It all started with “Star Wars.” Since the first George Lucas-helmed movie premiered back in 1977, the franchise has made approximately $12 billion in revenue from toy licensing alone (for more, read: How Netflix Pays for Movie and TV Show Licensing ). As a comparison, the "Star Wars" movies have brought in $4 billion in box office revenue. That's a whopping number, but it's only a third of the merchandising take: it shows you how valuable merchandising can be. Sales of “Star Wars” toys helped bankroll the 1980 sequel, “The Empire Strikes Back.” And the franchise's latest film, December’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” could bring in $5 billion in merchandise sales alone, according to analysts.
This strategy obviously doesn't work for every film (action figures for a comedy like Amy Schumer’s “Trainwreck” probably wouldn’t bring in billions), but for big-budget films that appeal to kids and Comic Con junkies alike, merchandising is a cash cow. See Disney’s “Toy Story” franchise, which has brought in about $2.4 billion in retail sales.
