Author | Dkphhh
Frozen is Disney’s most successful princess IP in this century. How successful is
?
"Frozen" has been the world's highest grossing animated film since its release, until this year's "Real Lion" version of "The Lion King" was released. Of course, some people think that this year's "Lion King" is not an animation. If "The Lion King" is removed, "Frozen" has been released from 2013 to the present, and no animation has surpassed it in the box office for 6 years. .
In 2014, Disney planned to hold a coronation ceremony for the two princesses in "Frozen", Anna and Elsa. The coronation ceremony of princess
is an official event held in Disneyland. In addition to the symbolic meaning of the coronation ceremony, the IP can enter the product line of the "Disney Princess" brand after the coronation, and enjoy Disney's investment in this brand. Resources, mainly a large number of authorized derivatives. Now included in the Disney princesses are the familiar roles of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Mulan, etc. There are a total of 12 characters.
However, because the commercial return created by Frozen was too great, Disney simply separated it into a brand with the same status as Disney Princess.
Among the 50 most profitable IPs in the world, Frozen, which was born in 2013, ranked 45th with a revenue of $11.3 billion. Among the old IPs born in the last century, such as Pokémon and Star Wars, Frozen It is the only "post-10" on the list. Moreover, 9.575 billion US dollars of the 11.3 billion US dollars came from the sale of derivatives.
Disney princesses are also on this list. The 12 princesses generated a total of 45 billion U.S. dollars in revenue, which is an average of 3.75 billion U.S. dollars, which is only one third of Frozen.
's upcoming global release of "Frozen 2" did not disappoint Disney. Two weeks ago, North American ticketing platforms Fandango and Atom Tickets announced that the first-day pre-sales of movie tickets exceeded all animated movies. Yuan 2's first weekend box office will exceed $100 million.
If this prediction can finally be implemented, then "Frozen 2" will become the first animation film to exceed $100 million in non-summer pre-sales. In just six years,
has squeezed into the world's 50 most profitable IPs with just one movie. How did Disney do it?
How does Disney manage this IP? Film and television, parks, and games are all on the move.
In operating IP, Disney has developed a set of combination punches that connect various business departments. The success of Frozen IP is also inseparable from the cooperation of various Disney business units in the relay race.
"Frozen" film’s commercial success needless to say, but the film’s success is not only in the box office, it is also the most thorough work of Disney's transformation-not only is the princess not with the prince, the prince There may be bad guys. The setting of
catered to the women's equal rights movement in the United States to a certain extent, giving a pure fairy tale a serious core. To some extent, this has also opened up the adult female market for Disney and directly expanded the IP consumer group.
In 2014, after the first movie was released, Disney launched a Frozen-themed match-3 mobile game "Frozen: Frozen". Up to now, this game has been downloaded on Google Play. Break through 50 million times.
On November 14 this year, before the release of "Frozen 2", Disney and the game company jamcity launched a mobile game "Frozen Adventures" during the warm-up period, which was launched less than a week ago. Downloads on Google Play It has been more than 1 million times.
Disney's television network ABC also produced the American drama "Fairy Tale Town", which is a suspenseful drama aimed at adult audiences. It has been on the air for 7 seasons since its launch in 2011. It constructs a fantasy world view, including all the characters in Disney's fairy tales. After the great success of "Frozen", the two heroines in the animation, Elsa and Anna, also joined "Fairy Tale Town". The
musical is also an important means for Disney to maintain IP. The musical versions of "The Lion King" and "Tarzan" have both created Broadway firstsThe box office record of the show. In 2018, the "Frozen" musical also officially landed on Broadway, and now the box office of the "Frozen" musical has a cumulative total of 82 million US dollars. As the most important part of Disney, the
park is naturally not absent. Although Frozen’s worldview is still in the stage of continuous improvement, it is impossible for Disney to build a new park specifically for it like Marvel and Star Wars, but the elements of Frozen can be seen everywhere in Disneyland.
At Disney California Adventure Park, visitors can see Frozen’s opera performances. The opera performance is one hour long, and the plot is adapted from the film.
You can also see Princess Anna, Queen Elsa and Olaf the Snowman in Disneyland. It is said that because Anna and Elsa are too popular, tourists have to queue for a group photo for 6 hours.
In addition to permanent entertainment projects, Disneyland will also hold Frozen theme activities from time to time.
For example, at Disneyland Paris, a grand Frozen theme song and dance parade will be held from January to March next year.
Another very grand Frozen theme event is the frozen fan festival (frozen fan fest), which is a spinoff event jointly organized by Disney and spinoff licensees. The sales of
derivatives are nearly tens of billions of dollars. How did Disney do it?
On October 4 this year, the Snow Fan Festival opened at Disney World in Orlando. Retailers all over the world will sell "Frozen 2" movie derivatives on this day, including clothes, toys, accessories, games and books. In other words, more than a month before the film was officially released, Disney's derivatives were already on the shelves. Although
does not sell derivatives by itself, Disney still attaches great importance to it. At this Ice and Snow Fan Festival, Disney recruited 200 celebrities/net celebrities from 30 countries around the world to help promote it.
, for example, is the heroine of "Westworld" and Evan Wood who is also the voice of Queen Iduna in "Frozen 2."
and actor Sterling Brown.
and Maria Rodriguez, a parenting blogger who did not go to the scene but made a toy video that day.
Disney's emphasis on derivatives is not without reason.
As we mentioned at the beginning, Frozen has been able to rank among the top 50 most profitable IPs in just 6 years, and derivatives are indispensable. Of the US$11.3 billion in revenue created by Frozen IP, US$9.575 billion came from the sale of derivatives, accounting for 85%, which is 7 times the movie box office.
and the income of this derivative is actually only counted up to 2017. According to statistics, Frozen’s derivatives sales before 2014 reached 5 billion U.S. dollars. In 2015, derivatives sales were 1.573 billion U.S. dollars, in 2016 it was 1.698 billion U.S. dollars, and 2017 was 1.404 billion U.S. dollars.
Among them, the retail revenue of Elsa dolls in the United States is as high as 26 million US dollars. The princess dresses of the two heroines have sold more than 3 million in the United States, generating 450 million U.S. dollars in revenue.
Although Disney does not earn much income from the licensing of derivatives every year, the licensing of derivatives is almost a costless business, and most of the income can be converted into actual profits.
income is on the one hand, and on the other hand, derivatives play an irreplaceable role in IP operations. The life cycle of
movies is only two to three months. No matter how fun the game is, there is a day of boredom. TV series are not broadcast every day, and Disneyland can't go to a few times a year-only derivatives can stay with consumers.
“Disney’s all-weather consumer product strategy can maximize the revenue of popular movies,” said Ken Potrock, Disney’s head of consumer products. “In order to fill the gap between movies and movies, we will use various resources and business units. The synergy between marketing and product planning is integrated to connect consumers and our IP roles in unexpected ways.”
If we look closely at the sales of Frozen derivatives from 2014 to 2017, we will find that except for movies In addition to very high sales in the first year of broadcasting, sales were relatively stable from 2015 to 2017.
this saidAfter the movie enthusiasm has receded, consumers still have a stable consumption enthusiasm for this IP. This is because Disney is maintaining IP exposure through various media, and on the other hand, the continuous launch of derivatives has become a way to maintain the popularity of IP.
Can "Frozen 2" detonate the market again?
Disney rarely shoots sequels for princess animation movies. Even if there are sequels, they are released on DVD and will not enter the theater.
This time, Disney’s uncharacteristic intentions are not difficult to guess. To make Frozen a viable IP, it is necessary to continuously enrich the worldview and settings. The mission of this movie is here.
Therefore, the plot of "Frozen 2" has become a "root-seeking journey". Queen Elsa will leave her country to find the source of the power of ice and snow, and by the way introduce some new characters.
But this also brings some risks to the future box office performance of "Frozen 2".
The freshness of "Frozen 2" on Rotten Tomatoes is only 78%, which is much lower than the first 90%.
critics who have seen the movie in advance don't think highly of this movie.
Oliver Jones said that the film is "like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, but the content of the story is too rich, resulting in chaotic structure". Kristen Kirby of the Washington Post of
also believes that the plot and characters of the film have some problems. "At the end of the first part, Elsa realized that the power of ice and snow is actually a gift, not a burden, and became confident. But in the first At the beginning of the second part, Elsa's self-confidence disappeared."
And this year's North American lineup is also slightly detrimental to "Frozen 2." Soon after the movie is released, Sony's "Game of the Brave 2" will be released, and Disney's own "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" will be released at the end of the year.
At first, "Frozen" was able to get a box office of 1.2 billion U.S. dollars. A very important reason was that the film performance of the same period was not good, which allowed "Frozen" to enter the weekly box office Top 10 for 17 consecutive weeks.
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