Casual/mobile games based on movies are morphing from marketing vehicles mostly for promotional lift to money spinners for film companies, according to a Variety story.
A case in point is Kabam’s game “The Godfather: Five Families,” which Variety says generated $100 million in sales and “Godfather” licensor Paramount gets a cut.
“That’s a stunning result that surprised Hollywood, which normally views mobile and social games as low-budget marketing tools to promote film releases,” says the Variety article by Marc Graser. “Thanks to that success, Kabam, the San Francisco-based gamemaker behind “Five Families,” has truly helped change the way studios look at such games.”
Other movie-related properties hitting the jackpot with Kabam are Warner Bros. “The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth” and Universal’s “Fast and Furious” franchise.
The Kabam model is to offer the games free-to-play, but charges users for upgrades. Warner Bros. and MGM bought stakes in Kabam, because of its success.
The third edition of book “Marketing to Moviegoers” explains in depth that the major studios now view licensed merchandise—such as the Kabam type games—as line-items of forecast revenue, from simply a small bonus not incorporated in business plans for certain films. That’s for movies with merchandise potential, which usually means appeal to the kids/youth audience.
Late add Sept 14-A “Despicable Me 2” casual game generated 100m downloads in three months, per the “Variety” link below.
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