Why were DB movies released on a yearly basis in Japan?

[SuperSaiyanHedgehog]

I'd imagine that they would have spent more time on each one (2-3 years) like any other animated movie so they could work harder on their stories and lengthen the running times. Was it simply to make more profit?

[JulieYBM]

I'd imagine that they would have spent more time on each one (2-3 years) like any other animated movie so they could work harder on their stories and lengthen the running times. Was it simply to make more profit?

They were made as a part of a yearly cartoon festival that Toei Animation would have. Two or three franchises would get a short movie shown on a single billing. This format eventually fell apart in the early 2000s and Toei Animation switched to full-length films for their franchises deemed worthy of 70+ minute films.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

Yes, Japan got at least one film a year. Though to add to Jacob's post about the festivals, starting with the Z series, they were releasing them twice a year to coincide with them. Multiple franchises were given films at these festivals, and I seem to remember it being said that they were shown back to back, so they got shorter runtimes that would allow those present to sit through everything. Given how far ahead the manga was at the time of release of the film, they probably didn't get anywhere close to as much time as films today get for pre/production. So I doubt they worked too hard on the stories, they basically just recycled previous concepts to save time and do something familiar they assumed the fans would like (again).

1989
DBZ Movie 01: July 15th

1990
DBZ Movie 02: March 10th
DBZ Movie 03: July 7th

1991
DBZ Movie 04: March 9th
DBZ Movie 05: July 20th

1992
DBZ Movie 06: March 7th
DBZ Movie 07: July 11th

1993
DBZ Movie 08: March 6th
DBZ Movie 9: July 10th

1994
DBZ Movie 10: March 12th
DBZ Movie 11: July 11th

1995
DBZ Movie 12: March 4th
DBZ Movie 13: July 15th

[ImmaDeker]

I'd imagine that they would have spent more time on each one (2-3 years) like any other animated movie so they could work harder on their stories and lengthen the running times. Was it simply to make more profit?

A brand like Dragonball's rarely concerned with sophisticated story content. Pumping out a done in one per year for their most popular brand was probably a giant no brainer regardless of context.

[Hellspawn28]

I do think we also got DBZ movies yearly due to DBZ major popular in Japan during the early and mid 90's. Making two movies a year was the best way to milk the cash cow. DBZ Movie 7 was the highest grossing movie until Battle of Gods came out if I'm not mistaken without using inflation.

[Bullza]

Not a huge amount of effort was put into the movies so they were quick to produce and they made money. According to this site from Blood Rubies to Tree of Might they averaged about 800 million Yen which in today's money would a good amount. It's not just Dragon Ball that does it up until somewhat recently there was always a One Piece and Naruto movie a year.

It is much better when they spend about two years and give it a worthwhile budget.

[Hellspawn28]

Most of the DBZ movies before BOG were pretty bad looking back on them. They were just money grabs to cash in on a popular show, so they were poorly produced and were pretty unoriginal story wise. Movie 13 was our last DBZ movie released in theaters for another 18 years most likely because the manga just ended and the anime was ending soon at the time. They most likely felt like that they were done with DBZ movies and the anime staff most likely were brain storming ideas for GT.

[JulieYBM]

I just noticed yesterday that the third Dragon Ball Z movie had five storyboarders. It's the only movie from the original run to receive that many storyboard artists. In fact, none of the other movies from the original run had storyboard credits, which means the directors all had the time to storyboard those films alone.

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods had four storyboard artists for a two hour long storyboard, twice the length of the third movie. Talk about rushed.