Author: Zuo Yu
Source: IP Value Officer
"Frozen 2" was released, and the children were like a festival.
We watched Frozen 2 on the opening day, a cinema for 100 people, and half of the eyes were parents with children, as young as they could walk, as old as teenagers, wearing the same Elsa dress, COS characters.
At the end of the movie, interview the children's favorite who, everyone said the same thing: Elsa! Aisha! Because Elsa can do magic!
Not only Princess Elsa, this Disney IP work also has a powerful magic, allowing countless children and big children to enter the cinema, but also making people willing to pay for this IP. Up to now, the box office of "Frozen 2", which has been released in China for less than 4 days, has exceeded 380 million, and the global box office has reached 350 million US dollars.
In fact, the box office is only a small part of the "Frozen" business empire, and the previous work "Frozen", which was released at the end of 2013, earned a box office of $1.27 billion at the same time, and its surroundings and derivatives were even more profitable.
Elsa and Anna skirts, which are loved by single friends and children, sold 3 million pieces for a high price of 149.95 US dollars (1054 yuan). Even if adults think it is outrageously expensive, they can't stop the children's love from paying for it. Skirts in the world are the same, and Elsa skirts are unique, which is the premium value given by IP.
In the huge Disney IP empire, "Frozen" undoubtedly occupies an important position, and now that the sequel has come out after 6 years, we will explore how Disney Frozen IP maintains this IP empire after several years, and whether its brand magic will continue to play a role.
<h1>Frozen generated $11.3 billion in revenue, 85% of which came from licensed derivatives</h1>
Even if you haven't seen Frozen, you've definitely heard the song "Let It Go."
Released at the end of 2013, Frozen achieved huge box office results, becoming the highest-grossing animated film in film history with nearly 1.3 billion and the seventh Disney film to exceed $1 billion.
In a way, Frozen has become a special cultural symbol. Since then, everyone has a Elsa dress, and the mouth is "Let it go", which has become the standard for halloween cross-dressing every year; in Shanghai Disneyland, there are also little girls wearing Elsa princess dresses everywhere.
From the perspective of Disney revenue, Disney achieved revenue of $52.5 billion in 2015, 7% higher than in 2014. Full-year net profit increased 12 percent to $8.4 billion.
Among them, the hot sale of "Frozen" derivatives has become the main reason for the growth of Disney's consumer business, and the current Frozen has generated a total revenue of about 11.3 billion US dollars, and 9.575 billion US dollars comes from the sales of derivatives, accounting for 85%, which is 7 times the box office of the movie.
Disney executives have previously publicly stated that Frozen can bring in $1 billion in revenue per year.
It can be said that a "Frozen" has derived a complete industrial chain. The licensed derivatives of "Frozen" mainly include independent research and development, licensing and joint cooperation.
1. IP as the core, industry-wide authorization, brand joint development
Among all the peripheral products, the above-mentioned Elsa skirt is the most typical representative, Elsa and Anna's princess dress, which sold 3 million in the United States and reached $450 million in revenue.
A month before the release of "Frozen 2", the "Frozen Fan Festival" was held, releasing products covering toys, clothing, fashion accessories, household items, books and other fields, of which the price of the new version of the princess dress has declined.
In terms of licensing layout, "Frozen" relies on Disney's complete industrial chain, using the whole industry licensing development, Paul clothing, toys and so on.
DreamParty Frozen 2 Elsa and Anna Princess Dress
Since 2015, Disney and wedding brand Alfred Angelo have designed wedding dresses inspired by The Princess Elsa style, and this collection has continued until 2017, causing many foreign fans to imitate homemade dresses.
Hunan Children's Publishing House recently launched a series of children's books about Frozen 2, including novels, sticker books, picture books and other types. Kids' computer kit company Kano has launched a Frozen 2 programming set where players can build their own magical action instructions as they learn to do so.
Disney itself has partnerships with many brands. In particular, the international toy companies Hasbro and Lego have cooperated with the licensing of large companies, and the combination of strong and powerful has greatly expanded the consumption value of IP.
▲ Frozen, Lego co-branded products
LEGO has a long-standing relationship with Disney and has also launched a number of Lego products before. During the release of Frozen 2, LEGO was active in promoting it in China. At the Shenzhen subway station, LEGO China used 200,000 blocks to create a Lego relief mosaic, attracting people to punch cards.
In addition, for female consumers, beauty and jewelry are the most common two categories, before the release of "Frozen 2", with Pandora, Shiseido launched a wave of joint makeup, just want to say that it is too beautiful.
▲ "Frozen 2" and Shiseido joint makeup
The form of joint products is also more diverse, and "Frozen 2" not only launched an ANTA joint model, but also launched a pop-up store that swept the country.
Through the launch of authorized and co-branded products, the market layout of Frozen's consumer goods has been greatly broadened, and at the same time, through the joint launch of joint models with large brands, not only the goods have been realized, but also the role of marketing publicity has been realized.
2. The layout of offline activities is linked with IP
"Frozen 2" has just been released for 4 days, and the "Light Up Christmas" event at Shanghai Disneyland has been arranged.
We understand that from now on, guests can purchase Disneyland "Frozen" Christmas Packages and take intimate photos with Anna and Elsa in the giant crystal ball.
Around Disney theme parks, Disney's offline entertainment matrix has always been an important layout of Disney entertainment. The offline activities of "Frozen" have also been launched for a long time, and the content is rich, diverse, the performance range is wide, and the time is long.
In 2018, the Broadway musical Frozen, created by Disney Theatre Group, was featured in New York's St. Petersburg. The James Theatre has officially opened and is still in full swing today, with tours to Australia, London and Germany scheduled from 2020 onwards.
In July 2019, Disney on Ice, a Disney on Ice tour rehearsed by Field Entertainment in the United States, performed "Frozen" in a new way, achieving super popularity in Beijing and Shanghai
From July to September 2019, the Frozen special exhibition hosted by Beast Kingdom was held in Shenzhen.
In October 2019, the "Frozen Fan Fest" opened in the United States, not only with a variety of activities, but also the release of "Frozen 2" series derivatives.
Disney Cruises' Disney Wonder adds the magnificent Snowy Mountains State of Alaska Route, allowing visitors to experience The Frozen Kingdom of Arendelle in an immersive way.
According to public information, the production cost of the first Frozen was $150 million in derivative consumer goods.
The derivative licensing of "Frozen" and the linkage of offline activities have driven the growth of the consumer goods business and also carried out subtle cultural output, and Disney's sale can be described as a million profits.
<h1>The commercial derivative layout is inseparable from the continuous output of IP content</h1>
As we can see from the above, the commercial operation of Frozen has been very mature and successful. So what is the reason why an IP from 6 years ago can maintain its heat and vitality?
The IP value officer believes that on the one hand, the charm of the content of "Frozen" itself, Disney's ability to tell stories has been perfected, and the heroines Elsa and Anna in "Frozen" are not imprisoned by the world and bravely find their own characters, reinterpreting the definition of princess IP, more in line with contemporary values, thus providing a foundation for the content extension of IP.
On the other hand, since the release of Frozen, Disney has been building a content matrix around Frozen, including episodes, extras, and even games. Through these contents, the popularity and influence of IP are maintained.
In 2014, Disney launched a Frozen-themed mobile game, Frozen: Ice Fun, which has been downloaded more than 50 million times on Google Play so far; and The Frozen - Story Reader game
In 2015, the short film "Frozen: Birthday Surprise" was released as a promotional film for the live-action version of "Cinderella";
In 2017, the short film "Snow Treasure's Ice Adventure" was released as a companion film to "Dream Quest", and subsequently both short films were launched on disney's official network broadcast platform and launched on DVD.
Disney relies on its strong IP long-term operation ability to build its own IP into an IP matrix without any sense of violation, and from time to time it also has to cross-border "friendship".
For example, during the gap period of these star fairy tale IP, they were reunited to make an American drama. In 2011, the American drama "Fairy Tale Town" produced by Disney was broadcast, including all the characters in Disney's fairy tales, and has been successfully broadcast for 7 seasons.
After the success of Frozen, the two heroines, Elsa and Anna, successfully settled in FairyTale Town. In addition to "brushing their faces" in animated movies, "Frozen" characters also "show their faces" in American dramas, and it is really difficult to be forgotten.
Elsa has even appeared on many variety shows. Stars such as Lou Yixiao, Cecilia Cheung, and Angelababy have all performed on related themes. When this year's sequel is about to be released, a series of Frozen-themed special exhibitions were also held in China, and derivatives were released at the same time.
Disney has already laid out the development path of IP derivatives to meet the "impulse consumption" of movie fans during the movie screening, and maintain the IP popularity in the movie gap period.
The appearance of "Frozen 2" as a sequel, everyone is looking forward to it, the purpose is still to deepen and strengthen the IP impression of "Frozen" through the enrichment and portrayal of the character image, in addition to the content box office revenue, laying the foundation for the future IP business empire. However, Frozen 2 seems to be somewhat disappointing.
<h1>Sequel spell is hard to break? The "story" is the core of IP</h1>
The aura of the first "god work" overhead, "Frozen 2" returned strongly, and the two princesses with their own traffic physiques, Elsa and Anna, once reached the top of the hot search and received 800 million Weibo attention. The film grossed more than 75 million on the first day of release, accounting for 58.2% of the box office, and won the single-day box office championship for two consecutive days.
However, Disney's long-standing "sequel curse" has always lingered.
Compared with the first work, "Frozen 2" may only achieve the former.
Douban data shows that the initial rating of the film was 7.7 days, and the rating on the fourth day of release has dropped to 7.3 points, which is far from the 8.3 points of the first part.
The evaluation of the work tends to be more polarized, and the favorite party believes that the music and art and special effects that the previous game is proud of have been upgraded in "Frozen 2".
Those who don't like it feel that the core of the story is thin and the details cannot withstand scrutiny, such as as a male character with a heavier role, Christo was not in the state of the whole time in "Frozen 2".
Because the work began to sing without a word, netizens even complained that "please do not insert a movie in the MV". It can be seen that since the first work "Let It Go" has also been popular all over the world, and also won the Oscar for best animated feature film that year, the sequel "Frozen 2" is a bit too strong.
The IP value officer believes that Disney has been far ahead in technology and special effects, but for film and television works, a good story is the core, which is applicable to any content industry, a story that can arouse people's empathy, and a story that can tell a good story, which is the reason why Disney's IP is strong, just like Ho Wendong, a Hollywood producer who once produced "The Lion King" and "Beauty and the Beast" at Disney, said that the three elements of Disney's success are stories, stories or stories. On this basis, people are willing to pay for it.
In recent years, Disney has continuously launched animated sequels and live-action versions for an IP, and the development of new IP content is slightly weak.
This is also instructive for the development of China's animation and even content IP industry.
First of all, we should pay attention to the follow-up development of content IP from the early stage. Disney has established a set of industrial chains from content to derivatives, and they have a long-term IP development and derivative licensing strategy in the early stage of content production. This is still relatively lacking in China, people focus more on content, lack of business linkage thinking.
Also, tell our own stories and polish the content. This year's "Nezha" let us see the height that domestic animation films can reach, and the huge success of the box office has greatly encouraged Chinese animators, which to a certain extent shows that in a good way, telling our own stories, there is a huge market in China.