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Thirty-seven Entertainment/Character properties had retail sales of licensed merchandise of $100 million or more in the U.S. and Canada in 2010, according to THE LICENSING LETTER'S first-ever estimates of sales by property for this sector. Disney Princess, Star Wars, and Winnie The Pooh surpassed the $1 billion mark.

Some of our estimates differ significantly from publicly-reported numbers from the companies that own these properties. This stems from the fact that THE LICENSING LETTER exclusively reports on consumer products that are licensed to third parties for manufacture and distribution, and where the manufacturer is paying a royalty on goods sold.

TLL does not tally sales products created through in-house divisions of the property owners, rather than through licensing agreements with third parties, which are often sold at theme parks or company-owned stores (e.g., Mickey Mouse plush sold as Disney World or Disney Stores); so-called “content licensing” including mobile apps, web entertainment, and home video; or non-retail products such as events, theme park attractions, cruises, and similar. Nor does our tally include “core” merchandise manufactured and sold by the property owner (e.g., Barbie dolls or Transformers toys).

Estimated Retail Sales of Top 10 Licensed Entertainment/Character Properties, U.S. and Canada, 2010

01. Disney Princess (Disney) $1.725 billion
02. Star Wars (Lucasfilm) $1.415 billion
03. Winnie the Pooh (Disney) $1.100 billion
04. Toy Story (Disney/Pixar) $915 million
05. Cars (Disney/Pixar) $810 million
06. Hello Kitty (Sanrio) $750 million
07. Mickey Mouse & Friends (Disney) $725 million
08. Peanuts (Iconix/Peanuts Worldwide) $660 million
09. Sesame Street (Sesame Workshop) $525 million
10. WWE (WWE) $520 million

Trade publication The Licensing Letter today released its second annual list of the best-selling licensed entertainment character merchandise, based on 2011 retail sales in North America.

The list was compiled through surveys and reporting. It includes physical consumer goods like T-shirts, stationery, toys and electronics, but excludes intangible products like mobile apps. It features only licensed products (those that outside manufacturers pay an average royalty of 8.7% of the wholesale cost to produce), and thus does not include merchandise manufactured by the property owner.

Of the licensors on the list, Disney is the clear winner, with seven (now eight with the acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012) of its properties in the top 20.

Estimated Retail Sales of Top 20 Licensed Entertainment/Character Properties, U.S. and Canada, 2011

01. Disney Princess (Disney) $1.60 billion
02. Star Wars (Disney/Lucasfilm) $1.50 billion
03. Winnie the Pooh (Disney) $1.09 billion
04. Cars (Disney/Pixar) $1.05 billion
05. Hello Kitty (Sanrio) $800 million
06. Mickey Mouse & Friends (Disney) $750 million
07. WWE (WWE) $700 million
08. Toy Story (Disney/Pixar) $685 million
09. Peanuts (Iconix/Peanuts Worldwide) $600 million
10. Sesame Street (Sesame Workshop) $515 million
11. Disney Fairies (Disney) $435 million
12. Thomas the Tank Engine (Hit Entertainment) $390 million
13. Garfield (Paws Inc.) $370 million
14. Dora the Explorer (Nickelodeon) $330 million
15. SpongeBob SquarePants (Nickelodeon) $330 million
16. Spider-Man (Disney/Marvel) $325 million
17. Ben 10 (Cartoon Network) $295 million
18. Angry Birds (Rovio) $250 million
19. Batman (Warner/DC) $245 million
20. Barbie (Mattel) $242 million

During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011, the Walt Disney Company completed a two-way transaction to simplify our relationship with Sony Pictures. In this transaction, the Company purchased Sony Pictures participation in Spider-Man merchandising, while at the same time, Sony Pictures purchased from the Company our participation in Spider-Man films. This transaction will allow the Company to control and fully benefit from all Spider-Man merchandising activity, while Sony Pictures will continue to produce and distribute Spider-Man films.

PatrickvD wrote:That list is crazy...

I wish they'd invest in Mickey Mouse (through WDAS) to breath new life into Mickey, both as a character and a brand name.

qindarka wrote:Why on earth does Cars make so much money? I can understand it if kids wanted toy cars but a lot of the merchandise I've seen is just images of the characters on regular, non-fun household objects. Are the characters really that appealing?

Disney's Divinity wrote:Not to use this as another occasion to complain about the new clip art, but I wonder why Disney would bother changing the princesses' designs into something more modern if the franchise is already raking in a billion dollars every year. I wonder the sales being so high is largely due to new additions Tiana, Rapunzel, and Merida?

And I think Mickey and co. have potential to sale similar to Winnie the Pooh characters. Well, maybe not that much, but they could do more. Although it doesn't look like they're too unprofitable now.

Avaitor wrote:Wow, no Avengers?

Thirty-four Entertainment/Character properties had retail sales of licensed merchandise of $100 million or more in the U.S. and Canada in 2012, according to The Licensing Letter (TLL), an independent trade publication.

This list exclusively reflects sales of consumer products that are licensed to third parties for manufacture and distribution, and where the manufacturer is paying a royalty on goods sold. TLL does not tally sales of products created through in-house divisions of the property owners, "content licensing" including mobile apps, web entertainment, and home video; or non-retail products such as events, theme park attractions, cruises, and similar. The retail sales figures do not include "core" merchandise manufactured and sold by the property owner (e.g., Barbie dolls or Transformers toys).

Estimated Retail Sales of Top 10 Licensed Entertainment/Character Properties, U.S. and Canada, 2012

01. Disney Princess (Disney) $1,518 billion
02. Star Wars (Disney/Lucasfilm) $1,467 billion
03. Hello Kitty (Sanrio) $1,080 billion
04. Cars (Disney/Pixar) $931 million
05. Winnie the Pooh (Disney) $929 million
06. Mickey Mouse & Friends (Disney) $774 million
07. WWE (WWE) $596 million
08. Angry Birds (Rovio) $590 million
09. Peanuts (Iconix/Peanuts Worldwide) $542 million
10. Toy Story (Disney/Pixar) $530 million

New properties making the list for the first time in 2012 include Mattel's Monster High ($225 million); Disney's The Avengers ($201 million); Saban's Power Rangers ($180 million); Disney's Doc McStuffins ($114 million); and Hasbro's My Little Pony ($110 million).

bruno_wbt wrote:The princesses are on fire! They should promote them more.

DancingCrab wrote:

bruno_wbt wrote:The princesses are on fire! They should promote them more.

Disney's Divinity wrote:I'm surprised Disney hasn't bought Hello, Kitty yet.

DancingCrab wrote:When did Disney announce the Fairies franchise was over? I must have have missed that. I know there is another fairies movie coming out, The Pirate Fairy. Will that be the last one?

01. Mickey Mouse & Friends ($4 billion)
02. Disney Princess ($4 billion)
03. Winnie the Pooh ($2 billion)
04. Cars ($2 billion)
05. Toy Story ($1 billion)

Frozen is expected to bring in $500 million to $1 billion in the next year.

Q: You mentioned that you now have three $1 billion franchise properties in Consumer Products revenue. I think I know the two of them -- two of them, Princess and Star Wars. Do you mind telling me what the third one is?

Bob Iger: The third one is followed by five others, and we have eight -- Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Monsters, Star Wars, Spider-Man, Cars, Disney Junior, and Princess. That's all over $1 billion in global retail sales in fiscal 2014.

Both The Avengers and Spider-Man drove more than a billion dollars each at retail globally in 2014 and Marvel’s toy sales in the US grew nearly 13% in 2014 vs. 2013, according to The NPD Group1.

Bob Iger wrote:Eleven separate franchises at Consumer Products generated more than $1 billion each in global retail sales.

Last year, 11 different Disney franchises each sold more than $1bn of branded products, up from seven in 2011.

Princess merchandise—dolls, clothing, games, home décor, toys—is a $5.5 billion enterprise and Disney’s second-most-profitable franchise, after Mickey Mouse. (Disney’s new Star Wars movie might change that.) That doesn’t even include Frozen, which came out in 2013 and which Disney measures separately. The movie spawned the top toy brand in the U.S. last year, selling $531 million worth of dolls and dresses, according to NPD Group.