Movie merchandise the next big step for entertainment industry

Batman movie merchandiseis on display. [Photo by He Keyao/chinadaily.com.cn]

IP development and protection

What makes China lag in the film merchandising is not its manufacturing capacity, which China is very good at, as the world’s biggest manufacturer.It is the content and ideas that matter, specifically, IP, or intellectual property.

"Not all films are suitable for merchandising product development. It has to be a very successful and popular film with a real good IP, which can be repeatedly and systematically developed," Ye said.

In fact, international entertainment giants from Hollywood are very selective in film merchandising. Image building is critical and many of the classic characters, such as the Superman, Batman, the Snow Queen and recently,thebunny police officer Judy from Zootopia, are fully developed into a wide range of products, from small toys to theme-park shows.

"We provide 20 films for world audiences each year and only choose two to three films for further product authorization and development," said Li Wanting, managing director of consumer products for Warner Bros, who echoes Ye’s opinion.

Chinese filmmakers do have high-quality IPs with strong cultural connotations, and they are making progress very fast. For example, last year, domestic films such as Monster Hunt, Monkey King: Hero is Back and Mojin - The Lost Legend,broke recordsat the Chinese box office and their merchandises are popular among movie fans.

However, pirated items from popular movies and a lack of copyright protection and enforcement strongly deter the development of the film merchandising industry in China.

Take Monster Hunt for example. Once the film became a sensation,unauthorized toys portraying Wuba, one of the key characters, went viralin the market. Those privately produced toys, haphazardin looks and quality, put huge pressure on the film company to develop its own merchandising items.

"Compared with Hollywood, Chinese companies don't have a well-established system for copyright authorization, which leads to the chaos of the mixture of fake and real, genuine products in the market," said XieDongjun, managing director of Zeke (International) Trading Company Ltd.

The calls for improved copyright protection and legal environment are strong among industry heavyweights.