The Japanese entertainment giant Toho has reached an agreement to acquire the Oscar-winning animation outfit GKIDS, the companies said Tuesday. The deal gives Toho an established North American distributor and sales operation in GKIDS,

Toho Co, the Japanese creator of the “Godzilla” movie franchise, will acquire the U.S. distributor of Studio Ghibli’s famed animated films, it said, to help drive overseas expansion.

Japanese distributor Toho has acquired the animation distributor GKIDS to help its expansion into distribution in North America.