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Disney Is Making a Fortune and Safeguarding Its Future By Buying Childhood (economist.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the running-things-into-the-ground-for-fun-and-profit dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Disney has been successful for the better part of a century. But they haven't always had to work as hard to do it. Over the past couple of decades, they've been facing more and better competition than ever before, and they've had to change their business strategy in response. An article at The Economist details this strategy, which seems to have a central theme: buy up things people loved as kids, and commercialize the hell out of them. The recent Star Wars film is the latest example — the marketing blitz around it (and its related merchandise) was a sight to behold. Disney is hoping that focusing investment on great content will protect them from the massive transitions underway in the content delivery part of the entertainment industry. "The biggest doubt is the durability of the model. It is not clear for how long such franchises can be stretched. And introducing new ones is a risk. John Carter, a film based on one of a series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, flopped. Cinema-goers will also have far more choice as other firms try to establish or add to their franchises."

4 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. John Carter by Ecuador · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just to clarify, John Carter flopped only because it had dismal marketing. It was not a masterpiece, but it was certainly better than many other recent blockbusters and with any sort of semi-competent marketing it would have been a (minor or major I don't know) success. I mean (at least until close to release) they had some boring trailers that didn't even tell you obvious things like "from the author of Tarzan" "from the director of Wall E / Finding Nemo" etc.

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    1. Re:John Carter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The title didn't help either. John Carter. Who?

      They should have used the actual title, A Princess of Mars, or at the very least the working title they had which was John Carter of Mars.

  2. Alternate reading: Buy boyhood by chispito · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Here's my simpler version. With it's princess industry, Disney already owned the market for girls from birth to... well, death. They had no hooks for boys though. So they bought Marvel and Star Wars.

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    The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
  3. Re:star wars has marketing? by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Were you even around in the 80's?
    Who modded this up?

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