$7000 - 10000 is what I said for a major label big star production. You can half that number or more for titles with amateurs, titles by smaller studios, and those very frequent compilation videos that don't add any new content.
Im not sure where you got this numbers from but this is not the case in Japan. That may be the case of 1 scene but not one full DVD for sure.
In Japan, if it is not a very amateur maker were the camera/director/producer etc is the same guy you have at least all this cost:
- Director fee.
- Director assistant.
- Make up/hair artists to make up the actresses.
- at least 2 camera man.
- Camera man assistant.
- Light and mic staff.
- Photographer.
- Producer staff (at least 2) supervising the project.
- Actors.
- Actresses (Japanese actresses are not cheap. Just cheap if they are a street girl that no body knows her).
- Actresses managers. Japanese actresses do not got alone anywhere. They are always with the manager.
- Studio/location rental (This is also not cheap in Japan). Renting just a one location studio for a day may cost you already $5000).
- Travel expenses.
- Editing cost (This is not cheap also. Just adding the mosaic to a 2h movie will cost $1200). You need also to cut scenes, etc.
Above is the cost just to make the movie. After making the movie the makers have to do rev share of each sale with the retail stores or online shops as well as the cost of printing and packaging the DVDs if they sell it physically also.
So if you guys are talking about makers like ideapoket, S1, Moodyz, SOD etc, you can be sure at least you have all the mentioned cost to make a movie.