Wednesday, February 06, 2008

How To Build A Disney Franchise

Forbes looks at how Disney turns a hit TV show or a movie into a franchise. In fact, no other than Disney CEO Bob Iger gave the details on how Disney does it.

Once a TV show or cinematic release scores strong ratings or box office returns, the company gauges "whether we believe that success is leverageable across all of our businesses and in multiple territories and then to what extent we really believe [that] by in investing in that franchise, it can continue to create value over a long period of time," Iger said.

The ones that the company is most excited about? That's easy: Hannah Montana, High School Musical, Pirates Of The Caribbean and Baby Einstein.


But what could be surprising to many was what he said next.

But the recent Disney franchise that Iger believes has the greatest long-term viability may come as a bit of a surprise: the 2006 movie Cars. The film did well at the box office but was widely viewed as a creative step down from previous Pixar features like Toy Story and The Incredibles.

So why does Disney think Cars has staying power?

"We're selling more merchandise now than in the year that the film was released,'' Iger said."We've clearly struck a nerve."


Y'know something, I actually can see that happening. During my monthly Windy City Pin Traders meet here in the Chicago area, I continually see people bringing/trading/selling/etc Cars merchandise. Every time there is a new release of Cars toy vehicles at Walmart or some where, there's a major brouhaha over them. I've even heard of certain Cars item selling for top money on eBay. So yes, I can definitely verify what Iger had said. Cars has major staying power, for some reason.

Zz.

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