Interesting details from CAPCOM’s Integration Report 2018 have been found by Japanese media. Especially when it comes to the Hollywood film “Street Fighter” in which CAPCOM CEO/Founder Tsujimoto Kenzo credited for helping build awareness to CAPCOM and it’s popular “Street Fighter” video game franchise for decades.
The 1994 film which was budgeted at $35 million earned over $99 million in the box office. CAPCOM was a co-financier and every aspect of the production required their approval. The film would star Jean-Claude Van Damme, Raul Julia, Kylie Minogue, Ming-Na Wen, Byron Mann, Damian Chapa, Wes Studi and more.
Tsujimoto wrote about the marketing of “Street Fighter”:
Development of game software takes about three years, so it was a challenge to keep awareness during the development period. I thought that the most effective way to continuously expose the game title to the media through global development with Hollywood movies. In 1994, we fully funded 4 billion yen towards the making of the Hollywood movie “Street Fighter”.
It is said that CAPCOM earned a return of 15 billion yen and the film helped establish the “Street Fighter” brand.
Also, thanks to the theatrical release, Blu-ray and DVD sales, cable broadcasting, hotel and airplane broadcasts of the film all over the world for decades, lead to continued awareness to “Street Fighter”.