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Some people wonder how much it cost to make an animated TV show or anime or a Cartoon show. There are many things that are needed to make a movie or show that is animated. By the way, 3D animation will not be included in this topic. We will be talking about hand drawn animation, you know, old school animation. Despite of the fact that many artist and companies have changed the way they do animation because of new technological tools, it is still hand drawn animation.
There is a different cost of making a cartoon or anime depending on what part of the world its being made. The biggest producers of cartoons or animated shows now a days is America, Japan, South Korea, Canada and United Kingdom. America and Japan are still at the top. America has dominated the entertainment industry for the longest time but other countries are catching up.
So lets find out. How much does it really cost to make all those anime and cartoons that we love so much.
So we are going to talk about the cost of series episodes versus animated movies like the ones Disney used to make.
The number I am going to give you here apply to all companies such as Disney, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and other animation studios.
To create a cartoon show you need a script, character design (concept art), a storyboard, animation and finally the voice actors. So the budget applies to all these things necessary to make the show come to life. The average cost for a cartoon show like Steven Universe, American Dragon, Cat Dog, Cow and Chicken, Hey Arnold , The Fairy Odd Parents, its $300,000 to $600,000 per episode.
The smaller the budget, the smaller the team that works on it and of course, the bigger the budget the bigger the team. So lets say, for the production of Hey Arnold, if the show is given $400,000 per episode then that budget is spread through the production team. Now of course with a budget of $400K the team is going to be much smaller. So regularly you will have a lead animator and then you will have 3 other animators working on the show. The average salary for animators is $60,000. So with three people that is $180,000 pent. Now the voice actors are paid handsomely (surprise). Most voice actors make $80,000 to $100,000 per year. A voice actor easily makes $10,000 per episode of a cartoon. Lets also not forget the sound effect editor, the story board artist and the people who color everything.
As you can see, that money goes down quickly and this is only with a small team. Now lets look at how much it cost for a bigger project or popular show.
One of my favorite American Cartoons is Avatar The Last Airbender by Nickelodeon (it should really be categorized as an anime). A popular show like Avatar the last Airbender could easily cost $2 million per episode. So a 14 episode season would equal to $28 million spent on the show. That is a lot of money. This should would need a team of 7 animators working on it.
How long does it take to make a cartoon or animated show?
So the average animator takes about 8 hours (of their shift) to make a 60 second animation of a cartoon show. 60 seconds equals 1 minute. Therefore if an animator works the average 40 hours per week he can make 5 minutes of a cartoon per week. So it takes about a whole month to make an episode. The more complex the animation the longer it takes.
What about featured films
So for animated films like Disney’s Lion King, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid or the Hey Arnold Movie, it would all depend. For the Hey Arnold movie it took $5 Million to make it. Much more than the average episode. That is enough money for half a season. In return the Hey Arnold movie made $15 Million.
It also depends on the quality of the movie. Disney puts a lot of time and energy into their films. For example: The Aladdin animated movie took $28 Million to make and it made $500 million in the box office.
Because is a movie rather than an episode of a series, it gets a special treatment. More money, better directors, voice actors, more professionals who know their craft. A one hour and half animated movie could $10 to $20 million to make. Disney goes overboard with their movie budget but hey, its Disney, they got the money. Other companies like Nickelodeon spend $24 Million on The Rugrats movie.
There was one animated movie that I really liked but did not do so well. It was called Titan A.E. It took $75 Million to make that movie. Then you have other movies like Treasure Planet that had a $140 Million movie budget (and fails at the box office). It all depends on the company but animated films tens of millions of dollars to produce.
Now a days, film companies don’t like to spend that much money on animated movies because they don’t do so well. The 3D animated movies do so much better than the 2D shows.
American animators are super lucky. Most people agree that anime not only looks better but has better story telling and is much deeper and meaningful than American cartoons. Obviously anime not only has become more popular than American cartoon but has dominated conventions as well. Despite of the fact that anime is more popular and overall better entertainment than American cartoons, Japanese animators are paid shit. Read the article The Dark Side of Japan Anime Industry.
Americans have it real good. Many people complain about America but at least, even the art field, we do so much better. Japanese animators are not respected. The pay is so low that some animators commit suicide and animation studios don’t care. If you are an anime fan then you have probably heard of this. As a matter of fact, I, Andy Matrix, the owner of this website, had a dream of being an animator after high school. However, that dream was crushed after I saw the reality of how animators are treated, not so much in America but in Japan.
You already know how much it takes to make at least one episode of a low budget cartoon show in America as well as the popular shows. In Japan, one anime episode would cost $180,000 to $250,000. That is just one episode. An animator makes $1200 per month and sometimes less. Again go check out the article on the dark side of the anime industry. An animator in Japan makes the same amount or less as a McDonalds employee would.
Someone who animates popular shows like Naruto or One Piece deserves a living wage.
Sorry if it sounds like I am ranting here but it angers me that these animation studios are so cheap. That is why we have had so many anime over the last decade (especially since Netflix is producing original anime for their platform). Anime is cheap to make. Unless is Naruto or Dragon Ball, animators get paid shit.
I hope this article was helpful.
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