The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2015
Toho split Attack on Titan into two films, targeted 10B yen, and got half that
The adaptation rewrote the manga's setting so heavily it sparked backlash, and its two parts made about 4.9B yen against a roughly 4B yen budget.
Toho · 2015-08-01
What happened
Toho adapted Hajime Isayama's hit manga Attack on Titan into two live-action films released months apart, budgeted at a combined estimated 4 billion yen — described at the time as one of the largest Japanese film productions ever — and publicly targeted a combined 10 billion yen box office across both parts.
The finished films departed heavily from the manga's plot and characters, introducing original settings and story elements that drew sustained criticism from fans and were singled out by Japanese film critics as among the year's worst screenplays.
Part one earned about 3.25 billion yen and part two about 1.68 billion yen, for a combined roughly 4.9 billion yen — under half the studio's public target and, once the exhibitor's box office split is counted, well short of covering the production cost.
Why it happened
- The studio set a public revenue target nearly double what a faithful adaptation's fanbase size could realistically support.
- Rewriting the manga's core setting alienated the built-in audience the project's budget depended on to succeed.
- Splitting the story into two films assumed audience turnout would hold steady between installments, and it did not.
- Nobody adjusted the second film's release plan after the first film's reception made the shortfall visible.
The lesson
Splitting a story into two films multiplies the cost of getting the adaptation wrong, since the second film inherits the first one's damaged reputation.
Aftermath
The films remain a frequently cited example in Japanese media of manga adaptations that alienated their source fanbase, and a later Hollywood adaptation of Attack on Titan cited the live-action films as a cautionary example to avoid repeating.
Sources
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