Crunchyroll, Sony Land Global Rights to Makoto Shinkai’s Next Film

Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures Entertainment have acquired worldwide distribution rights to Makoto Shinkai’s untitled next anime feature, the companies said August 11.

The deal covers all territories outside Asia, with the exception of India, which is grouped with the Western release footprint.

The film is expected to arrive in theaters by the end of 2026, though its title, plot and precise release timing remain undisclosed.

It will mark Shinkai’s eighth feature as a director.

Shinkai Breaks His Silence

News of the acquisition arrives roughly nine months after Shinkai himself hinted on social media that a new project was in motion.

In a New Year’s message in January, the director wrote that he would “finally be able to share concrete details about his next film sometime this year,” according to a verified translation of his post.

That was followed in November 2025 by a separate social media note in which Shinkai said he had been working on a “new film” alongside “dependable companions,” while still declining to formally announce the work.

The August distribution deal is the first concrete commercial confirmation that the project is moving toward release.

Familiar Distribution Path

Crunchyroll and Sony will co-distribute the untitled film using the same playbook that delivered Shinkai’s previous feature, 2022’s “Suzume,” to Western audiences.

“Suzume” debuted in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, grossed more than $10 million in U.S. theaters and went on to earn a Golden Globe nomination for best animated feature.

It later won Best Film at the eighth annual Crunchyroll Anime Awards.

The streaming service, owned by Sony, has built a dominant position in Japanese animation distribution through that model.

Crunchyroll claims 12 of the 20 top-grossing anime releases in U.S. history, a track record that made it the natural home for a filmmaker of Shinkai’s stature.

A Blockmaker Returns

Shinkai, 53, has become one of anime’s most reliable box-office forces, releasing a feature roughly every three years.

His 2016 breakthrough “Your Name” grossed $358 million worldwide, a landmark in anime’s international expansion.

“Weathering With You” followed in 2019 with $193 million, and “Suzume” took in roughly $323 million.

All three rank among the top-grossing anime films ever made.

Those grosses, and the Golden Globe nomination that followed, established a template Crunchyroll and Sony are clearly aiming to repeat.

By locking down global rights before the film has even been publicly titled, the distributors have signaled confidence in Shinkai’s continued drawing power, while also pre-empting competing bids from other anime-leaning platforms and studios.

The deal extends Crunchyroll’s theatrical run at a moment when competition for premium anime rights in the West has intensified.

Next Steps

For now, the specifics remain scarce.

Crunchyroll has said the film’s title, plot details and release timing are all being kept under wraps.

Shinkai’s earlier filmography includes “5 Centimeters per Second” (2007), “Children Who Chase Lost Voices” (2011) and “The Garden of Words” (2013), along with his self-produced 2002 short “Voices of a Distant Star” and his 2004 debut feature “The Place Promised in Our Early Days,” which won Best Animated Film at the 59th Mainichi Film Concours.

The director was born in Nagano Prefecture in 1973.

With the distribution structure in place, attention now turns to when Shinkai and his team will lift the curtain on the project itself.

If the end-of-2026 window holds, fans will not have to wait long.

Sources

• The Hollywood Reporter