This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Kadokawa Daiei Studio" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Japanese. (October 2024) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Japanese article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 1,377 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Japanese Wikipedia article at [[:ja:角川大映スタジオ]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|ja|角川大映スタジオ}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Kadokawa Daiei Studio

Native name	株式会社角川大映スタジオ
Romanized name	Kabushiki gaisha Kadokawa Daiei Sutajio
Company type	Private KK
Industry	Film
Predecessor	Kadokawa Pictures Daiei Film
Founded	November 2002
Headquarters	1-8-19 Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8078
Area served	Japan, worldwide
Key people	Kadokawa Tsuguhiko (Chairman) Shinichiro Inoue (President and CEO)
Products	Motion pictures
Total equity	¥250 million
Parent	Kadokawa Corporation
Website	kd-st.co.jp

Kadokawa Daiei Studio, formerly Kadokawa Pictures Inc. (角川映画株式会社, Kadokawa Eiga Kabushiki-gaisha) is the film division of the Japanese company the Kadokawa Corporation. It is one of the four members of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ), and is therefore the youngest of Japan's Big Four film studios.

In 1945, Genyoshi Kadokawa established Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., focusing on the publishing business.^[1]

In 1975, Kadokawa's president, Haruki Kadokawa, decided to venture into the film business, launching the film division of Kadokawa Shoten; thus Kadokawa Pictures was born. His goal was to try to reap synergy benefits by creating film adaptations of the publishing house's most popular books and marketing them simultaneously.^[2] The company's first film was the 1976 release The Inugamis, directed by Kon Ichikawa and adapted from a Kadokawa Shoten published novel written by Seishi Yokomizo.^[3] Due to an aggressive marketing campaign, the film ended as the second-largest earner of the year in Japan.^[2]

Between 1976 and 1993, Kadokawa produced close to 60 films. The company's pictures were usually large-scale epics with sizable budgets and matching advertising campaigns, aimed for mass audiences and box-office success. While critics were not always kind on Kadokawa's works,^[2] the films were consistently popular among the viewing public. By 1992, seven out of the top 20 all-time highest box-office grossing Japanese films were Kadokawa productions.^[4] During his time at Kadokawa Shoten, Haruki Kadokawa was often hailed as the savior of Japan's struggling film industry.^[2] Kadokawa's efforts to branch into foreign markets were consistently less successful. Its biggest failure came in 1992, when the 25 million US$ film Ruby Cairo, starring Andie MacDowell, failed to find a distributor in the United States.^[2] Haruki Kadokawa was forced to resign from Kadokawa Shoten after being arrested for smuggling cocaine.^[4] The new president was Haruki's younger brother Tsuguhiko,^[4] who had previously been forced out of the company in favor of Haruki's son Taro.^[2]

Kadokawa Shoten later acquired Daiei Film Co. from Tokuma Shoten following the passing of its president, Yasuyoshi Tokuma. In November 2002, Chairman Maihiko Kadokawa announced that Daiei Film Co. would merge with the company's own film division to form Kadokawa-Daiei Film Co., Ltd.^[5]

In March 2004, Kadokawa Daiei Pictures, Inc.^[6] acquired a 44% stake in Nippon Herald Films Inc., an independent film distributor founded in 1956,^[7] and acquired the remaining 56% stake the following year.^[8][9] It later changed its name to Kadokawa Pictures.^[10]

On March 1, 2006, it merged with the Kadokawa Herald to become Kadokawa Herald Pictures Inc. and later Kadokawa Pictures.^[11] In 2007, it changed its name to Kadokawa Shoten Pictures, with Shinichiro Inoue as its president and CEO.^[12]

After a merger with Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co. in 2011, it became the studio division of its parent company, Kadokawa Group Holdings Ltd. and maintained its name, Kadokawa Pictures, focusing on mixed-media business.^[13][14]

• Toho
• Shintoho
• Tsuburaya Productions
• Daiei Film
• Nikkatsu
• Shochiku
• Toei Company

• Official website (in Japanese)
• Kadokawa Anime Channel at YouTube