The film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time debuted this past Friday in the US and ended the Memorial Day weekend with a paltry $30 million box office take. Dastan and company faced the fourth and latest Shrek film in its second week and the debut of Sex In The City 2, which may have pulled away some of the female viewers who would have liked to see Jake shirtless (I mean there's a shirtless minifigure for goodness sake!) Combine this with a confused and lackluster marketing campaign in the US and its easy to see why this $200 million film, didn't draw the masses. I've not seen much in the way of international box office numbers, but news reports from the UK would suggest the film is faltering there too.
So what does this mean for LEGO Prince of Persia? It's hard to tell at this point. Adult fans, and the European AFOL's especially, appear to enjoy the sets for the new building elements and unique minifigures. Eurobricks dedicated an entire month to the theme.
Recent numbers by TLG suggest that AFOLs only account for 5% of total sales. Without a strong film to further drive sales among the other 95%, however, we may see sets in the discount bins sooner rather than later. Good news for the cash strapped fan of LEGO, but potentially bad for the future of Disney licensed sets.
Although no other Disney sets have been announced outside of Toy Story 3, I think many were hoping for the potential of additional themes from future film franchises like Tron Legacy. Without other strong licensed themes to counteract the Star Wars juggernaut, it only increases LEGO's reliance on the folks from Skywalker Ranch.
We will also have to see how this impacts TLG's overall business performance this quarter. Many news stories have come out recently stating that LEGO was betting big on the theme, but with other items also launching in the April/May/June time frame (Toy Story 3, Collectible Minifigures, unlicensed LEGO themes) the potential impact may be softened in the end. Nevertheless, poor performance here will likely affect future decisions at the company.
So what does this mean for LEGO Prince of Persia? It's hard to tell at this point. Adult fans, and the European AFOL's especially, appear to enjoy the sets for the new building elements and unique minifigures. Eurobricks dedicated an entire month to the theme.
Recent numbers by TLG suggest that AFOLs only account for 5% of total sales. Without a strong film to further drive sales among the other 95%, however, we may see sets in the discount bins sooner rather than later. Good news for the cash strapped fan of LEGO, but potentially bad for the future of Disney licensed sets.
Although no other Disney sets have been announced outside of Toy Story 3, I think many were hoping for the potential of additional themes from future film franchises like Tron Legacy. Without other strong licensed themes to counteract the Star Wars juggernaut, it only increases LEGO's reliance on the folks from Skywalker Ranch.
We will also have to see how this impacts TLG's overall business performance this quarter. Many news stories have come out recently stating that LEGO was betting big on the theme, but with other items also launching in the April/May/June time frame (Toy Story 3, Collectible Minifigures, unlicensed LEGO themes) the potential impact may be softened in the end. Nevertheless, poor performance here will likely affect future decisions at the company.
