DC Collectibles sent the comic world aflutter recently, when the toy arm of DC Entertainment announced a slew of premium action figures at the New York Toy Fair. The über detailed 6” figures feature characters from upcoming films on the DC roster, like Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad.
But DC is hardly the only company offering such high-end merchandise to complement its movies. Premium collectibles are becoming a huge trend in the TV and movie merchandise market. And some vendors are even leveraging 3D printing to step this up a notch and offer custom collectibles.
Global TV and movie merchandise market by type 2015
Source: Technavio
3D printing has been an interesting technology in the merchandise sphere since it puts the power in the hands of the consumers. With the right information, anyone can print a figurine, which ups the risk of knockoff products on the market.
But licensors are taking steps to protect their products by figuring out a way to legitimize DIY merchandise (and drive revenue from it). For instance, companies like Sesame Workshop and Hasbro intend to provide official assets to 3D printing companies, to allow these companies to print licensed merchandise.
Now figurines, custom are not, aren’t exactly a departure from what we think of as movie merchandise. They’re pretty par for the course, along with t-shirts, posters and the like. But another trend popping up more and more in the movie merchandise market is a growing number of merchandise categories—some quite different than traditional figurines. The best recent example of this is the lingerie and sex toys licensed upon release of Fifty Shades of Grey. Disney also has more than 137 product categories (although none in the sexual wellness sphere) for licensed merchandise.
So all told, premium, customizable and simply different merchandise is boosting sales in the TV and movie merchandise market to the tune of $56.2 billion from 2015-2020. The market will hit a total value of $167.4 billion in 2020, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 8.53% over the forecast period.
