000,000 | Worldwide $96,033,202. The next Dragon Ball theatrical feature, made on a slightly higher budget with similar but smaller global reach.
• Your Name (2016): Budget undisclosed | Worldwide $358,000,000. Makoto Shinkai's anime release on a comparable production scale with far broader global commercial success.
• My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising (2019): Budget undisclosed | Worldwide $40,000,000. A comparable theatrical anime release from Toho the following year.
• Demon Slayer Mugen Train (2020): Budget approximately $15,800,000 | Worldwide $507,124,261. The subsequent Aniplex theatrical anime release with vastly stronger international reception.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly Box Office Performance

Dragon Ball Super: Broly opened in Japan on December 14, 2018, debuting at second place at the Japanese box office. Funimation Films released the English-language version theatrically across North America starting on January 16, 2019, where it opened in fifth place with $7,037,229.

• Production Budget: $8,500,000.
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): approximately $15,000,000 across the Japanese campaign and the Funimation international rollout.
• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $25,000,000.
• Worldwide Gross: $135,508,389.
• Net Return: approximately positive $40,000,000 to $50,000,000 after the various exhibitor splits.
• ROI: approximately positive 200 percent on total investment before ancillaries.

For every $1 invested, Toei Animation and its partners recouped roughly $3.00 after the various territorial exhibitor splits, with the picture standing as one of the most profitable Dragon Ball theatrical features ever produced.

International accounted for 77 percent of the worldwide total, with Japan, the United States, Mexico, and France all contributing significant returns. The Funimation US theatrical release outperformed any prior Dragon Ball theatrical release and established the franchise's viability as a sustained international theatrical property.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly Production History

Toei Animation greenlit Dragon Ball Super: Broly in 2017 following the success of Dragon Ball Super: Battle of Gods (2013), Resurrection F (2015), and the Dragon Ball Super television series (2015 to 2018). Akira Toriyama returned to write the original screenplay, marking his first sustained involvement in a Dragon Ball theatrical screenplay since the 1990s.

Director Tatsuya Nagamine, working at Toei Animation across 2017 and 2018, oversaw a substantial visual redesign of the principal characters. Animation supervisor Naohiro Shintani led the character design rework, bringing the Dragon Ball franchise closer to Akira Toriyama's original illustrative style. The picture's climactic Goku-versus-Broly transformation sequence consumed a significant share of the production schedule.

The reintroduction of Broly, originally created for the non-canon 1993 theatrical feature Dragon Ball Z: Broly The Legendary Super Saiyan, was confirmed as canon for the first time within the Dragon Ball Super continuity. The picture's Broly character design and origin story were both substantially revised from the 1993 version.

Awards and Recognition

Dragon Ball Super: Broly won the Japan Academy Prize for Excellent Animation of the Year at the 42nd Japan Academy Film Prize ceremony in 2019. The picture received nominations from the Crunchyroll Anime Awards in multiple categories, including Best Animation, Best Film, and Best Fight Scene. It received the Annie Award nomination for Best Animated Independent Feature. The picture has appeared on numerous year-end best-of anime lists and has become a regular reference point in coverage of theatrical anime's sustained Western expansion.

Critical Reception

Dragon Ball Super: Broly holds an 84 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 59. CinemaScore audiences gave the film an A. Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "the action sequences are some of the most exciting animation of the year." Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the picture three stars and wrote that "it's the most kinetic, character-driven Dragon Ball film yet." Peter Debruge of Variety called the visual style "the franchise at its most beautifully drawn." Some Western critics noted the picture's assumed familiarity with decades of Dragon Ball continuity. The picture has retained sustained critical reassessment as one of the franchise's strongest entries.