When IP Grew Up
A week or so ago, Ron Coleman at Likelihood of Confusion (a law blog named after the legal test for determining trademark infringement) wrote a post called “The Long and Rocky Road.” He writes about how much times have changed in the Intellectual Property world in the past forty years. Baskin-Robbins couldn’t make a Beatles-themed ice cream without being sued all across the universe. These days, everything is all about (as Mel Brooks would say) “Moichendizing! Moichendizing! Moichendizing!”
Ben & Jerry’s does tribute flavors nowadays, but they have to work closely with the subject of their tribute, and no doubt have to sign all sorts of contracts, all of which must be drafted by one side’s lawyers, reviewed by the other side’s lawyers, altered, returned to the other side, repeat ad nauseum. For entertainment figures, it’s no longer good enough just to sell your particular brand of entertainment, you have to keep a tight grip on every part of your “brand.”
When did this happen? My guess, based on no first hand experience, no in-depth research, and barely any cursory research, is that Star Wars was the turning point. Rather than demand a bigger up-front payment, George Lucas slyly opted for a $175,000 fee, and 40% of the merchandising rights. According to this site, the first five movies (at the time that article was written, which I can’t determine) had grossed $3.4 billion at the box office worldwide… and the merchandising had brought in over $9 billion.
By concentrating on the accessories — the cheap plastic figurines for which hordes of slavering nerds chomp at the bit to get in mint condition, as well as the extending light sabers, the board games, the trading cards, and hell, even coloring books — Lucas showed the world that the real money in entertainment comes from creating a brand, not just a single movie or trilogy. The entertainment industry hasn’t been the same since.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Good Stuff,,, good to see you’re back
May 15th, 2008 at 9:11 am
speaking of terrible ideas - one terrible idea George Lucas had was selling Pixar to Steve Jobs.
May 19th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
It took me this long, but I finally thought of a group that was a bigger merchandiser than Star Wars before Star Wars.
Kiss.
I’m not sure if it is in the same category, but I am fairly certain that the Kiss franchise exploded in the early 70s, a few years before Star Wars.
What do you think?
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Yeah, that sounds right. A brief wikipedia search shows Kiss’s merchandising really coming into its own from ‘76 to ‘79. Star Wars came out in mid-‘77. Hard to tell which influence which, and to what degree.
My guess is that the time period itself was ripe for mass-merchandising, and the rise of Kiss and Star Wars merchandise occurred because they just happened to be the ones to capitalize on it.
As for why the late ’70s was great for merchandising… that sounds like a subject for a book.