'Star Wars' Had Record Toy Revenue for a Non-Movie Year in 2010

NEW YORK - Lucasfilm's Star Wars franchise had its highest toy revenue ever for a non-movie year in 2010 and the best toy revenue since Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.

With sales of more than $510 million last year, Star Wars also maintained its position as the bestselling boys toy license in the U.S. for the third consecutive year, according to Lucasfilm and research firm NPD Group.

The popularity of animated TV series Clone Wars on Cartoon Network has helped keep the saga in media play, and toy lines from Hasbro and Lego have helped keep long-time and new fans spending.

Lucasfilm said the brisk sales of toys are also being reflected in demand for licensed products in such categories as publishing, apparel, consumer electronics and housewares. It didn’t disclose revenue for all merchandise categories.
 
Among last year’s merchandise successes is the Lego Star Wars Visual Dictionary from DK Publishing, which has spent 56 weeks on top of the New York Times Children's Picture Book Bestseller List.

“Around the office, our mantra is that Star Wars is forever, and we continue to see that this is true for our loyal fans,” said Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensing. “We’ve got a great series on the air, and a whole slate of great products that provide ongoing connection points for our audience. When the canvas is an entire galaxy, there is always more to explore.”

This year, the sci-fi evergreen will see the release of Star Wars: The Complete Saga on high-definition Blu-ray, a relaunched Star Tours ride at Walt Disney theme parks, a new Hasbro take on the lightsaber and video games, such as Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

All this will lead up to the return of Star Wars to theaters in 2012 with the 3D release of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.

http://oscars.movies.yahoo.com/news/1717-star-wars-had-record-toy-revenue-for-a-non-movie-year-in-2010

oh and lolz NPD lozl

Not surprising at all.

But kennyheart said the prequels killed star warz!

as a movie franchise maybe as a toy selling machine they brought the franchise to the next level. Everyone knows the prequels were designed to sell toys.

Is good news?

George Lucas milks Star Wars for all it's worth, which is eroding the quality of the brand. We shouldn't be praising this, we should be condemning it!

The 3D re-releases are going to be a prime example of this I reckon, they're just not needed. The only reason they are coming out is to make a quick buck. I'm certain there's going to be no artistic justification to the changes made in them.

Who cares, they are awesome movies, so I'd love to see them in 3D (and so would millions of others) and box office collections will prove this.

Lucas can't stop this. Star Wars is too huge, you can't stop all the merchandise overnight, and why would you want to, I love it. Star Wars must stay alive and it will stay alive!

Besides the 3D re-releases are just a lead up to the launch of the sequel trilogy in 2019!!!!

muwhahahaha

Not really as a movie franchise either.

Did you know The Phantom Menace had some of the best legs at the box office? A horrible word of mouth doesn't lead to good legs under any situation. TPM wasn't front loaded at all and to this day no-one understands why it had good legs because people don't realize that TPM was a wonder for its target audience at the time, kids, who went back to see it again n again.

Attack Of The Clones was actually mediocre, hence you saw collections fall.

But the fantastic Episode 3 rose in collections by a lot over AOTC, being the last movie in the franchise was a plus, but the rise was pretty big and it had a good word of mouth.

Sequel Trilogy box office collections will prove my point in 2019

sorry missed the "respected" from that... There I fixed it.

1. My kids love anything LEGO starwars.

2. I will buy the bluray compilation.

3. I will definitely go see all 6 in 3D over the next few years, so long as 2012 isn't the end of the world.

To me, Star Wars is pretty much tied with Transformers as my favorite IP.

Cool, but respect is overrated nowadays.