Selling Narnia

Disney's heavily hyped film version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe comes out on December 9. Rick McGinnis has an interesting report from the press junket in NYC, where everyone was afraid to utter the "C" word, even though C.S. Lewis's book is widely known to be an allegory for Christianity. (Warning: if, like me, you haven't read the book, the post gives away the ending.)

I hope the film turns out to be good, but the marketing campaign - one of the most overblown I've ever seen - is already turning me off, and the movie doesn't even come out for another two weeks. When Star Wars became a cultural phenomenon in 1977, no one had expected the film to be a hit, and it took months for all the merchandise to come out. (That Christmas, parents gave their children gift certificates good for one Star Wars toy early in 1978, when they became available.) By contrast, in 1990, a flood of Dick Tracy swag hit the shelves months before the film was released, and much of it is probably still sitting there. The movie did fairly well, but nothing near what Disney was expecting - and the excessive hype may have even turned people off from seeing it.

So I wonder if the studio has learned its lesson this time around. The Chronicles of Narnia might be a more familiar and beloved property than Dick Tracy. But it's no Lord of the Rings (a phenomenon Disney is obviously trying to copy with Narnia, even making The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in New Zealand), and unless the movie is absolutely spectacular, a lot of companies are going to lose a lot of money on Narnia merchandise.

Just because Hollywood knows how to market a film doesn't mean they can turn anything into a cultural phenomenon. You may be able to get a lot of people to check out the movie, but that doesn't mean they'll buy the books and video games on the way home. I wish Narnia the best of luck, and after I read the book I'll check out the film, but I'm not sure anything can live up to this much hype.

Posted by damian at November 25, 2005 06:51 PM | TrackBack