Toei Animation has announced on Thursday that it is revising its consolidated earnings forecast higher for the current fiscal year ending in March of 2010. The anime studio raised its sales projections from 17.7 billion yen (about US$199 million) to 20.2 billion yen (US$227 million), although they still remain 7.0% lower than the sales in the previous fiscal year. It now projects operating profits of 1.9 billion yen (US$21 million) — up from its earlier forecast of 1.4 billion yen (US$16 million), but still 39.2% lower from the previous year.
Most significantly, Toei raised its projected net profits from 1.0 billion yen (US$11 million) to 1.2 billion yen (US$14 million) — 2.5 times the net profits reported in the previous fiscal year.
Stronger than expected box office returns from anime films such as One Piece Film Strong World and sales of character goods were cited as the reason for the higher projected net profits. The dip in anime DVD sales was balanced by higher returns from films at the beginning of the year. In particular, Toei had projected that it would earn 3.0 billion yen (US$34 million) from One Piece Film Strong World, but it has now racked up 4.7 billion yen (US$53 million) in ticket sales as of Tuesday.
Home 
