"Star Wars" toys generated more than $700 million sales in the United States, making them the number one property in the toy industry, according to a retail sales group. The sales were even higher than the sales of "Jurassic World," "Minions," and "Avengers" combined.
The said breakthrough in sales contributed so much to the toy sales in United States, marking it as one of the highest sales performances in the toy industry history. The industry made a total of $19.4 billion in 2015.
Sales began rapidly increasing on "Force Friday," Sept. 4, days before the opening of the first Star Wars movie produced by Walt Disney Co. entitled, "Star Wars The Force Awakens," when merchandisers launched movie character merchandise such as BB-8 droids, Kylo Ren light sabers, and models of the Millennium Falcon spacecraft. Hasbro Inc and Mattel Inc were some of the toymakers to produce the said merchandise, according to Reuters.
"Star Wars The Force Awakens" broke the record of Avatar, a 2009 hit 3D sci-fi movie. It has now become the highest grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada.
Until today, sales of Star Wars merchandise continue to increase in demand in stores in the United States. There were even complains arising of the under-representation in stores of some of the movie characters such as female scavenger Rey. Customers were complaining that store shelves were filled with the film's male character.
"Rey came in with a huge amount of momentum and ultimately above what we were expecting. We really struggled to keep Rey on retail shelves," said Paul Southern, head of "Star Wars" licensing in Disney's consumer products division admitted that they have underestimated the popularity of the said female character from the film.
Disney assured the continued production and sales of the Star Wars toys and collectibles across the country, according to Voice of America.
