Trolls' Animates Dreams of a Franchise -- WSJ
October 11 2017 - 03:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Erich Schwartzel
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (October 11, 2017).
LOS ANGELES -- NBCUniversal's $3.8 billion acquisition last year
of DreamWorks Animation put characters like Shrek and Felix the Cat
under the Universal Pictures roof. Now, the Comcast Corp.-owned
studio's plan for those characters is taking shape.
The best case study yet is "Trolls," the November 2016 release
whose box-office success led executives at Universal to develop the
neon-haired dolls into a Netflix Inc. series, NBC holiday special,
live-entertainment attraction and theatrical sequel. "Trolls" was
the first DreamWorks title released following the acquisition, and
it grossed $350 million at the world-wide box office.
Now, Universal is hoping "Trolls" can become that all-important
prize for a Hollywood studio today: a franchise minting money far
beyond the theater. Box-office volatility has led studios to invest
in departments that provide steadier revenue streams than ticket
sales, whether through theme-park attractions, consumer products or
digital entertainment. Studios' prioritization of franchises has
also catapulted the value of characters like the Trolls, which can
be dusted off and turned into sequel-spawning, toy-selling concepts
if they prove a hit with audiences.
The franchise playbook has been perfected by Walt Disney Co.,
which plugs characters into an assembly line that keeps them in the
public consciousness between movie installments that can seem
secondary to the toys and theme-park tickets they sell.
Universal, with its Universal Studios theme parks and corporate
cousins like NBC, is in a better position than nearly any other
major studio to create its own version of the Disney playbook,
analysts say.
The studio has nonetheless had to play catch-up, spending
billions on the DreamWorks acquisition and expanding its
brand-development division 10-fold in the past two years to more
than 400 employees across 14 offices. The division oversees
consumer products, digital products and live entertainment tied to
Universal properties, whether in a "Fast & Furious" live show
or "Jurassic World" videogame.
The efforts are overseen by president of brand development Vince
Klaseus, a Disney veteran hired by Universal in 2014.
Mr. Klaseus was part of the due diligence team that evaluated
the DreamWorks deal, and he said the "Trolls" production stuck out
as a franchise opportunity.
"A lot of it comes down to the world itself," he said. "Does a
kid connect with a character? Do I aspire to be that character or
be with that character?"
The DreamWorks Animation acquisition supercharged Mr. Klaseus's
efforts, flooding his department with the Trolls and dozens of
characters.
"Trolls'" box-office total, including about $154 million in the
U.S. and Canada, didn't break records but it did exceed
expectations.
The staying power of "Trolls" surprised some executives at
Universal, who thought the movie would be a one-and-done deal.
Following its theatrical release, the title generated strong
digital sales, and young girls -- a demographic relatively untapped
by Universal properties thus far -- expressed interest in consumer
products in studio surveys. Another encouraging metric: Many fans
were producing their own "Trolls" content and uploading it to
YouTube.
Now efforts are under way to keep "Trolls" in the marketplace
ahead of a sequel in February 2020.
A "Trolls"-themed holiday special will air on Comcast's NBC
network in late November, followed by a 52-episode Netflix show
order premiering in the first quarter of 2018. A live attraction
"Trollseum" follows later next year and new "Trolls" digital shorts
are being produced by DreamWorks employees and uploaded to YouTube
once a week.
In many ways, Universal's plan for "Trolls" resembles what
former DreamWorks Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg spent several
years trying to build, with his own television, digital and
consumer-products arms.
But DreamWorks could never escape investor impatience with its
rocky box-office returns, and the studio was too small for its
nontheatrical department to pick up the slack.
As studios grow more focused on the franchise model, only major
players will be able to manage it successfully, said Craig Moffett,
a media analyst at MoffettNathanson. Few companies could develop a
television special and immediately program it on a major network
like NBC, for example.
"It takes real scale," he said. "It's not transformative for
Comcast, but it does create value that DreamWorks couldn't create
on its own."
Write to Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 11, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Feb 2024 to Mar 2024
Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2023 to Mar 2024