Live-action film (2009) Ī single live-action adaptation of the series, Dragonball Evolution, was released in 2009. While the majority of these films were only screened in Japan, Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler (1992) and Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn (1995) were both screened in the United States in 2006 to promote Fusion Reborn's dubbed DVD release that year. By 1996, the first sixteen anime films up until Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon (1995) had sold 50 million tickets and grossed over ¥40 billion ( $501 million) at the Japanese box office, making it the highest-grossing anime film series up until then, in addition to selling over 500,000 home video units in Japan. The first through fifth films were shown at the Toei Manga Festival ( 東映まんがまつり, Tōei Manga Matsuri ), while the sixth through seventeenth films were shown at the Toei Anime Fair ( 東映アニメフェア, Toei Anime Fea). These were generally screened back to back with other Toei films for that season as special theatrical events in Japan. These films were mostly alternate retellings of certain story arcs involving new characters or extra side-stories that do not correlate with the same continuity as the manga or TV series. These films have a running time below feature length (around 45–60 minutes each) except for the 1996 film, at 80 minutes. Seventeen films were produced during this period-three Dragon Ball films from 1986 to 1988, thirteen Dragon Ball Z films from 1989 to 1995, and finally a tenth anniversary film that was released in 1996 and adapted the Red Ribbon arc of the original series. Since 1986, there have been 24 theatrical films based on the franchise, including 21 anime films produced by Toei Animation, one official live-action film, and two unofficial films.īackground Original run (1986–1996) Theatrical event circuit films (1986–96) 1986ĭuring the franchise's original broadcast run (1986-1997), Toei produced Dragon Ball films rapidly, in some cases twice per year, to match the Japanese spring and summer vacations. Dragon Box: The Movies, a DVD box set that includes the first seventeen animated films, released by Toei Video on April 14, 2006.ĭragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984.

Casino 1995 release date