The Hunger Games is Great for Merchandising

The Hunger Games has created a huge demand for everything related from archery lessons to nail polish to dolls. What does it take to get the iconic mockingjay symbol on your product?

Not just anyone can slap The Hunger Games name on a product and go into business, says Lodes. Merchants must get a licensor’s blessing, agree to share a percentage of sales and guarantee a minimum royalty payment with a deposit that can range from $5,000 to $100,000, depending on the product and terms of the agreement.
That hasn’t stopped artisans from putting Katniss’ trademark Mockingjay design on handmade jewelry, infinity scarves, custom sneakers, stationary, you name it. A recent search for The Hunger Games on online marketplace Etsy turned up 7,700 items. Smaller merchants often skirt the issue of licensing by selling unofficial merchandise “inspired” by the movie, says Lodes, and studios may be willing to turn a blind eye if the products support the brand and “aren’t complete knock-offs.”
Mattel’s Katniss Everdeen Barbie doll notwithstanding, The Hunger Games hasn’t attracted the kinds of big-ticket promotional tie-ins that typically accompany other blockbusters. Blame it on the macabre storyline of kids killing kids. But experts say the flick — part of a trilogy —  still has the potential to be as big a brand as the likes of Harry Potter or Twilight, and small companies have been piggybacking on the movie’s success. “It appeals to a broad audience,” says Agata Kaczanowska, who is a lead market analyst at Los Angeles research firm IBISWorld and herself a fan. “You have the Capitol style, which is very high fashion, and then you have Katniss’s style, which is more about the outdoors.”

What is your favorite piece of Hunger Games merchandise? I love my Capitol Colors nail polish and my DIP .
Source: MSNBC