[jl6]

That would traditionally be the case, but the merchandising is bombing too, and (anecdata time) I can confirm this through personal observation: 80%-off sales of Star Wars merchandise in a local toy store, and my kids and their circle having a keen sense of which IP they like (unsurprising spoiler: it’s the stuff based on good movies, not the stuff based on bad movies).

[bombcar]

I think the surest example of this is the Lego Star Wars toys more and more being obviously adult-targeted.

Not everything can be Frozen, but the pallet of Wish merchandise at Walmart is still there and now all marked down (except the Lego because they know that someone will buy it eventually for parts).

Elemental merchandising was completely non-existent and that was a mistake, people enjoyed that.