The Dumpster Battlein key European territories following its release in the U.S., Asia and Latin America in May.
In a quick-paced overview, Berger suggested there were currently some 800 million active anime fans worldwide.
Deadline sat down with Berger after the talk for a catch up on Crunchyrolls ambitions and strategy.
Blue Lock the Movie - Episode NagiCrunchyroll
Do you have projections for where you want to be in five, 10 years time?
MITCHELBERGER:Not that weve shared publicly.
I would say we want to be more, a lot more.
When you look at the addressable anime market, theres probably 800 million anime fans globally.
So, we think theres huge room to grow.
You heard the question about piracy.
How high that is, I dont know yet.
But it would be bigger, much bigger.
BERGER:Like every other platform, we have churn.
People come in and out.
Were always trying to find ways to address that and verify theres a value year-round.
Whats important for us is we have continued to see growth year over year, further substantial growth.
Does that complicate things for Crunchyroll?
Sometimes its on a non-exclusive basis.
So, its both on our platform and other platforms.
Sometimes its on our platform first and then we license it to Netflix.
So, its kind of all over the place.
The way we look at it is that Netflix obviously has a large platform, a large addressable audience.
What we find is that anime fans know instantly whether theyre a fan or not.
Youre either really a fan or youre like, I really have no idea whats going on here.
BERGER:I dont.
Its based on a massively long running manga.
I do believe theres an end planned for the story at some point.
I have no idea when that is, or what that looks like.
DEADLINE:Anime hails from Japan and is intrinsically tied up with Japanese culture.
However, its codes and aesthetics are increasingly influencing international animation.
Can you envisage a scenario, where anime moves away from being uniquely Japanese?
BERGER:I dont know is the real answer.
Youre seeing it show up in regular film and other animation.
Whether it ever evolves beyond that, I dont know.
Youre going to see things that feel anime-adjacent and look anime-adjacent.
What it is five or 10 years from now, I dont know, its hard to say.
Ultimately, its up to the fans.
If fans embrace things like that from outside Japan, from other places, then they embrace it.
Its not for us, ultimately, to say.
Were following where the fans are right now but it could change over time.
DEADLINE:Youre currently very strong in North America and Europe.
Are you looking at other markets, such as MENA, for example.
Do you have offices there?
BERGER:We dont have an office there, but we do have services available.
Its an area thats very interesting from a demographic standpoint.
Anime is very popular there.
So, its absolutely something were looking at.
Like you said, were well-established in North America and Europe.
Were also in Australia.
Latin America is a great growth area for us, as is India.
The Middle East is something that we continue to look at.
This is a global phenomenon.
There are fans everywhere and were trying to figure that out.
BERGER:Its a movie coming out in July.
I think that its uniquely situated from a time perspective around the Olympics and FIFA and things like that.
Its a great show.
Its a great movie.
DEADLINE:Youve just started the European theatrical release ofJapanese hit Haikyu!!.
How important is theatrical to Crunchyroll?
Can you say what the revenue split is between streaming, theatrical, merchandise and events?
One, it does make money, we make box office.
Some are bigger than others.
It was the second highest grossing animated film of all time.
Getting together in that community in the theatre is really important to anime fans.
Weve shown that anime fans will come out.
They were among the first to come back to theatres after the pandemic for theDemon Slayer.
Part of that is that anime fans in general love conventions and things like that.
Getting together and sharing that passion in real life is really important.
Everybody there is going a enjoy it.
Theres a lot of cosplay.
Its a fun environment.
So thats important to us, from the community building standpoint of giving people that opportunity to connect.
So its great that we make money, but we also give this great experience to the fans.
The whole flywheel works together: so streaming, manga publishing, home video, consumer products.
Its about the lifestyle.
