The history of Toho Studios

I found this fantastic website that chronicles Toho Studios and how it came it be.

If you've ever wondered how Toho Studios first started, how and when it began working on Godzilla, what direction Toho Studios initially wanted to go, how it operates now, etc., this article has it all.

What was interesting to note was that there was a time period when Toho Studios almost went bust.

Apparently in the early 1970's the entire Japanese movie industry was suffering. This explains Toho's reduced budgets (and very cheap special effects) on some of their movies in order to get by.

As the article highlights, "compared to the SFX advancements going on in the US, it was a struggle for Toho not only to stay current, but just to stay afloat".

Can you imagine if Toho Studios would have gone under?

Undoubtedly they would have had to have sold their assets, including ownership of the Godzilla franchise and characters.

This means an entirely different studio could be making the Godzilla movies now...or could just be withholding them from future use, as is the practice of some studios nowadays.

Fascinating stuff.

In any case here's the original article:

Mania.com: A History of Toho