>Made $1Billion+ in global retail sales in 2023 so far
>Since 2012, and not including 2023, the brand has made $8B in merch sales
Lord TMNT Is A Juggernaut Franchise
>Made $1Billion+ in global retail sales in 2023 so far
>Since 2012, and not including 2023, the brand has made $8B in merch sales
https://deadline.com/2023/08/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-retail-sales-1235519233/
I read the article so you don't have to. It's a blatant puff piece to make it look like Mutant Mayhem is giving the franchise a second wind. It doesn't name stuff like The Last Ronin, Shredder's Revenge, the Konami collection, even Rise, it's all thanks to Seth Rogen that TMNT is "reignited".
Not that those things didn't do well, but most of that is probably from licensed apparel. So it's all 80s Turtles and the Mutant Mayhem designs.
TMNT has always been a merch juggernaut. What the article fails to mention is that the majority of that profit is from nostalgia-fueled crossovers and tie-ins for the 87 series, not the new series. All the Minecraft and Street Fighter stuff is the classic turtles. They're counting pizza sales and IDW comic sales in that pile of money, which mostly just tells you what anyone with eyeballs can confirm: There is always ton of TMNT shit on the market, all the time, no matter what.
It's why it's funny to see npcs on this board and the other boards insist that no one cares about TMNT because it's an "old franchise"
Compared to turtlemania, it's not as big as it used to be, meanwhile something like Pokemon is still crazy huge and relevant
>Is
was/were
That's a projection for the entire year, not what it's grossed so far.
It sounds really impressive and it is, but your second sentence reveals that this is entirely inline with TMNT. The franchise was already averaging $800 million per year over the last decade. That average was also dragged down by the coof years and the lull in mainstream kids merch after Rise was cancelled.
Makes me wonder why the original TMNT creators sold the IP to Paramount if they had a golden turtles on their hands.
TMNT essentially went nowhere even when Eastman and Laird sold the rights to Image, then got it back to continue the Mirage storyline. Laird also sold his stake to Paramount after the 2k3 series ended because he was tired of working on the comic which was all but dead in the water.
They could've just made a license deal with Paramount while still having a hold of the rights. It's so saddening to see when creators sell their most prized projects to big media conglomerates that'll turn them into a former shell of itself (That's not to say Paramount TMNT is all bad since the 2012 looks quite competent and I unfortunately overlooked it while it was airing but can't say the same afterwards).
I don’t necessarily blame them after looking into the history of TMNT. They had to deal with a lot of bullshit and had a falling out with one another, so by the time the deal got thrown Laird’s way, Eastman had already sold his share and the franchise was kind of stagnant. That being said, Eastman got to get a swan song thanks to co-writing the first 100 issues of IDW TMNT with Waltz , and getting to finally put the Last Ronin on paper. He has enough to live comfortably for the rest of his days and got one last go with the characters he loved. Laird I think is just burnt out. Per his Paramount contract, he is allowed to publish 12 issues of the TMNT set in the Mirage continuity every year but he just kind of stopped. I can’t find the interview, but essentially the dude says he is tired and just happy to be set for life.
>Eastman got to get a swan song thanks to co-writing the first 100 issues of IDW TMNT with Waltz
He never stopped, actually. He's kept his consultant role even after Waltz stepped down. Campbell seemingly works pretty closely with him too. They just changed the credits from "Story" to "Story Consultant" for whatever reason.
>Makes me wonder why the original TMNT creators sold the IP to Paramount if they had a golden turtles on their hands.
They were already multimillionaires at that point, once the second movie came out they had done pretty much everything they wanted to do with the brand until the idea of refreshing it in 2003 to see if it could evergreen.
As others have said, they were already rich. They definitely got fleeced, though. Paramount bought the franchise off of them for $60 million. The franchise wasn't in its best state at the time (2007 movie underperformed, 4Kids show had overstayed its welcome), but still wildly undervalued.
Laird was just goddamn tired and Eastman is just happy to not be bankrupt so he's in to the end, feast or famine
Plus they're still making money off the brand through royalties, they're just not in charge of it anymore.
Laird was having trouble getting financiers for a new movie, it’s hard for a single person to handle final say in a multinational product like that and he got burnt out. Viacom is the reason we got so many movies and shows in 10 years when Laird had to push just to get 03 to happen
Laird later admitted on his blog that he was just old, tired, and burned out. He probably regrets the decision today, seeing as he's doing jack shit with his life now. At the time he was just feeling lousy about spending most of his adult life on TMNT.
http://peterlairdstmntblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/musings-about-sale.html
All thanks to Shredder's Revenge. Neca and Super 7 said their sales boomed after that game came out.
Cool, but weird since I saw discussion of the movie drop off after the week it was released
TMNT is unreal. I mean it. No other franchise comes close. TMNT was two guys who made a comic in their shitty apartment while presumably getting stoned and watching B-movies.
>Pokemon
Big company, backed by nintendo, put on the gameboy, made by a dozen people, money was thrown at this to get it made
>Star Wars
Come on, big movie, directors budget etc etc.
>any comic
Same deal, had publishers, a dozen staffers, usually by a company designed to put out comics, and the creators got stiffed.
The only thing that even comes close to TMNT is south park, and they're eerily similar. Two guys who made sure as shit to hold onto their rights self funded a thing about 4 characters and the 2 creators ended up being millionaires once tv shows, toys and networks got involved. Stuff like transformers or he-man was often focus tested out the ass or made specifically to sell toys. TMNT was two guys self publishing a joke comic which they thought was hilarious. No committee, no corporation, no shareholders no focus testing just a fricking self funded indie comic.
Absolutely legendary madlads.
Don't forget it was very much "Hey what if we took Miller Daredevil and smashed it together with Cerebus?"
Peanuts was just one dude getting his comic syndicated
Harry Potter was one crazy British woman
I don't follow your accolades by way of exclusion. Are you just ignoring every successful novel in history? What about Asterix? What about Garfield? How is it specifically impressive that Eastman and Laird made a media empire following an incredible sweetheart deal, then say, Walt Disney was worth celebrating for starting his own animation company? That's even before your own examples that just seem myopic.
They've always had good toys and merch.
Turtles branding isn't quite evergreen but it's fricking close
People on Cinemaphile seem to think that the horse show was this incredible success but over the years TMNT's revenue is almost quadruple that of the horses'
well yeah, hasbro made awful toys when the franchise was popular
Interesting how kids still like TMNT, but don't care about Star Wars anymore. Who would have ever predicted that?