With Christmas just around the corner I thought looking at merchandise would be a good place to start my blogs. Merchandise is very important to the film business, nearly 40% of merchandise rights are sold before the film is even released. So sales of licences help fund the film whilst it is in production and then when the film is released royalties from the merchandise add to their overall profits. Merchandise has become a very lucrative and important part of making a film. However as profits from merchandise skyrocket it can only mean more and more movies will be created to 'sell toys’. As this advert explains:
Optimus Prim is one of the most famous Transformers, we can see how the cartoon and then the film where made to sell exact replica toys. Already we are seeing how important the designer is; they are needed to create interesting designs that kids will want to buy and take home.
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| 1st Optimus Prim Toy (1984) |
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| 1st Transformers Cartoon (1984) |
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| Redesigned Optimus Prim for New Transformers Film (2014) |
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| Corresponding New toy line (2014) |
The Transformer’s franchise began as a cartoon designed to sell toys. The pre-designed toys were featured in the cartoon so children could go out and buy their favourite characters and recreate the adventures that they saw in the cartoon. Lately the hugely successful film series seems to have a similar thrust behind it. The most recent film even includes a whole new raft of characters, which means new toys that ‘kids just have to have to complete their collection’.
Transformers 4 focused a lot on Dinobots which allowed Hasbo (the toy manufacture) to reboot this highly successful toy range. “They were named among the top selling toys in 1985 by Playthings magazine”
It seems to have worked as Hasbro's Boys division category revenues increase to a total of $1.48 billion and Hasbo sited this was down to TRANSFORMERS, NERF and MARVEL, two of which are film franchises. Transformers are even considered by Hasbo as one of their leading brands. The Film makers has also benefited from making a film about a popular toy as the products already had legions of fans who want to see their toys brought to life on the big screen. This is part of the reason why the latest Transformers movie has made over a billion dollars at the box office.
Hasbo calculated that mainstream films were one of the best ways to sell toys as they would have a 165 minute advert for their products that would reach large mainstream audiences. Way back in 2009 they allied themselves with William Morris Agents and set up a 6 year deal with Universal but it was cut short after the disaster that was Battleship. Not only did audiences not like this blatant attempt to sell toys they also found that the story, acting and direction was floored. Hasbo had also forgotten a key thing that led to Transformers success; Battleship did not have the fan foundation that Transformers does.
The Lego Movie showed Hasbo how to introduce a toy into the movie world. Witty and intriguing with a catchy tune The Lego Movie was about more than just the toy it was about the ‘Play’ ethos behind it. The Lego Movie is a celebration of Lego showing the possibilities of the toys. It almost revels in the fact that everything you see in the movie you can buy and play with yourself. The fact that The Lego Movie was a good movie meant it was a highly successful advert for the Lego Company. Its net profit grew 15 % to 7 billion crowns (nearly 1 billion euro) and they put a large amount of that success down to The Lego Movie.
Lego did not really need the movie as it was already a highly recognisable brand US sales of LEGO increased to 26% in 2012. Perhaps the brand itself is why the movie did unexpectedly well at the box office, $468.8 million, but Lego go further; they claim that their brand did not only help their own movie but other films like the upcoming Star Wars movie. Lego argue that their toys have kept brands like Star Wars alive by introducing them to younger generations.
While it is undeniable that Lego has done very well out of the film, it was already doing well and a lot of that previous success was down to the fact that it had licensed products from previously successful films. So Lego are talking about a symbiotic relationship whereby movies help sell toys and toys help sell movies. The Lego Movie includes characters from lots of their licensed ranges like Lego Batman.
Batman is a successful brand, Lego see this and uses the Batman images to get fans of Batman to buy their toys. With the help of Batman and other licensed brands, Lego becomes a worldwide success to the extent Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (both of whom wrote and directed The Lego Movie) want to make a movie about it. In the movie they include cameos from their licensed ranges so that a new generation is introduced to those characters. To the extent that when the next Batman movie comes out the ‘new generation’ want to go and see it.
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| The Successful Batman Reboots (2005) |
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| 1st Lego Batman Set (2006) |
Merchandise is now hugely important to a film’s success; most of the highest grossing films of all time have strong merchandising behind them. Hollywood has developed a very profitable system whereby merchandise helps to advertise the film and the film helps to advertise the merchandise. This has expanded into the franchise system where one movie and its merchandise help to advertise a second. Very few people knew who the Guardians of The Galaxy were but thanks to Marvel saturating the market with their films and merchandise people felt because they were fans of The Avengers they were fans of all Marvel products. Merchandise played an important role is making Marvel a household name.
So what does this all mean for designers? Their designs now need to have longevity, they need to work on the big screen and as a tiny toy. This puts a lot of pressure on designers to create designs that can have lives of their own after the movie.
There is also a fear that there will be a loss of creativity. Designers will be bound by audience and manufacture’s expectations. The designers for The Lego Movie still had to work within the recognised designs of Lego. With films becoming more and more risky Hollywood is likely to turn to brands with a proven track records which come with their own set of rules and designs that designers will struggle to stray from. Could the rise of the toy mean there will be less originality and less creative control for the designer?
This video show how "everything is a PRODUCT" to be made money from:
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