CoMix Wave Films, best known for producing Makoto Shinkai works Your Name. and Suzume, announced today that they have started a brand new company to run theaters in Japan under the name CWF CINEMAS. The first theater is set to open in Summer 2026 in Nakagome, Saku City, Nagano Prefecture under the leadership of Noritaka Kawaguchi, who is also CEO of the anime studio.
The cinema is being set up in Saku City with local business owner Kenji Nakata because the theater that Kawaguchi regularly went to in the area closed in Fall 2023 and so he decided to start their own to connect with the local community. Kawaguchi mentioned that the theater that he used to go to held the director’s talks for Shinkai’s films, which made him sad, so he decided to build his own in its place.
CWF CINEMAS is set to screen local anime films and international animation flicks as well as hold events for the stuff they screen.
CoMix Wave Films was set up in March 2007 as an off-shoot of the merchandising division of CoMix Wave after the success of Shinkai’s The Place Promised in Our Early Days, coming into its own with 5 Centimeters per Second. Since then, it is the second most successful anime studio at the Japanese box office after Studio Ghibli.
Source: Press Release
