The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Bushiroad has released their annual financial report, which reveals that NJPW earned $50 million from August 1, 2018 to July 31, 2019, which is the most successful financial year in its history. This is up 10.8% from last year.
The promotion drew 436,000 paid for live attendance during the year, which is the sixth year in a row that live attendance went up. However, profits were actually down from last year, although they weren’t actually listed. Bushiroad instead reported profits from sports companies, which includes NJPW and Kixroad (kickboxing company). Profits in that category dropped from $7 million to $5.6 million. It’s likely this is because NJPW made more investments with their video content and expanding into international markets.
House show revenue was up 12.8% from last year, even with running fewer live events, due to running shows in larger buildings. That means the total attendance was up.
Overseas merchandise revenue was down, due to the loss of US merchandise sellers after January.
NJPW sold $25 million in ticket sales (average ticket price $57.33 per head), $15 million in merchandise and $10 million in content (NJPW World and TV). NJPW World subscribers are above 100,000. With the $8.33 per sub monthly price, the number is about $10 million, but that is split with co-owners TV-Asahi. That means the company is likely getting $5 million from NJPW World and $5 million from TV.
The plan for 2020 is to continue to run larger arena shows which they hope will grow attendance and merchandise sales. They also plan to increase content. They also want to sign more major stars and push the Wrestle Kingdom 14 shows at the Tokyo Dome. Bushiroad is hoping to get a 12% growth in revenue and 1% in profits overall, but didn’t list NJPW-specific goals.
Bushiroad directors, including Harold Meij, are up for renewal in October 2020. Meij is also the CEO of New Japan. He was hired in May 2018 and originally talked about wanting to increase revenue to $100 million per year, although they haven’t done that.
