RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Ryan Reynolds really wanted that Hugh Jackman-signed Wolverine trading card, but he wasn't quite ready to drop $1,000 on it. So what's the guy who epitomizes Deadpool to do? How about cut a deal?
Reynolds, on the crowded show floor of Fanatics Fest in New York last month, negotiated with the seller : He would pay $800, and hand over a Dogpool card, with a little hand-drawn doodle too.
"When Ryan Reynolds gets excited about something…" says Divya Dalal, VP of global hardlines, global brand commercialization, for Disney Consumer Products, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter . "It's an industry that's on everybody's radar, and so it's a social currency that people get excited about," Related Stories General News Former Walt Disney Imagineering President Bob Weis Signs With WME for Representation Movies Disney Admits 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' Disappointed at Box Office
There is no company on earth that is more effective at taking its intellectual property to more places than The Walt Disney Co. But while Disney may be best known for clothing or toys featuring its 100 years of beloved characters, in recent years it has leaned into a burgeoning part of the consumer products business that increasingly appeals to kids and adults alike (not to mention celebrities like Reynolds): Trading cards and card games.
The market has exploded over the past few years, with some analysts pegging it at $50 billion annually and growing. Disney executives say that their trading card revenue has quadrupled since 2023, underscoring the market's rapid expansion, and the company's push deeper into it.
It now has deals with Topps for sets like Topps Chrome Disney, Topps Chrome Marvel, and Star Wars Matserworks; Ravensburger produces the Disney Lorcana card game; Hasbro produces Marvel and Spider-Man versions of Magic: The Gathering.
"In terms of growth, I do think that this particular category has all audiences, which is rare for the toy space where you're not talking about just a display product that a kid is bored with, and you're not talking about a toy product that an adult has no interest in," Dalal says. "You have this crossover experience and product where the same card could be appealing to a seven year old, a 37 year old, or a 67 year old, and that's really rare."
Disney, of course, is licensing juggernaut. According to License Global, Disney products will generate some $63 billion in sales this year, by far the most of any company they track. The number two player is Authentic Brands Group with $36 billion.
And while categories like toys, books and clothing are still the company's sweet spot, collectible cards and card games have emerged as a growth area in an otherwise mature business.
And it can also play in all areas of the market: Something important to Disney, which prides itself on having products that only cost a buck or two, to high-end collectibles that can cost thousands.
"You can't necessarily change the cost of making a doll and the complexity of making action figures and paint and deco and things like that. But in trading cards, as we become more efficient in how we actually operationally create those with our partners, it is one of the most accessible price points because you can make a card pack in five cards, 10 cards, you can do a box set, if you want a collector set, an entry point on how you play the game, and so there is such a variety of how we can actually put these out into market," Dalal says. "That is one of our critical opportunities, is that around the world, no matter your disposable income, you can have a touch point in how you engage with Disney storytelling all year round."
For Disney, the ultimate flywheel company, the market also represents a prime example of how the different pieces of the company can converge. Later this year Disney Consumer Products will leave Disney's Experiences division and become part of the Entertainment division. Cards are an exmaple of where DCP engages with the studios early, to make sure that new characters and worlds can be represented in those products, sometimes literally, as in cards where pieces of a screen-used costume are cut up and inserted into packs.
But the company has also leaned into card games as a part of its experiences, with Lorcana starter packs available inside hotel gift shops, and with games encouraged in the lobby when families get back from the theme park.
"We did an opportunity with Disney Lorcana at Epcot last year, in which we put together a passport. We made it not just about the cards, but the experience within Epcot and the festival," Dalal says. "We had the chalk artwork out on the sidewalks, where they draw the different characters… so we took the essence of what Lorcana and the cards were, but we immersed it into the Epcot Festival, so that you had a reason for wanting to go there and not buying it at a Target or a hobby shop."
The card games are also an opportunity for storytelling themselves, with fans playing the game and learning about the characters, with some of it engaging in new areas and themes, like Lorcana's "Dreamborn glimmers" which explore "what if" scenarios for Disney characters.
"Every Dreamborn concept goes through extensive creative development and collaboration with Disney to ensure the imagined fantastical version of the characters remain true to their original spirit and celebrates their unique qualities," says Shane Hartley, executive creative director for trading card games at Ravensburger "One fan-favorite example is Winnie the Pooh – Hunny Wizard. For the artwork on this card, we focused on two qualities that define Pooh: his love of honey and his simple, childlike wisdom. From there, we explored what he might be like in a magical sage-like role, whose magic manifested in the form of 'hunny.'"
"I think we start off with 'what is that story? How deep is that story? How many characters come in that particular IP opportunity?'" Dalal says. "And then we think about...
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