People love their movies, don’t they? According to MarketWatch, Americans spent $11.4 billion going to movie theaters last year. Part of that money goes toward online ticket sales companies, like Fandango. Looking to cash in on more than just movie ticket sales, Fandango is following in Netflix’s footsteps and looking to sell more licensed movie merchandise.
MarketWatch reported that Fandango, which is owned by NBCUniversal (which, in turn is owned by Comcast), is launching its new FanShop, an online merchandise store to sell exclusive apparel, collectibles and experiences tied in with theatrical movie releases and film franchises.
“There is a pretty broad movie experience life cycle that audiences engage in,” Fandango president Paul Yanover told MarketWatch. “People have relationships with movies, and it’s a really rich and complex relationship. And people are actuating these relationships in a lot of different ways.”
This also is similar to subscription box services, like Loot Crate and its new sports-leaning service, Sports Crate. This gives opportunities for promotional products professionals to work with these companies for fulfillment, compliance consulting and more.
FanShop is set to launch n April, offering item’s relating to “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” “Wonder Woman” and “Despicable Me 3.”
“Merchandise, for a long time, has been a part of this movie experience,” Yanover told MarketWatch.
By offering more physical merchandise for Fandango customers, it’s a real incentive for customers. Even intangibles, like streaming video services, entice an audience. Fandango saw ticket sales rise 30 percent after offering a video on-demand service called “Fandango Now.”
For the first quarter of 2017, ticket sales are up 28 percent. After offering even more to clients in the way of physical, licensed merchandise that they can keep for a long time, those numbers could rise even further.
