As Licensing Show kicked off in New York, the Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association (LIMA) released the high points from its 2007 report, which showed that licensing based on movie, TV, or character properties was up 1.1% to $2.17 billion in 2007, the only up category in licensing.
Over-all royalty revenue from licensed products dropped .8%, according to the report. Rough economic conditions in
Licensing based on music, non-profit groups, collegiate, art, and trademarks and brands were all down in the low to mid single digits; licenses based on literary properties was flat.
Although a 1% increase in movie/TV/character goods sales is nothing to cheer about in the abstract, it looks better when compared to other categories.
In a separate report published in April, License Global Magazine ranked the top licensing companies by global sales of products based on their properties in its Top 100 Licensors list. Disney was #1, with its Hannah Montana and High School Musical brands generating lots of sales.
Warner Bros., parent of DC Comics, Looney Tunes, and many other powerful brand groups, was #3.
And Marvel Entertainment was #5.
Other movie, TV, or character companies in the top 20 were Nickelodeon/Viacom at #6, Sanrio (Hello Kitty) at #8, MGA (Bratz) at #14, HIT Entertainment at #15, Mattel Brands at #16, Sony Pictures Consumer Products at #18, 20th Century Fox at #19, and Lucas Licensing at #20.
