The Julia Roberts movie has fueled a $350 million industry based on chick lit. But inside the numbers, the book looks less like a business juggernaut—and more like an innovative Hollywood marketing campaign. The Daily Beast has more, here.
From the piece...
The film's release catapulted the movie tie-in version of the paperback back onto the top of bestseller lists.
Meanwhile, for all the snickering about how a classic testosterone movie, The Expendables, beat out Julia Roberts et al. at the box office this weekend, a Sony source says that the movie will wind up generating close to $175 million in ticket sales this year worldwide, according to internal projections.
Perhaps most interesting, however, are the dozens of licensed products and knockoffs that are fairly unprecedented for a movie where the core audience is around 40. Sony cut a deal with HSN, and the shopping network devoted three full days of programming during the first weekend of August to Eat Pray Love-themed merchandise, some of which remains available on HSN.com.
The network would not comment on the viewership over that period, but said that it was "very pleased with the performance" and more than 100 products sold out during the event. Some featured products, like beaded bracelets and pillow shams, evoke the Italy-India-Bali theme of the story. (Gilbert structured her book into 108 "tales" in deference to the number of beads on a prayer bead necklace; HSN included a $350 prayer bead necklace.) Other products, such as Perlier's body cream and shower gel, were licensed, under the EPL banner.
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