The Japanese entertainment company Toho has reached an agreement to acquire a 100 percent equity share of the North American animation producer and distributor GKIDS.<\/p>\n
GKIDS will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toho International. GKIDS founder Eric Beckman will remain as CEO, and Dave Jesteadt will remain as president of the company.<\/p>\n
Toho and GKIDS have worked together previously on such hits as Makoto Shinkai\u2019s Weathering With You<\/em>, Studio TRIGGER\u2019s Promare<\/em>, Spirited Away: Live on Stage<\/em>\u00a0and others. Toho is also the Japanese domestic distributor for many of the same properties handled by GKIDS in North America, including the works of Studio Ghibli, Mamoru Hosoda, Makoto Shinkai and more.<\/p>\n Toho’s president and CEO, Hiro Matsuoka, said, \u201cThrough their hard work, vision, and integrity, GKIDS has built a unique position in the U.S. market, which dovetails perfectly with Toho\u2019s own strengths and strategic mission. This partnership accelerates Toho\u2019s goals to prioritize animation, develop international markets, and support IP creation while bringing exceptional Japanese and animated content to global audiences. We are honored to be working together with Eric, Dave and the entire GKIDS team and welcoming them into the Toho family.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor all GKIDS\u2019 filmmakers, content partners, distribution partners, and especially the fans, this is truly great news,\u201d said Beckman and Jesteadt. \u201cGKIDS will continue to operate as we always have\u2014with the same team, the same passion, and the same mission\u2014but now with the backing of a highly complementary and legendary parent company. We are truly thrilled to be joining forces with the esteemed and storied Toho, home to Godzilla<\/em> and Akira Kurosawa, as well as blockbuster anime franchises like My Hero Academia<\/em> and Jujutsu Kaisen<\/em>. This partnership will empower us to bring even more amazing films to North American and global audiences while we continue to champion animation as a cinematic art form and push the limits of what the medium is capable of. We could not be more excited about the opportunities in front of us. The best is yet to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Japanese entertainment company Toho has reached an agreement to acquire a 100 percent equity share of the North American animation producer and distributor GKIDS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":28485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[10104,10103],"class_list":["post-28482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-gkids","tag-toho","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n