Page 98 - The Disneyization of Society

MERCHANDISING

office receipts as such. While hugely successful merchandise bonanzas like those
associated with Star Wars, Jurassic Park and The Lion King are by no means typical,
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they represent the tip of a lucrative iceberg. As Wolf puts it, increasingly a film is
being regarded as an ‘anchor product that gives birth to other businesses’ 29 and
gives the example of Jurassic Park:

Jurassic Park became a brand that meant dinosaurs. The two films have grossed more than £1.5 billion
worldwide. … The theme-park ride is one of the most successful attractions in Universal Studios in
Hollywood and Florida. The home videos flew off the shelves, selling $454 million. Merchandise
sales, including toys and video games, reached an estimated $1.5 billion. Adding in other revenue
streams, Universal built a $5 billion brand empire. 30

Wolf’s assessment is interesting and very relevant but possibly misleading in one
respect in its comment about a film being an ‘anchor product’. It clearly is this in
the case of Jurassic Park and the same point could be made about the Star Wars
films, the Harry Potter films, and the Lord of the Rings movies, Spider-Man, as well
as Disney and other animated cartoon movies. But what binds all these films
together is that they are either aimed at children or have a strong appeal to children.
Critically acclaimed films like Schindler’s List or The Hours do not generate large
quantities of popular merchandise, though they undoubtedly fare well in terms of
video and DVD sales. Films aimed more or less exclusively at adults, even those
without an 18 rating, do not engender the kind of ‘anchorage’ that Wolf refers to
and in this connection it is not irrelevant that he takes Jurassic Park as his illus-
tration. While not a film exclusively for children, it certainly has a strong appeal
to children who seem to find dinosaurs fascinating. Warner Brothers’ new strat-
egy in 2001 and 2002 entailed turning as many films as possible into brand names
through franchising, in which merchandising plays an important part, but it is
striking that the bulk of the films that they have in mind in a New York Times arti-
cle reporting this approach seem to be for children. 31
Walt once remarked that he made films for adults, not for children. In a sense,
he was being disingenuous too, because his films typically appealed to both
adults and children. It is the latter who would typically ask to be taken to the
cinema to see his films and to be bought Disney merchandise. But what he was
also saying, in much the same way that he wanted Disneyland to appeal to
adults (see Chapter 2), was that unless adults also found the movie and its con-
cept appealing, they would not take their children to see it or buy its merchan-
dise, even when confronted with a torrent of pestering. It is specifically and
almost exclusively films which draw children that are typically the focus of wide
ranges of merchandise and Walt realized this point and sought to cater for, and
indeed pander to, this disposition with the emphasis that he and his successors
placed on cuteness. Nowadays, with even greater awareness of the potential of
merchandising, there has been a considerable increase in the number of children’s
films (a term I am using to include films that appeal to children as well as
adults like Jurassic Park, Star Wars and the Star Trek films). Moretti has observed