When Disney purchased Lucasfilm for a whopping $4 billion, it was pretty clear that they made a good investment. After all, the films are guaranteed money makers and Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story would later confirm that by earning over $2 billion and $1 billion, respectively. Not bad, right?
As great as that is, though, the real money obviously lies in merchandising and the Star Wars franchise has always been well known for that. Not convinced? Well, it’s now been revealed that thanks to the popularity of the two movies mentioned above, overall licensed merchandise sales for pop culture franchises went up by an impressive 4.4% in 2016.
“You had the first full year of ‘The Force Awakens,’ which Disney presented with an appealing combination of new and classic items,”Marty Brochstein, senior VP of industry relations and information for LIMA told Variety. “The ‘Rogue One’ merchandise appealed to a slightly older demographic and did very well.”
That might not sound like a lot, but with revenue for licensed merchandise in this area making $262.9 billion last year, the fact that the Star Wars franchise could push that figure up by almost 5% is simply amazing. Throw in the fact that these numbers don’t even include everything that’s made from tie-in materials and it’s pretty damn impressive.
While Star Wars has always been popular, the two latest movies managed to reinvigorate the franchise and new characters like Jyn Erso and Kylo Ren have obviously created a whole new wave of toys and games. When you consider that the films appeal to adults and children alike, it’s not hard to see why this is a series with massive selling potential.
Next up from that galaxy far, far away is Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Han Solo, and with Star Wars Land on the way, too, you’d best believe these numbers will just keep on increasing into the future.
