When a film is highly exploitable as a commercial property, its ancillary revenues can dwarf its income from direct film sales. The Lion King (1994) earned over $2 billion in box-office and home video sales, but this pales in comparison to the $8 billion earned at box offices around the world by the stage adaptation. Merchandising can be extremely lucrative too: The Lion King also sold $3 billion of merchandise, while Pixar's Cars—which earned $462 million in theatrical revenues and was only a modest hit by comparison to other Pixar films—generated global merchandise sales of over $8 billion in the five years after its 2006 release. Pixar had another huge hit with Toy Story 3, which generated almost $10 billion in merchandise retail sales in addition to the $1 billion it earned at the box office.
when a film is highly exploitable as a commercial property its ancillary revenues can dwarf its income from direct film sales the lion king (1994) earned over $2 billion in box-office and home video sales but this pales in comparison to the $8 billion earned at box offices around the world by the stage adaptation merchandising can be extremely lucrative too the lion king also sold $3 billion of merchandise while pixar's cars—which earned $462 million in theatrical revenues and was only a modest hit by comparison to other pixar films—generated global merchandise sales of over $8 billion in the five years after its 2006 release pixar had another huge hit with toy story 3 which generated almost $10 billion in merchandise retail sales in addition to the $1 billion it earned at the box office