Star Wars: The Force Awakens Merchandise Sales Estimated To Hit $5 Billion In First Year

Forget those lofty box office projections. Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ real money lies in that sweet, money printing merchandise.

An industry analyst is now predicting that merchandise from the upcoming Star Wars film could generate up to $5 billion within its first year on shelves. The report, from Macquarie Securities’ Tim Nollen, posited that the Star Wars merchandise could sell even better than Cars 2, which netted $3 billion. After Disney splits the earning with its retail and merchandising partners, Nollen thinks that the company could walk away with $500 million “in licensing and retailing revenue.” Were not sure how many space credits that translates to, but it’s probably a lot.

Disney is certainly making a big deal out of The Force Awakens’ merchandise release. All official merchandise for the film will begin to hit shelves this week, for the highly-anticipated Force Friday event at major retailers like Toy R Us, The Disney Store, and Wal Mart. But before that even happens, Disney will unveil their Star Wars consumer products in a special YouTube feed starting Wednesday evening, “announcing and un-boxing a new product roughly once every hour from a total of 15 different global locations, featuring online talent from its Maker Studios,” Nollen wrote.

Do you think that The Force Awakens products could summon $5 billion in its first year? Let us know in the comments!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens on December 18, while official merchandise becomes available on September 4.

Via The Hollywood Reporter