Hollywood Turns to the Toy Chest

As the "Transformers" franchise demolished records at the box office this summer, toymakers and major studios were busy announcing an onslaught of iconic toys and games slated to hit the big screen in the coming year.

If "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen's" $200 million opening -- and the $56 million opening of Paramount's "G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra" -- are any indication, audiences are hungry for films based on toy brands.

Hollywood is ready to feed that hunger, with A-list directors on big-budget projects.

Ridley Scott has been tapped to direct a film based on Monopoly for Universal. The studio is also lining up films based around Candyland, Battleship and Ouija.

And DreamWorks is even developing a film based on the 3D picture-disc View-Master. (See full list here.)

"It's become fashionable to make movies from toys these days," said Gerrick Johnson, vice president of equity research in toys for BMO Capital Markets. "Movie makers and toymakers see something that was successful for Hasbro and think, 'Hey, there's huge untapped potential here.'"

Surprisingly, while Hollywood has for years looked to videogames and comic books for big-screen adaptations, until "Tranformers," it had not seriously looked at iconic toys. And the few movies to be based on toys and games have suffered at the box office.

"Clue," back in the '80s, did a modest $14 million stateside, but was followed by a long drought of movies based on toys and games. (Though some movies based on fake games, like "Jumanji," did quite well.)

Then came not only "Transformers" but last summer's "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl," starring then-"it" girl Abigail Breslin -- which pulled in a disappointing $17.6 million worldwide for New Line. A 2007 Lionsgate film based on MGA's funky "Bratz" dolls was also a dud, bringing in a mere $10 million domestically.

"The 'Bratz' movie did absolutely nothing for the doll line, and the movie was widely panned," Johnson said. "MGA had been so excited about the movie, thinking it would be the 'Transformers' for girls, and it completely flopped."

Indeed, Bennett Schneir, Hasbro's senior vice president and managing director of motion pictures, says there is a more involved vetting process than many might think in getting toys into theaters. Not just any toy will work on the big screen, and with hundreds of properties in the company's library, he knows not all are right for a movie. 

"We look at our properties to try to find out what is resonant, iconic and cinematic about them,'" he told TheWrap. "When the movie works with the right toy, it has a very strong emotional connection with a very large part of the audience. They spent countless hours playing with it, and that nostalgia brings people to the theater." (Read the full interview with Bennett Schneir here.)

Hence the success of the "Transformers" franchise, a popular toy with boys who are now grown men.

 

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