Kino Films

Kino Films (株式会社キノフィルムズ, Kino Films Co., Ltd.) is a Tokyo-based Japanese film production and distribution company owned by the Kinoshita Group and led by Naoya Kinoshita, the group’s president and CEO (Nikkan Sports). It is not the similarly named American distributor Kino Lorber. In 2025 it distributed Conclave in Japan to a gross past ¥1 billion, and in 2026 it handled the Japanese release of the Michael Jackson biopic Michael — a ¥8.66 billion Japanese run, one of 2026’s biggest foreign-film hits in the country (Mainichi Shimbun; Mid-day).

A Kinoshita Group film company

Kino Films operates as the film arm of the Kinoshita Group under Naoya Kinoshita, who Nikkan Sports describes as a lifelong film obsessive — president and group CEO of Kinoshita Group at 60, leading Kino Films’ distribution of foreign titles and production of Japanese ones (Nikkan Sports). The business spans planning and production of video content, theatrical distribution, and film investment. By 2025, the company had self-produced, invested in, or distributed roughly 520 Japanese and foreign films released in Japan — a scale that makes it one of the country’s most prolific independent film outfits, even though it operates outside the Toei–Shochiku major-studio system (Nikkan Sports). Kinoshita’s investment appetite is long-standing: the group had participated in every one of actress Sayuri Yoshinaga’s starring films since Toei’s 2008 The Tale of Yamataikoku, before Kino Films itself took on producing and distributing her films (Nikkan Sports).

Foreign-film distribution: Conclave and Michael

Kino Films’ breakout as a foreign-film distributor came with Conclave, Edward Berger’s US–UK co-production about a papal election. Released in Japan on March 20, 2025, it won the foreign-film prize at the 38th Nikkan Sports Film Awards after an extraordinary coincidence: Pope Francis died on April 21, 2025, a real conclave began on May 7, and the first American-born pope, Leo XIV, was elected on May 8 — a run of real-world events that, in Kinoshita’s own words, created a once-in-a-generation tailwind, carrying the film’s Japanese gross past ¥1 billion (Nikkan Sports). The company’s largest release followed: in March 2024 it struck a deal with Lionsgate and GK Films to distribute the Michael Jackson biopic Michael in Japan, announced by Lionsgate international president Helen Lee-Kim and Kinoshita (MJVibe). The split gave Lionsgate the US, Universal the rest of the world, and Kino Films Japan (Mid-day). The film opened in Japan on June 12, 2026 and had contributed $24.4 million to the international total by early July (ComingSoon); by October its Japanese gross reached ¥8.66 billion (Mainichi Shimbun).

Domestic production, investment, and the move into the US

Alongside foreign distribution, Kino Films produces and invests in Japanese films. Its most symbolic production credit is Sayuri Yoshinaga’s 124th film, てっぺんの向こうにあなたがいる (released October 31, 2025), on which Kinoshita served as executive producer — the first Yoshinaga-starring film produced and distributed outside the major studios, a milestone Nikkan Sports frames as proof of the company’s ambitions in domestic production (Nikkan Sports). Kinoshita has also joined the production committee of Yoji Yamada’s TOKYO Taxi, and Nikkan Sports describes the group’s film investment as among the country’s leading (Nikkan Sports). In 2024 the company established a Los Angeles office, operating from 2025 — investing in two Hollywood films and buying several screenplays, with eventual self-production in the US stated as the long-term goal (Nikkan Sports).

Selected titles

Title	Kino Films’ reported role	Note
Michael (2026)	Japanese distributor	¥8.66B Japanese gross (Mainichi Shimbun); deal with Lionsgate and GK Films, March 2024 (MJVibe)
Conclave (2025)	Japanese distributor	Gross crossed ¥1B after the real 2025 conclave; won the Nikkan Sports foreign-film award (Nikkan Sports)
てっぺんの向こうにあなたがいる (2025)	Executive production (Naoya Kinoshita)	Sayuri Yoshinaga’s 124th film; first Yoshinaga starrer outside Toei/Shochiku (Nikkan Sports)
TOKYO Taxi (Yoji Yamada)	Production-committee member	Listed among the group’s leading domestic film investments (Nikkan Sports)

One figure captures the company’s trajectory: roughly 520 self-produced, invested-in, or distributed titles released in Japan through 2025 (Nikkan Sports) — which implies Kino Films has quietly become one of Japan’s highest-volume film companies, even as it remained largely invisible to English-language coverage.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kino Films? Kino Films (株式会社キノフィルムズ) is a Tokyo-based Japanese film production and distribution company owned by the Kinoshita Group and led by Naoya Kinoshita, the group’s president and CEO. Its business covers planning and producing video content, theatrical distribution, and film investment, across both Japanese and foreign titles.

Is Kino Films the same as Kino Lorber? No. Kino Films Co., Ltd. is a Japanese company owned by the Kinoshita Group, led by Naoya Kinoshita. Kino Lorber is a separately owned American distributor. The two share only a similar name.

What is Kino Films’ biggest release? The Japanese release of the 2026 Michael Jackson biopic Michael, which it distributed under a deal with Lionsgate and GK Films. The film opened in Japan on June 12, 2026 and grossed ¥8.66 billion there, making it one of 2026’s biggest foreign-film hits in Japan — ahead of Spider-Man: Brand New Day (¥5.81B) and The Devil Wears Prada 2 (¥5.47B) in Mainichi Shimbun’s October 2026 tally.

Who owns Kino Films? The Kinoshita Group. Naoya Kinoshita, the group’s president and CEO, leads Kino Films; he is also credited as executive producer on the company’s domestic productions.

Does Kino Films operate outside Japan? Yes. In 2024 it established an office in Los Angeles, operating from 2025. It has invested in two Hollywood films and bought several screenplays, with the stated long-term goal of producing its own films in the United States.

What this profile does not claim

• It does not assert a founding year: the commonly cited 1 April 2011 date (a spin-off of Kinoshita Group’s film division) comes only from the Japanese Wikipedia article used here as a lead index, and no independent full-read source confirmed it.
• It does not repeat the lower-tier claim that Michael is the highest grossing film ever released exclusively by a Japanese independent distributor; only the verified ¥8.66 billion figure is asserted.
• It does not assert capital, profit, or asset figures, which appear only in lead-index and directory material.
• It does not claim a world-sales or international-sales-agent role for the company, which no full-read source in this pass confirmed.
• It does not give a precise Japanese gross for Conclave beyond the verified “crossed ¥1 billion.”

What we could not verify

• The founding date of Kino Films (reported as 1 April 2011 in the lead-index article; unverified independently).
• Whether Michael’s Japanese run set an all-time record among independently distributed titles (claimed by a lower-tier outlet; unverifiable from full-read tier1/tier2 sources).
• The company’s capital and FY2025 financial figures (lead-index/directory material only).
• Whether Kino Films acts as an international sales agent for Japanese independent titles.
• The exact Japanese gross of Conclave beyond “crossing ¥1 billion,” and the precise corporate form (branch vs subsidiary) of the Los Angeles office.