7 moments that changed movie merchandising

4. McDonald’s super-sizes movie marketing
McDonald’s has made some audacious marketing moves. But nothing matches “Mac and Me,” a 1988 motion picture that is maybe 15 percent movie and 85 percent commercial for McDonald’s and Coke.

The movie could have just as easily been called “Mac, the Coke-drinking Alien, and Me,” because that beverage is promoted just as much as the fast-food chain. In a brilliant script development, the extraterrestrials in the film actually need to drink Coke or they will die.

Ronald McDonald later received a worst actor Razzie award for his performance in the movie — the first TV commercial clown to receive the award.

3. Product Placement Never Dies
The James Bond movies have always been a Petri dish for product placement, with cars and travel destinations topping the list.

But the 1997 Pierce Brosnan entry “Tomorrow Never Dies” was more commercial than movie, advertising products including Avis cars, Smirnoff Vodka (shaken, not stirred), Visa credit cards, BMW automobiles, Omega watches and Heineken beer.

As for rumors that Bond villain Jonathan Pryce had a deal to tattoo “Goldenpalace.com” on his large forehead, they’re totally false. The proposed deal conflicted with the real-life product placement for L’Oreal makeup.   

2. “Yo-ho-ho, an advertiser’s life for me …”
In 2001, Disney announced that it was developing three movies based on the company’s theme park rides — “The Country Bears,” “The Haunted Mansion” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

The press ridiculed the news, and sure enough “The Country Bears” bombed both critically and financially, while “The Haunted Mansion” was at most a small financial success.

But “Pirates of the Caribbean” — perhaps the most mocked of the three ideas — turned out to be Disney’s best idea since the coonskin cap. As of this writing, the three “Pirates” movies have made more than $2.5 billion in worldwide box office. 

Expect the first chapter in a saga based on the Disneyland Mad Hatter’s Party tea cup ride some time in 2008.

1. George Lucas fleeces 20^th Century Fox
In a move that makes M&Ms passing on “E.T.” look like a nickel tossed in a fountain, 20^th Century Fox in the 1970s agreed to cut George Lucas’ fee for writing and directing “Star Wars” — giving the director control over merchandising rights in exchange.

Seven billion Luke Skywalker trading cards and Yoda backpacks later, Lucas is funding his own studio with the proceeds, and 20^th Century Fox got a relatively small amount of money to distribute the last three “Star Wars” movies.

For the documentary on his 2004 “Star Wars” trilogy DVD set, Lucas convinced two former Fox executives to come on camera for a play-by-play of how they horse-traded their way out of billions of dollars in potential profits.

Shrewd.

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