Movies and games are created to appeal to the viewers’ emotions and keep them entertained. However, with the continuous expansion of the gaming and movie industries’ influence, the merchandising world was explored.
Many websites serve as a haven for pop-culture geeks like Toynk, for instance, which offers various movie and gaming merchandise for the fans to serve as collectibles.
Typically, these items are difficult to reach your hands because of their high demand. It’s no wonder that stores and companies alike have to schedule a date to release the products.
If you’re a fan, we highly suggest turning on your notification and jumping onto the website 15 minutes or an hour before the specified time. It may seem exaggerated, but the website’s number on the website could cause the website to crash. And with that kind of demand, you would expect that it’ll be sold out by the time you get access to it.
The importance of merchandise for producers
Despite being a novice or an expert in this kind of activity, you might still be wondering about the logic behind the idea of merchandising when game and movie producers earn enough from their works, right?
Believe it or not, they don’t. For example, the Star Wars franchise had total revenue of $4.2 billion in Box Office sales, which is lower than their earnings from the Star Wars merchandise of $12 billion.
The days where films could survive in Box Office or DVD/TV releases alone were long gone. Producers now have to rely on this tactic to stay in the market.
Another example of the role of merchandise is gaining publicity. Let’s remember that as producers, their main objective is to reach out to a large audience. So, you could say that merchandise is a marketing strategy.
Though they may like the idea of genuine support from their works, producers would have to reimburse the amount they have already invested in producing either the film or videogame through having a higher revenue.
As we stated above, the Star Wars franchise is an excellent model to explain merchandise’s necessity. For a better understanding, let’s take a look from a different angle.
Take this idea from the perspective of video game merchandise. The Star Wars franchise has been around for more than a decade; hence, they could build a robust and active fanbase. As a result, they could easily add an item to their movie merchandise, and it’ll be sold out within hours!
Yet, to further increase their sales and publicity, the producers have started to dive into releasing gaming merchandise, too.
The “Star Wars: Battlefront” video game was introduced before the upcoming release of “Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens.” The game gave the player a chance to explore and experience the unexplained event within the film. This, in turn, gave the fan the ability to be an active part of the fictional world due to the new level of involvement and interactivity it offered.
In the end, the producers were able to create a strong fanbase after making the game rely on the heavy multiplayer setting for cooperative focus. Of course, this pushed the player to recommend the game to their friends, which gave them enough publicity to sell the saga to the public.
Are you ready to join the fun?
According to USA Today, there were an outstanding 160 million people who have bought themselves video games in 2018!
But how could you even pick the best option with so little time? To shop with ease, we’ve created a guide specially made for you.
1. Pick your genre
It could be exciting to buy whatever you like, but don’t you think it’ll be better if you align it with your interest genre so you could have a better experience?
To illustrate, if you’re someone who enjoys an active role in video games, you may try role-playing games (RPG) or simulators as they allow you to interact with the characters. But if you want a fast pace game and tend to love adventures, you might like driving or shooting games.
To find what genre you fall into, just take a peek at the three recent games you have played, then pinpoint their common feature.
2. Be critical of the plot
We don’t mean that you should just turn down video games because you don’t like their genre. Instead, you should also invest your time in reading their offered plot.
Video games are meant to take you on adventures. And since they take too much of your time, it’ll be wise to pick a video game merchandise with a backstory that intrigues you, so you could assure yourself that it was a time well spent.
3. Platforms are either your enemy or friend
Even though you might want a Marvel video game after watching one of their released films, it may not be in your favor if you’ve found out that it’s only compatible with Mac.
And as much as we’d love to help you, there’s also nothing we could do. Our only suggestion is to buy a game that you know is compatible with the platform you’re familiar with for more convenience.
Along with this, you have to pay attention to the gaming consoles, too. It has a great variety ranging from PlayStation up to Xbox.
You could then choose among these options based on your preference and style.
In or out: The grounds for choosing movie merchandise
There’s a broad spectrum for movie merchandise and could take form in apparel, toys, and many more.
You could decide if the movie merchandise you want is suitable for you with the three following factors.
1. Versatile
We don’t just buy products we want. Most of the time, we buy them because they function instead of just a display in our home.
Tumblers, for instance, could come with a print of your favorite Marvel character. Yet, you were cautious because you thought that you’re impulsive. You could get your movie merchandise and use it for your daily tasks like filling it with your water before jogging in the morning.
It’s convenient and a sentimental icon for your great memories related to the Marvel films. Maybe you spent a family bonding once by watching Spider-Man, and you wanted to recall that memory through movie merchandise.
With this method, you’ll be able to achieve these two goals!
2. Budget-friendly
There’s no denying that movie merchandise could be expensive, so you must set a budget before browsing through the offered items of your favorite franchise.
Though these items could cost you at least a hundred bucks, some products are not as expensive. But still, have the same impact on you as an avid fan.
3. Keep in mind the space
Given a chance you can afford the collectibles you want, is your space enough to support these items you just bought?
Since these are movie merchandise, they must hold a significance in your life that you want to hold on to. With this in mind, you should be able to keep your items in a spacious and secured place, particularly when you have your collection.
If you think that there’s an insufficient place in your home, it’ll be best if you postpone your decision to buy your movie merchandise at this moment. Instead, buy it once you have cleared a room for them.