But talking about Marvel in Disney Stores. Why not? Your target audience is going to come there already, so you might as well cash in with some sideline items that will bring in some extra money you might not normally have received.

Opportunity abounds!

Actually, my 10 year-old daughter would have loved to have found Lost stuff at the Disney Store in Chicago while we were there! But, yeah, you’re right about that. Most kids wouldn’t. Case in point, you don’t see an ESPN presence in those stores either.

That said, along with not finding much Incredibles stuff at Disney World, I was very disappointed that there wasn’t any Lost stuff there either. At the Hollywood Studios theme park, there’s a restaurant that had posters up from a bunch of ABC shows, including Lost, and I asked if they had an ABC shop there. The answer was “No,” and it seemed like yet another missed opportunity. I’d have bought a ton of Lost stuff if they’d had it, and I’m sure I’m not alone.

But there’s an entire shop devoted to Aerosmith, when you exit the Rock & Roller Coaster. Sheesh. I’d have preferred the Rolling Stones.

My family was in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, and there’s one on Michigan Ave. there. I stopped in got a sweet Wall*E action figure for my desk at work. I was miffed, however, that there was not one single Incredibles item in that whole store (believe me, I asked). There wasn’t much Incredibles stuff at Disney World in Orlando either. I was there almost a year ago, and I couldn’t find Incredibles action figures anywhere… Plenty of Cars stuff though.

I don’t get it. With superhero movies being all the rage, and I’m guessing Disney’s purchase of Marvel’s been in the pipeline for awhile (they’ve been loading up lots of old Marvel cartoons on Disney XD), why wouldn’t they merchandise The Incredibles more, let alone plan a sequel (yet freakin’ Cars is getting one)?

So anyhow, I don’t know how big a deal the Disney stores will be for Marvel. Aside from downtown Chicago, I don’t even know where any are. I assume they’ll have a presence though, as will the shops at Disney World. Their “Hollywood Studios” theme park in Orlando would seem a natural place for Marvel stuff.

That was a consequence of restructuring when Disney reacquired direct ownership of the stores. They cut the underperformaing locations and focused on retrenching the others. It’s hard to say how that’s gone, as the economy basically went in the tank around the same time.

@Nat

I hazard a guess that there isn’t much ABC material there that isn’t Disney these days because the store mostly rebranded for younger audiences. Lost or Desperate Housewives gear wouldn’t be appropriate there, but Spider-Man and Hulk would.

However, they closed another 98 at that time. So they did close 30% of the locations. That’s rather bad.

I can’t really see sales of Marvel tie-in toys, etc., getting much higher. They are already everywhere without the benefit of Disney behind them. And at the same time, I can’t say I’ve seen much in the way of Pixar tie-ins lately.