Toho, Japan’s largest film company, made an operating profit of ¥30.9bn ($194m) in the six months to 31 August, down 24.8% on the same period of 2025, when Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle and Kokuho gave it record-breaking hits. Revenue slipped 3.4% to ¥185.2bn ($1.16bn) and net profit fell 40.2% to ¥20.0bn ($125m). Reporting on 15 October, Toho kept its full-year operating profit target of ¥62bn ($388m); the next test of it is Godzilla Minus Zero, which opens in Japan on 3 November.
Key facts
- Revenue, March to August 2026: ¥185.2bn ($1.16bn), down 3.4%
- Operating profit: ¥30.9bn ($194m), down 24.8%; net profit ¥20.0bn ($125m), down 40.2%
- Film business revenue ¥91.2bn ($571m), down 12.1%; IP and anime revenue ¥43.1bn ($270m), up 15.6%
- Full-year forecast to February 2027: revenue ¥345bn ($2.16bn), operating profit ¥62bn ($388m), both unchanged; net profit raised by ¥7bn to ¥48bn ($301m)
Dollar figures are converted at the European Central Bank reference rates for 31 August 2026, about ¥159.7 to the dollar.
Distribution down against a record year
The fall came mostly from film distribution, where revenue dropped 26.2% to ¥28.6bn ($179m), and rentals from Japanese cinemas fell 32.1% to ¥23.0bn ($144m). Toho’s Japanese releases grossed ¥73.5bn ($460m) from January to September, 62.9% of the same months last year.
The half still had hits, led by the latest Detective Conan and Chiikawa films, while Universal’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Minions & Monsters, released by its Toho-Towa arm, also worked. Income from licensing rose 28.7% to ¥5.2bn ($32.9m), helped by the streaming rights to Human Vapor (Gasu ningen), the Netflix series that was Toho’s first project developed with the platform.
Exhibition held up better. TOHO Cinemas sold 26.2 million tickets, 4.2% fewer than a year earlier, but exhibition revenue rose 2.4% to ¥55.2bn ($345m) after the chain raised some ticket prices from 1 July, citing higher costs. Operating profit there slipped 3.5% to ¥10.3bn ($64.8m). Two OS Cinemas sites joined in October, taking the chain to 743 screens at 79 sites. Across all film activities, operating profit fell 16.4% to ¥19.4bn ($121m).
IP and anime grows, margins shrink
The IP and anime division, the centre of Toho’s growth plan, grew revenue 15.6% to ¥43.1bn ($270m). Streaming and other licensing of TOHO animation titles such as Jujutsu Kaisen, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and The Apothecary Diaries brought in ¥19.2bn ($120m), up 22.7%, and merchandise sales, led by Chiikawa and Detective Conan goods, rose 33.8% to ¥12.9bn ($80.8m).
The division’s operating profit dropped 44.2% to ¥6.0bn ($37.4m). Toho blamed a one-off cost tied to an earlier acquisition, spending to build its business abroad, and a two-month lag in booking overseas revenue since that business moved into a separate company, TOHO Global, on 1 March. President Hirotaka Matsuoka told analysts on 16 October that the division’s underlying performance had been very strong.
The forecast and Godzilla
The net profit upgrade comes from a sale of cross-held shares on 15 September, not from trading. Toho expects an extraordinary gain of about ¥11.1bn ($69.5m) in its third quarter and lifted its net profit forecast from ¥41bn to ¥48bn. It left the operating target alone, saying the half had broadly gone to plan, its budget already assumed hits from Chiikawa and Godzilla Minus Zero, and it wanted to see how its big second-half releases opened.
Godzilla Minus Zero, Takashi Yamazaki’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One, opens in Japan on 3 November and in North America on 6 November through Toho’s own distributor GKIDS, and is due to play in about 80 countries. In the Q&A summary Toho published on 23 October, Matsuoka said ticket sales and awareness in Japan were so far running well ahead of Godzilla Minus One, and that reaction outside Japan was stronger still. Asked about next year, he said he had been asked not to reveal the slate yet, but that it leaned on series and filmmakers whose results are easier to predict.
Our reading
These figures say more about 2025 than about Toho’s health, and exhibition revenue rising on fewer admissions shows the July price change doing its job. The telling line is IP and anime, where revenue is growing quickly while profit goes into building Toho’s own operation abroad. Godzilla Minus Zero’s first weekends in Japan and North America will decide whether the ¥62bn operating target becomes an upgrade.
Related: Japan’s anime market hit a record ¥4.45tn in 2025; Amazon MGM Studios will double its spending on Japanese originals; Resident Evil passes 1m admissions in Japan; Sanae Takaichi backs Japanese film at the Tokyo festival.
Sources
- Toho, 2027年２月期 第２四半期（中間期）決算短信 (consolidated half-year results), 15 October 2026
- Toho, 2027年２月期通期業績予想の修正に関するお知らせ (full-year forecast revision), 15 October 2026
- Toho, half-year results presentation, 15 October 2026
- Toho, results briefing transcript (16 October), published 19 October 2026
- Toho, results briefing Q&A summary, published 23 October 2026
- Toho, September 2026 distribution box office report, 9 October 2026
- Netflix, Human Vapor (ガス人間) title page
- Godzilla Minus Zero global release dates, godzilla.com