Merchandising heads upscale with Disney Couture and P3 jewelry
By Michelle Foody
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/12/07 — As “Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End” prepares to pillage and ravage all summer box office records when it sails into theatres on May 19th, Disney is squeezing every drop of merchandizing it can out of the mega-hit. With everything from Johnny Depp-voiced greeting cards to fast food toys, you’d think they had exhausted all possibilities. But one market was left untouched: the up-scale, trendy buyer, with loads of spare booty to spend.
Disney Couture is a high end line of jewelry and clothing which has found a following among the Hollywood trend-setters. Gold-plated and not cheap, the “Pirates” bling is Asian inspired, since the third installment of the wildly popular films takes place in Shanghai. And when paparazzi princess Lauren Conrad won’t take off the gold sword necklace, one begins to think Disney has found a true buried treasure in movie merchandising. Much of it is star driven, which leads to big payouts for actor likenesses (see Depp’s Big Booty), but creative design can lead to products above and beyond the obvious film tie-ins.
Expanding beyond rubber kitsch and candy, the Los Angeles based Lucas Design jewelry line marks commercial movie advertising infiltrating—and influencing—the world of high fashion. The goods don’t even directly portray anything from the film, or its stars. Unlike say, Lord of the Rings gold replications of “The Ring”, the line is trendy and fashion-forward, and not even identifiable as connected to the Disney film.
Expect to see more of these high-end pieces, from expensive cotton tee shirts to acrylic necklaces, as more blockbusters open, including this summer’s “Transformers”, and the musical “Hairspray” film. Having trendy fashionistas sport your movie goods for a season looks like the new frontier in marketing—a far cry from those faded Star Wars t-shirts that middle aged men still lovingly don.