GKids has acquired the Studio Ghibli library for the U.K. and Ireland, picking up rights across theatrical, home video, TV and digital for the Japanese animation studio’s entire 23-film back catalog.
GKids will kick off the new deal with a theatrical Imax release of Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) on Aug. 21. Hayao Miyazaki‘s second feature follows the adventures of Kiki, a young witch who moves to the port city of Koriko with her cat Jiji and starts a flying courier service.
Future Ghibli titles slated for the Imax treatment include Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s The Secret World of Arrietty (2010) and Yoshifumi Kondō’s Whisper of the Heart (1995). GKids plans to roll out further titles of the new Studio Ghibli 4K Remasters in Imax and on physical media from Fall 2026 onwards.
GKids will also do a home video re-release of the entire Ghibli library — including Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning Spirited Away (2001) and The Boy and the Heron (2023) and anime masterpieces Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), Princess Mononoke (1997), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Ponyo (2008), and Castle in the Sky (1986) among many others.
GKids has long been home to Studio Ghibli in North America, handling distribution across all platforms. The U.K. and Ireland deal, signed with world sales agent Goodfellas, excludes streaming rights, which are licensed to Netflix outside North America and Japan.
