South Korean media powerhouse CJ ENM and Japan’s leading Toei Animation announced that they have formed a strategic partnership to produce content targeted at global audiences. The companies have agreed to collaborate on drama series, films and animation, making use of each other’s extensive vaults of IPs as well as developing new ones.
Both companies have extensive libraries of existing content. The deal sees production companies under the CJ ENM umbrella developing Toei Animation IP into feature films, and for Toei Animation to develop CJ ENM’s IP into animation.
CJ ENM is is Korea’s foremost film and television studio, cable operator and music producer. Best known for multiple Oscar winner Parasite, the company’s film credits also include Snowpiercer and Miss Granny. Series credits range from Crash Landing On You to Goblin: The Lonely And Great God and Hospital Playlist while it is also behind music format I Can See Your Voice; stage credits include the Tony Award winning Broadway production Kinky Boots.
CJ also has a strategic investment in David Ellison’s Skydance Media and is currently co-producing a drama series with the U.S.-based company. The company has been on a global expansion push over the past year looking to form partnerships with content creators in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Toei has produced numerous series including the Dragon Ball Z and One Piece franchises as well as Galaxy Express 999 and Sailor Moon. Its library numbers 13,100 episodes, including 255 feature films and 288 television series.
“Toei Animation’s IP has great potential for transmedia or cross-media storytelling, as they have an existing strong global fandom and appeals to a wide range of age groups. We are also excited to see how CJ ENM’s original content that expands over 5,000 different IPs will be able open new doors of creative possibilities for Toei Animation,” said ENM’s content R&D center, CJ senior VP Yi Jongmin.
“We look forward to working with CJ ENM, a company that has been recognized for its borderless content and its influence in shaping some of the new trends in the global media entertainment landscape. Combined with Toei Animation’s know-hows from a wealth of experience and accomplishments in producing global animation hits, we are confident that the two companies will be able to create synergy to create global mega-hit contents,” said Toei Animation production department, executive producer and executive officer Takashi Washio.
The companies have set up a task force with employees from both companies to push forward rapidly to develop content that can target not just their two home markets but also global distribution.
