Will Movie Merchandise Suffer When Toys 'R' Us Closes Down?

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Big retailer Toys 'R' Us could be closing down for good very soon and this will be devastating for the toy industry.

Not only will toy manufacturers suffer from it, but merchandise sales from big movies will feel the brunt of this as well.

As noted by CNN, shares for both Hasbro and Mattel dropped a few percentage points upon hearing news of Toys 'R' Us stores across North America closing their doors forever.

This is bad news because toy sales were already declining last Holiday season.

In the same report, CNN says Star Wars and Frozen toy sales dropped in the fourth quarter even though The Last Jedi came out in December.

Toy sales for Star Wars have dropped a lot as Hasbro has never seen the heights of The Force Awakens' sales ever again since Holiday 2015.

Mattel also suffered from lower than expected sales last year and it will be even worse with the closure of Toys 'R' Us stores nationwide.

It could directly affect the number of toy sales that Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom gets when they come out later this year.

Mattel was hoping the Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom license could challenge Hasbro since they won the rights to the dinosaur brand a few years ago. Now things look shaky if Toys 'R' Us is no longer around. 

Hope is not all lost because there are alternatives. USA Today reports that customers could always go and get their toys from other retailers such as Amazon, Walmart and Target with the likes of Kohl’s and J.C. Penney could be increasing their toy departments. 

That said, the toy industry has been suffering over the last couple of years now thanks to the rise of affordable technology.

Kids these days would rather play with their smartphones or video game consoles than play with action figures and dolls like kids from the past used to do.

However, there is still a market for action figures thanks to a number of adult collectors still around. Hasbro and Mattel could potentially market future toys to adults more than kids if they want to get more money. 

After all, Hot Toys from Hong Kong has been very successful marketing towards adult collectors as their action figures are highly detailed and have a premium price tag.

The death of Toys 'R' Us will affect the toy industry, but it won't be the death of it.

There is still a big demand out there for movie merchandise from collectors.

After all, I was lucky to buy myself the Marvel Legends 'Iron Spider' toy recently because stores in my area are now all sold out of the item!

Despite being a video gamer for most of my life, I have been collecting toys again as an adult thanks to comic book movies and Star Wars being popular nowadays.

I'm hoping the toy industry can still survive as it's still fun to buy a physical model of your favorite characters in movies.

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