The movie industry has never been shy when it comes to merchandising and if a film company is able to take full advantage of movie merchandise tie-ins and spin-offs then they’ll do their best to flood the market with as much as they possibly can with the hope of securing a healthy return.
Merchandising often represents a large portion of a movie’s profitability and when you take into account subsequent home entertainment sales, downloads and streaming services its simply not just box office takings that make this one of the biggest industries on the planet.
The likes of Disney and the epic Star Wars franchise for example have raked in billions in revenue over the years thanks to some well-crafted tie-in merchandise that movie fans could not wait to get their hands on.
Nowadays movie franchises are bigger and more successful than ever. Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings and each ongoing phase of the Marvel-movie universe managing to snare billions in ticket sales but also managing to provide an almost endless stream of toys, collectibles, games and apparel for fans to own. And what’s more it’s not merchandise always directed at children as you might expect. In fact there are plenty of adult movie fans who love collecting action figurines, cosplay outfits, clothes, and other cool gadgets and movie inspired devices.
It’s pretty fair to say that the superhero genre has exploded in recent times, mostly thanks to the developments in movie-making as a whole, allowing filmmakers more freedom to create incredibly realistic effects and sequences.
This means that these famous comic book characters can finally come to life on screen with their notable super powers looking even more believable. This, coupled with improved storytelling and character developments which have slowly been built into intertwining plots and a number of familiar faces showing up in other superhero franchises which have ultimately led to epic team-ups such as ‘The Avengers’ and the upcoming ‘Justice League’ movies.
The likes of Batman and Spider-Man have managed to accumulate around $400 million in merchandising revenue over the years and Spider-Man in particular is about to get its third reboot and will also likely be appearing in future Marvel outings.
Both ‘The Avengers’ and its 2015 sequel ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’, which pulled together a number of already successful marvel franchises, feature in the top ten highest grossing movies of all time and even though Hasbro were reportedly criticised for not taking advantage of the first movies’ success it’s still a film that pulled in around $150 million with merchandise and other products.
Of course many of their products were targeting young boys which did restrict their market somewhat. When you consider that even online bingo sites and casino gaming operators are now developing their own officially licensed Marvel games and popular online slots made purely for adults and those old enough to gamble it’s clear that it’s a broad enough market which can appeal to movie lovers of all ages.