Star Wars has the retail Force this year

Dive Brief:

Wal-Mart Stores, Target, Toys R Us and other retailers, including smaller ones, this year are banking on the force of Star Wars toys to help lift holiday sales.
“The Force Awakens,” the much-anticipated Star Wars movie, premiers Dec. 18 and related merchandise is expected to bring some $2 billion in sales in just the last four months of this year. In September Disney, which now owns the Star Wars franchise, with retailers launched an early push of Force Awakens merchandise, dubbed "Force Friday."
Another big-name franchise, "The Peanuts Movie", is having less of an impact on retail though. Peanuts licensee Iconix Brand Group cut its outlook this month for Peanuts-related merchandise licenses by $24 million on muted sales expectations.

Dive Insight:

The Force was strong in Star Wars from the very beginning; it was a groundbreaking fantasy trilogy launched in the seventies by the visionary George Lucas, and was a retail sensation even then.

While there was some apprehension about the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 for $4 billion, many film buffs and Star Wars aficionados alike saw the potential in the deal. The company has maintained Walt Disney’s own affection for story to a great extent, and most see the latest chapter as being in good hands with Hollywood (and sci-fi) favorite J.J. Abrams directing.

For retailers, though, it’s Disney’s immense merchandising prowess that is the real boon of the exchange. The company has been selling and distributing action figures, apparel, books, magazines, collectibles, and more for decades; its trademarking, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution cogs are all nicely moving parts in a well-oiled machine. In 2014, Disney earned an estimated $2.54 billion in licensing and publishing revenue, out of $45.2 billion in total retail sales, from its licensed products.

For “The Force Awakens,” the merchandise juggernaut is actually part and parcel of Disney’s preview season leading up to release day. It’s impossible to know how many companies have licensed Disney’s official Star Wars trademark, but Wired magazine says it ranges from the world’s largest toy companies to smaller artisans. “The Force Awakens” could generate some $5 billion in consumer merchandise sales in its first year of release, according to Macquarie Securities analyst Tim Nolle, with much of that going to retailers.

“This is one of the biggest and most sought-after licenses out there,” LA jewelry designer Brandon Schoolhouse, aka Han Cholo, told Wired. “This is the Holy Grail of sci-fi and culture.”