How well does Studio Ghibli do?

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Recently, Toshio Suzuki mentioned during a press conference that he was toying with the idea of reducing Studio Ghibli to a skeleton staff of five employees if The Borrowers Arrietty hadn't worked out. While I suspect he was only half-serious, his comment piqued my curiosity.

Just how well is Studio Ghibli doing?

Let's look at their films over the past decade or so. I pulled the following data from IMDb where possible; other reasonably reputable sites where necessary. Numbers may not be exactly accurate, due to yen-to-dollar conversion rates over time. I welcome corrections. Overall, they seem to be doing just fine. When you consider the fact that most films released in Japan make only a few million U.S. dollars in their opening weekend (Avatar only made $6.6 million), Ghibli's actually done better over the past few years than it was doing around the turn of the millennium.

I am shocked to see the difference in total gross income between a Hayao Miyazaki movie and everything else. I know he brings in a larger audience than the other directors at Ghibli, but an order of magnitude more? Wow.

No wonder Suzuki keeps needling Miyazaki to make more films for Ghibli.