Here's a story for all you speculators out there. And you
know who you are.
I have this acquaintance — let's call him Reggie — who dabbles
in a rather specialized area of Disneyana collecting. Reggie's a guy who likes
to bet on flops that he thinks will eventually become hits.
Case in point: When Disney's "The Rocketeer"
came
out in June of 1991 and quickly crashed & burned at the box office, Reggie
was one of that handful of film fans (and I include myself in this rather small
crowd) who actually saw this Joe Johnston movie while it was out in theaters.
The original preview poster for Disney's "The
Rocketeer." Copyright Disney Enterprises,
Inc. All rights reserved
And Reggie … He really liked "The Rocketeer." So
much so that — when he went by his local Disney Store (and this was during the
early, early days of that Disney-owned retail chain. Back when there were only
80 total Disney Stores in the entire world. And the Company had hopes of
someday opening another 40) — and saw that they had significantly marked down
all of their "Rocketeer" merchandise, Reggie immediately bought
everything that he could lay his hands on.
"I bought t-shirts and mugs. I also bought a bunch of
"Rocketeer" posters & pins and then put all of this stuff in a
box which I then stashed in my attic," Reggie said during a recent phone
call. "I'm not entirely sure why I did that. I didn't really have a plan
at that time. I just really liked this movie and figured that — over time —
other people would come to see 'The Rocketeer' as I did and discover that they really
liked this movie too. And they'd then begin searching for memorabilia associated
with this movie to purchase and I'd then have it to sell to them."
Now you have to understand that Reggie did this four years
before there was an eBay. Back then, when you were looking to sell Disney movie
collectibles like this, you first had to go to events like the National Fantasy
Fan Club's annual convention and then lay your wares out on a folding table and
hope for the best.
A selection of "Rocketeer" merchandise that was available in stores
during this Walt Disney Pictures' original Summer-of-1991
theatrical release. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved
But as it turns out, Reggie was right. "The Rocketeer" did have a
revival. Once this Walt Disney Pictures release became available to purchase on
home video as well as began airing regularly on cable, people finally
discovered this very entertaining action-adventure film and then began
clamoring for "Rocketeer" merchandise. And Reggie immediately took
advantage of this demand, selling all of that heavily discounted
"Rocketeer" merch that he had purchased during the Summer of 1991 for
3 & 4 times its original retail cost.
And once Reggie had gotten a taste of that very sweet return-on-investment, he
immediately began casting about for another Disney flop that he thought would
eventually become a hit that Reggie could then cash in on. Which turned out to
be "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas
."
"People forget now that — back when that Henry Selick movie was
originally released to theaters in October of 1993 — audiences just didn't
know what to make of it. 'Nightmare' looked so dark & so weird that it only
made $50 million during its original theatrical release. It wasn't 'til five years
later that the Japanese fell in love with Jack Skellington that there was suddenly
all of this demand for new merch," Reggie explained. "That's what
ultimately led to the revival of this Tim Burton movie. Disney getting wind of these
crazy Japanese kids who were making their own 'Nightmare Before Christmas'
t-shirts because there was just nothing out there for them to buy. That's when people
on the Consumer Products side of the Walt Disney Company began saying 'Maybe we should
take another look at 'Nightmare.' "
One of the four collectible "Nightmare
Before Christmas" watches that
Burger King had available for
purchase in the Fall of 1993
Mind you, Reggie was way ahead of the "Nightmare" curve. Even as this
stop motion movie was running out of gas at the North America
box office, he was driving around to area Burger Kings and buying up all of the
"Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas" watches that he could get
his hands on.
"That was Disney's special promotional item for this Tim Burton movie.
That if you purchased a Burger King Kids Club Meal, you could then get one of
four collectible 'Nightmare Before Christmas' watches for just one dollar
more," Reggie stated. "When 'Nightmare' began to tank at the box
office, all of these Burger King managers found themselves stuck with boxes of
these collectible plastic watches with weird characters on them that no one
wanted to buy. So I'd then go in and then offer to buy a bunch of them for 50
cents, sometimes 25 cents apiece. I would up with boxes and boxes of those
watches. Which I was then able to sell for 10 dollars apiece when the
'Nightmare' revival began happening 5 years later."
And over the past 20 years, Reggie has continued to seek out film flops that he
thinks he'll eventually be able to cash in on. I won't bore you with stories
about all of the money that he's made off of selling original, mint-in-box
"Iron Giant
" toys to animation fans around the world who only
discovered this Brad Bird movie after it began airing on basic cable. I'll just
tell you that — when it comes to finding movies that are due to have a second
flowering — Reggie is either really, really lucky or really, really smart.
Copyright Warner Bros. All rights reserved
Which brings us to today. Or — rather — yesterday
afternoon. When — for the first time in a year or so — I got Reggie on the
phone and then asked what he had been up to lately. He then explained that he
had just returned from his local Disney Store where Reggie had purchased a lot
of their remaindered "Lone Ranger" stock.
"So you think that 'The Long Ranger' is Disney's next
'Rocketeer' and 'Nightmare Before Christmas' ?," I asked.
"They made the exact mistake on this movie that they
made on 'Rocketeer' and 'Nightmare.' Disney's had absolutely no idea how to
market that movie. 'Never Take Off the Mask' ? What kind of catchphrase is
that?," Reggie laughed. "But the movie itself was very entertaining.
And I'm sure that once 'The Lone Ranger' is available for purchase on Blu-ray
& DVD and this Gore Verbinski movie then begins repeatedly airing on the
USA Network & ABC Family just like the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies do
now, people are going to discover how entertaining this Disney movie actually
is. And that's when I'll start putting all of the discounted deluxe Tonto &
Lone Ranger action figures that I just bought up on eBay for 10 times what I
originally paid for them."
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved
So for those of you who are now looking over this Summer's box office results
and are smirking because Disney's "The Lone Ranger" only made $88.5
million during its original domestic run, let me remind you of something that film
director Peter Bogdanovich once said:
"The only true test of a movie is time."
And given that Reggie (who — time has proven — has a great gut when it comes
to these sorts of things) believes quite strongly that time is going to be very
kind to "The Lone Ranger" (which is why — as we finished up our
phone call yesterday — he was already making plans to head out to another
Disney Store. So that Reggie could then purchase a lot of that store's
remaindered "Long Ranger" merch) … Well, if you're looking to make
so not-so-quick Silver, you might want to consider making your own trip to your
local Disney Store. Where all of their "Lone Ranger" merch is currently
marked 50% off and lower.
Mind you, you may have to wait a few years before you're then able to cash in
on these discounted collectible purchases. So don't do something stupid like
betting your kid's entire college fund on Disney's "The Lone Ranger"
having this amazing revival a few years down the line, alright?
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved
I just figured that — given that a number of JHM readers
were pointing out in their comments to
yesterday's "Good Dinosaur" article that there were a number of ways
to measure the success of a motion picture — these same folks might enjoy this
peek at a purely speculative corner of Disney fandom. Where some people are now
looking to cash in on films that were once written off as flops.
Your thoughts?