‘Star Wars’ Toy Sales Fall Amidst Franchise Fatigue

Not only is Disney’s shameless cash grab, otherwise known as “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” hated by fans and tanking in the Chinese box office, it is also now lacking in what has typically been the franchise’s guaranteed ace in the hole: toy sales.

According to Bloomberg, the franchise that started the movie tie-in toy industry, saw a downtrend in sales for the 2017 holiday-shopping season, despite retailers seeing the largest sales increase since 2011.

Since economics has been ruled out, the reason for this franchise fatigue may stem in part from the fact that the current generation of children have so much media to choose from and may not be as obsessed with “Star Wars” as their parents were.

“There are so many screens now; kids aren’t just at the movies,” said Gerrick Johnson, an analyst for BMO Capital Markets. “A movie doesn’t have the same resonance it used to.”

“Star Wars” still enjoyed the title of top-selling toy line during the shopping season, however, Bloomberg reports, “it fell to second place overall last year and below the all-time high seen in 2016, according to data from market research firm NPD Group.”

On Thursday, toymakers began to see their stocks decline, with Hasbro leading the way at 3.6%. Mattel saw a 2.2% decrease. More from Bloomberg:

U.S. sales of the brand’s toys slowed in late 2017, Drew Crum, an analyst for Stifel Nicolaus & Co., wrote in a note to clients last week. This was despite ‘Last Jedi’ being the top-grossing film released in the U.S. last year at $596 million.

That doesn’t bode well for Hasbro, which has the main “Star Wars” toy partnership, or Jakks Pacific Inc., which has a secondary license.

The “Star Wars” performance could hinder Disney’s bid to revive growth at its consumer products division, where sales fell 13 percent to $4.83 billion for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

“The lesson toymakers will draw from the 2017 slate is that they can’t just rely on the movie to do the marketing anymore,” reports Bloomberg.​