NEWS
TOTAL LICENSING
WBCP GEAR UP FOR 2008 MOVIE LAUNCHES
Warner Bros Consumer Products Summer and head into back-to-school who leaves home only to find himself
have a significant slate of event films with The Dark Knight. Then we keep in a mysterious forest.
driving their licensing and retail our momentum into Autumn with Grossing over $3.5 billion in worldwide
business together with a number of Where the Wild Things Are and round box office for the first four movies, the
classic brands and football licensing. out the year during the all-important Harry Potter phenomenon continues
Speed Racer, Batman - The Dark Holiday season with the sixth film in with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood
Knight, Where the Wild Things Are the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter Prince, slated for release in November
and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood and the Half-Blood Prince,” said 2008.
Prince will all debut during 2008. Brad Globe, President, Warner Bros “The level of excitement surrounding
“We’re in an unprecedented position Worldwide Consumer Products. our upcoming film roster, coupled
to offer major event films at four key Speed Racer, slated for release in May, with our stable of current and classic
retail timeframes in 2008. We start is based on the classic series created properties serve to differentiate us
the Summer with Speed Racer, hit mid- by anime pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida. in the entertainment licensing field,”
Batman (Christian Bale) raises Globe added. “WBCP will put its
the stakes in his war on crime in stamp on 2008 with a great number
Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. of diverse programs for film and
With the help of Lieutenant Jim television franchises, classic characters
Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District like Tweety and Speedy Gonzales as
Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron well as our football licensing. Our
Eckhart), the The Dark Knight releases brands resonate with fans of all ages
in cinemas in July 2008. and we look forward to raising the bar
Where the Wild Things Are follows with the continued evolution of our
the adventures of Max, a young boy initiatives supporting them.”
RANDOM HOUSE EXPAND LICENSING OPERATIONS
UK publisher Random House Children’s Books is expand- locking the potential of the property.”
ing its licensing operations and is looking to increase its Fiona Macmillan, publisher of Colour Books, says that Ran-
licensed property portfolio. It is also presenting in-house dom House Children’s Books already has experience and
brands to potential licensing partners. considerable success in licensed publishing. “We published
Licensing Director Mary Vacher says the expansion is a a range of Balamory books and in just under two years we
strategic exercise designed to maximise the potential of sold more than 1.5 million titles,” she said.
Random House Children’s Books’ home grown brands as Random House Children’s Books are also looking at li-
well as realising potential in other licensed properties. censing out a range of their children’s titles including The
“We will be looking at buying in film and TV properties Little Red Train, Princess Poppy, and Pinkie.
or other licensed characters as part “The Little Red Train has been one of
of our licensed publishing operations our stalwart performers selling over a
and we will also be looking to develop million copies in eight years. Princess
our own brands and titles in licensing Poppy has been a spectacular success
terms,” she explained. for girls between 3 and 5 years. The
Random House Children’s Books has books are flying off the shelves. We’ve
a number of licensed properties in- sold 300,000 books in just over a year
cluding Pocoyo. It has licensed Chan- and we think that there is a lot of li-
nel 5’s Milkshake! brand and has plans censing potential in both of these titles.
to publish books based Pinkie is our new brand which launched
on Milkshake present- in May 2007, and is already showing
ers and featuring guest appearances from strong sell-through numbers in the UK market,” said Fiona
characters broadcast in this slot. In Spring Macmillan.
2008 it will publish titles to tie in with In a recent move, Random House Children’s Books has
Hana’s Helpline, a new series launched on won the license to publish the official tie-in book to the
Milkshake! in June 2007 Random House’s series Ugly Betty. The multi-award winning series from
involvement with Hana’s Helpline began ABC Television stars America Ferrara as Betty Suarez.
well before the TV launch. Commenting, Mary Vacher said, “With viewing figures
Mary Vacher continued, “We are very keen often exceeding five million, Ugly Betty was consistently
to offer our expertise at an early stage so among Channel 4’s highest rating shows during its first
that, in conjunction with the rights holder series. We are thrilled to be publishing the first and only
and other licensees, we can play a significant part in un- official tie-in book”.
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