Disney is going all in on consumer products and trading cards.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Disney’s trading card revenue has quadrupled since 2023, with analysts pegging the overall card market at around $50 billion a year and climbing.
The lineup already covers Topps Chrome Disney, Topps Chrome Marvel, and Star Wars Masterworks from Topps, the Disney Lorcana card game from Ravensburger, and the Marvel and Spider-Man Magic: The Gathering sets from Hasbro.
Disney is already the biggest licensor on the planet, with License Global estimating $63 billion in product sales this year, nearly double its closest competitor.
Disney Consumer Products VP Divya Dalal says the appeal is that the same card can work for “a seven year old, a 37 year old, or a 67 year old,” which also happens to describe the entire Disney business model.
Ryan Reynolds and the $800 Wolverine card
The category has gone full Hollywood, too.
At Fanatics Fest in New York, Ryan Reynolds wanted a Hugh Jackman signed Wolverine card priced at $1,000, talked the seller down to $800, and threw in a Dogpool card with his own hand-drawn doodle to close the deal.
Reynolds also went Facetime with the owner of a $56,000 Deadpool and Wolverine autographed card.
Consumer Products is moving in with the studio
Disney Consumer Products leaves the Experiences division this fall and moves into Entertainment, with the company saying the shift is about “bringing the monetization of our IP through consumer products closer to the studios” that create it.
THR also reports Disney named Joss Hastings senior VP of marketing for the division on Tuesday. She reports jointly to chief marketing and brand officer Asad Ayaz and DCP president Lisa Baldzicki, and previously ran efforts including Disney’s global F1 partnership.
It’s specifically noted that “DCP prepares to double down on integrating Disney’s intellectual property with its product lines, from toys and games to trading cards and clothing.”
A wave of new products is expected at D23 in Anaheim this weekend.
It lines up with what we were told at Comic-Con
None of this comes as a surprise if you have been following our San Diego Comic-Con coverage, as a Hasbro rep told me Lucasfilm has partnered with tons of companies and is going huge for the Star Wars 50th anniversary next year, leaning hard into the Original Trilogy and Clone Wars.
Hasbro backed that up days later at its Comic-Con panel with Luke’s Red Five X-wing in classic Kenner colors and a full Battle of Geonosis wave.
The Mandalorian and Grogu can underperform at the box office, but the licensing machine keeps printing, and Disney just rebuilt its org chart around it. Sleeve accordingly.
