12 Weirdest Pieces Of Movie Merchandise Ever Created
What the hell were they thinking?
Movie merchandising can be a lucrative business bringing in billions and billions of dollars every year. The Star Wars franchise, for example, has made over $12 billion in revenue from related toys and other merchandise since the first film came out in 1977.
In fact, Star Wars has made much more from merchandising than from box office sales and they aren’t the only movies to do so. Merchandise has proved much more profitable than box office revenue for both the Harry Potter and Toy Story franchises too.
It seems these days movie marketers are more than willing to slap the name of their film on pretty much anything to cash in on that lucrative market which means we’ve seen some pretty unusual merchandise tie-ins over the years.
But some merchandise truly beggars belief. From the plain weird to the downright inappropriate, here’s some of the most bizarre movie merchandise ever created.
12. Darth Vader Burger
It’s not unusual to see fast food chains team up with the film industry but you’d think they’d want to create grub that actually looks vaguely tasty. That wasn’t the case when Belgian and French burger chain Quick launched its limited edition Dark Vador burger with the 2012 release of Lucasfilm’s 3D reissue of The Phantom Menace.
Although the ads for the burger made it look mouth-watering in a deliciously dark kind of way, the reality was a rather sad looking thing unlikely to whet anyone’s appetite. Basically a regular burger with your average toppings, the only thing distinguishing the Dark Vador burger from others was a bun dyed black with food colouring that looked slightly greyish in tone and way past its sell by date.
The reviews that rolled in for the burger weren’t all that enthusiastic so like the 3D release of The Phantom Menace itself, it’s safe to say the Dark Vador was a pointless and unappealing endeavour too.