Cash Cow Franchise / Disney

Franchises made the House of Mouse so rich, they can print their own money with the face of their biggest franchise on them.^note Disney Dollars were never real currency; they were a corporate scrip that were discontinued in 2016. However, although they're no longer printed or sold, they're still redeemable at their American stores and parks and on the Disney Cruise Line (including Castaway Cay in the Caribbean), with their value still pegged to the U.S. dollar.

The company founded by Walt Disney is such a titan of entertainment with so many cash cows, it needs its own page.

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• Mickey Mouse alone has raked in millions of dollars ever since his creation in 1928. Major characters like Donald Duck and Goofy have been best sellers for decades, while Disney's animated canon is one of the most unique (over 50 movies, almost all of which have nothing to do with each other) and consistently profitable franchises in Hollywood history. Apart from the animated cartoons Disney has also produced a stream of family friendly live-action films and TV series, including several theme parks devoted entirely to Disney's characters. Today the Disney brand extends to other major brands as well, including Pixar, The Muppets, Star Wars, 20th Century Studios, Marvel Comics, Indiana Jones, ESPN...
• Though they've largely faded from their original format, Disney's mascot characters have secured successful comic series, with wide arrays of spin-offs and sometimes even graphic novels, in countries other than the US (Italy and Brazil in particular). Especially Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck, who for several decades have been more popular than Mickey Mouse in Europe and Latin America.
• TRON: is a unique one despite it was highly advertised, saw a niche computer programming fanbase and the movies being a non-success in theaters, it has expanded uniquely into tie-ins, merchandise, video games, a comic miniseries, score albums, roller coaster attractions it's animated series TRON: Uprising and the soon Tron: Ares sequel it still lives as a successful Science fiction franchise.
• Disney Animated Canon:
  • Frozen in particular has become a cash cow of its own merit, less than a year after becoming the highest-grossing animated film of all time. It now spans several media, including a toy line as successful as the Disney Princess line, two animated shorts, a feature-length sequel, and its own Broadway musical within six years of the original film being released.
  • Lilo & Stitch is a unique case in that its success is driven almost solely by the ridiculous popularity of the latter title character, who is self-described as "cute and fluffy". It managed to receive a ton of sequel and spin-off media in under two decades from the original film's release, including three sequel films, three different TV shows, and even an alternate universe manga. What's even more impressive is the fact that the original film itself succeeded during a weak period for Disney's feature animation studio.
  • The Lion King was the Frozen of its time: merchandise based on the characters could be found everywhere, the CD, Laserdisc and VHS topped music and video charts with the film itself becoming the biggest-selling VHS tape in history and it was adapted into any media possible, from a daily TV series about the Ensemble Dark Horses of the film to one of the most successful Broadway musicals of all time. Even today, The Lion King is still successful: when the parents who originally loved the film when it was big growing up had children of their own to share the movie with, Disney re-released the film into theaters, made new merchandise and another TV show based on the franchise, more specifically its first sequel film. And just like all their other classic films, the film had a remake, which is the highest-grossing animation ever.^note Although a computer-animated film, due to its photorealistic graphics it's grouped with the Disney Live-Action Remakes.
  • Moana is also this for Disney. Merchandise can still be found a year after the movie was made, it got an ice show and the CD topped the Billboard children's music charts before being dethroned by the soundtrack for the Broadway musical of Frozen in June of 2018. It helps that unlike most of their franchises, this one appeals to both genders.
  • Winnie the Pooh makes Disney an insane amount of money each year. A settlement at one point for 2% of profits between Disney and the A. A. Milne estate was said to be around $300 million. In fact, it is considered the third highest-grossing media franchise according to the Wikipedia article at an estimated $48.5 billion.
• Disney Live-Action Remakes: Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King have grossed over $1 billion each at the worldwide box office^*as did Alice in Wonderland, if you count it, and The Jungle Book ended up pretty close. Maleficent was big enough of a hit (over $750 million) to warrant a sequel. Even with the other films being modest-to-OK grossers and some releases going straight-to-streaming on Disney+, the trend shows no sign of stopping and has become a major film franchise in its own right for Disney.
• Pixar:
  • Toy Story is quite easily the biggest money maker for Pixar. It wound up becoming their first movie to receive a sequel. Even with the noticeably long Sequel Gap between two of their four installments, both sequels grossed over $1 billion at the box office. The former once held the record for the highest grossing animated feature of all time. And even ignoring the movies, there's been multiple shorts, television specials, an animated series, a massive presence at all the Disney Theme Parks, and of course the piles and piles of merchandise. You'd begin to think that they started this whole franchise to sell toys.
  • Lots of merchandise gets made of their films^note Cars 2 and Monsters University are their first non-Toy Story sequel and prequel respectively. It should be said that Cars is even more toyetic than their own series about toys. By 2015, the Cars franchise had made over 10 billion dollars in merchandising. This is heavily theorized as to why Cars has gotten two sequels, a spin-off and a sequel to the spin-off so quickly despite said franchise being Pixar's weakest at both the box office and with critics (with the first sequel being the first and so far only Pixar movie to get a Rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes); to keep selling toys.
  • The Finding Nemo franchise is also a cash cow. Aside from the original film being the best-selling DVD of all time, tons of merchandise for it, along with two different theme park experiences, were made in between the release of the original film and its sequel, with said sequel crossing the billion-dollar mark worldwide and becoming the fourth highest-grossing animated film of all time in the USA.
  • Inside Out has quickly become this for Pixar. According to one licensing website, Inside Out was the third highest-grossing licensed property based off an animated film amongst children in North America for the year of 2015, behind Frozen and Minions. The movie has boatloads of spin-off merchandise that is still being produced long after the movie's release, and the film is one of the highest-selling Blu-rays of all time. It was also successful enough to get an ice show, a meet and greet at Walt Disney World and an entire ride devoted to it at Disney California Adventure. Eventually, it became Pixar's first original film from the 2010s to get a sequel.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Ever since it started with Iron Man and (to a lesser extent) The Incredible Hulk in 2008, the universe has quickly shaped into this, with each of its films being big moneymakers. For emphasis, when The Avengers was released, not only did it break numerous box office records around the world, it saved Disney^note  The company distributing this and other future MCU films after they bought Marvel Comics in 2009 from a sticky spot after John Carter bombed months earlier and boosted both the film and comic book industries in the process, and even boosted sales of Shawarma thanks to a joke Tony Stark makes near the end of the film. They've had two cartoons, two animes, a live-action TV spinoff, and tons of ancillary items. They generate so much cash that some reported Marvel Studios got some independence from the comics parent for saying Avengers: Age of Ultron, which nearly reached the original's box office, was "a failure".^note Though it indeed was one of the projects that a Marvel ""creative comittee" was not helping; seeing them nearly drive away Iron Man himself from Captain America: Civil War over salary concerns was a breaking point, as Disney knew paying him as much as needed would bring even more money
  • Iron Man has been the most profitable of the non-Sony, non-Fox Marvel characters so far. His three movies were the highest-grossing solo films of the entire MCU (Iron Man 3 is also their most successful non-Avengers film to this day), and he has had so many mass-media appearances in the past few years that Wolverine Publicity might as well be renamed "Iron Man Publicity".
  • As of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the Marvel Cinematic Universe includes 30 films and a total collective gross of $22,588,202,270. That's an average of approximately $982,095,751 per film. And just to prove how massive it's become, the highly anticipated Avengers: Endgame briefly surpassed Avatar as the highest grossing film of all time. It ended with a total gross of $2,797,800,564. Just the four Avengers movies themselves count as the fourth-biggest franchise (after the MCU itself, Star Wars, and Harry Potter) with an average gross of just under $2 billion apiece.
• Star Wars:
  • The original trilogy (1977-1983) started it, and a bunch of licensed books created a Star Wars Expanded Universe big enough to support all kinds of wacky fan theories. As of 2020, the films alone are worth well over ten billion dollars. The Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm solely to get its hands on the Star Wars license, and the critical and commercial success of The Force Awakens (which grossed over 1.8 billion dollars in its first month of release, and over 2 billion dollars overall, making it the third highest grossing film of all time worldwide and the highest grossing film of all time in the United States, not adjusted for inflation) proved that the gamble paid off.
  • Spoofed extensively in Spaceballs with oodles of dubious merchandise advertised in the movie itself. Of note is the fact that the vast majority of capitalizing on the Star Wars brand was done after Spaceballs, ensuring the parody remained as relevant as ever. As a result, "Spaceballs: The (Item)" has become a prominent meme all by itself. Spaceballs even made a joke that they were making a sequel called "Spaceballs 2: The Search For More Money" in which now Mel Brooks hinted that he may actually be considering making
  • Star Wars toy sales weren't that great for Disney with the Sequel Trilogy and spinoff films. That is, until the Disney+ series The Mandalorian came along. A certain cute little green Force-sensitive alien pulled this off and caused massive Demand Overload.
• 20th Century Studios:
  • Alien, even if a lot is Misaimed Merchandising given how kid-unfriendly the whole deal is.
  • The first four films of Ice Age series are this for Twentieth Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios, each installment generating at least six times its budget, despite steadily declining critical reception (only the first film is certified fresh by Rotten Tomatoes). And then the fifth film rolled out, which was savaged by both critics and audience, grossing only three times its budget. Still, $3 billion in total series gross ain't bad.
  • One of the other Trope Makers for this in the 1960s along with James Bond was Planet of the Apes. The original movie earned four sequels, lots of merchandise and two television spin-offs. A remake/reboot in 2001 and a reboot in 2011 kept the apes alive through the 21st century.
  • After Avatar became the highest-grossing film at the time and the only film that came close to grossing $3 billion at the box office before Avengers: Endgame, Disney has installed Pandora – The World of Avatar in their Animal Kingdom location in Florida (even before they bought 20th Century Fox) and factory-issued 2 to 4 more sequels. Later, following the purchase of Fox, Avatar: The Way of Water became the third highest-grossing film of all time.
• 20th Television:
  • The Simpsons. Being airing since 1989, this series is the longest-running American sitcom, and the longest-running American scripted primetime television series. They warned you in song: "They'll NEVER stop the Simpsons!!"
  • Family Guy as Fox's second cash cow cartoon. Incidentally, both are fond of jokes at the expense of Fox and their supporters, the only reason they're allowed to get away with it being precisely this trope.
  • Bob's Burgers quickly became the third biggest cartoon on Fox upon its debut. And it has no signs of slowing down. The Belchers have already gotten lots of merchandise across the board to go along with their multiple Emmys, and they've also recieved a theatrical movie.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There was no real need to continue the series after it ended (and many feel it should have ended a few seasons before it did), but Joss Whedon and company continue to profit off of it with the line of comics that continue the series.
  • Glee was barely in its first season when it was earning FOX millions by selling music — it usually charts a handful of songs every week — and releasing the first half of the first season on DVD and preparing a live tour. It immediately got commissioned for two more season and had a shedload of merchandise: two different karaoke games have been announced, as well as various articles of Glee-themed clothing, jewelry, and school supplies.
• Disney Channel:
  • Hannah Montana, due to Miley Cyrus and her massive publicity scandals every few months, and the fact that almost every kid adored the series in its heyday. The show itself makes money, then they have concert tours, dolls, music CD's, games, everything you'd expect from Disney merchandise. Same with Lizzie McGuire and That's So Raven.
  • High School Musical proved to be insanely popular with kids after coming out. The first movie's soundtrack was a huge seller, topping the Billboard 100s album charts for several weeks. And when the second film premired, it gained over 17 million viewers (the most views of anything on Disney Channel to date). Because of this, Disney went and gave the third film a bigger budget and released it in theaters. And on top of that, the franchise launched the careers of multiple young stars. It seems the nostalgia is still pretty high with many people as the local school productions of the film continue to be a very popular choice for high school plays, and a new series inspired by the trilogy is now streaming on Disney+, which itself launched the careers of several artists.
  • Around the time Hannah Montana was insanely popular, Disney was milking a crap-ton of money from putting The Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus on absolutely everything. Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato were heading on the same direction before breaking into their solo careers. And then there was Bridgit Mendler, Bella Thorne, Zendaya, China Anne McClain, and Olivia Holt, and it won't end at all. Before that, there was Hilary Duff, and waaaay before that, Annette Funicello, Tommy Kirk and Hayley Mills, with the latter three being popular when Walt was still alive. So it's only a continuation of what Walt did in The '50s and The '60s to market teenage stars to the baby boom.
  • In Latin America and certain sections of Europe, Violetta was raking it in for Disney. With an international concert tour, four albums, and a bunch of merchandising, news sources were even calling it the next Hannah Montana, at least in these regions.
  • Phineas and Ferb was this for them in the late 2000s/early 2010s, after word of mouth gained it a humongous fanbase. Its merchandise was a huge seller, their meet and greet location in Walt Disney World had some of the longest lines for any character there, and at one point the show even rivaled SpongeBob SquarePants in viewer ratings (This would be because SpongeBob only found both critical acclaim and high ratings in his first 3 seasons (1999 to 2003), Phineas and Ferb debuted long after SpongeBob's golden age). It got to the point that new projects starring the characters are still occuring to this day. And if that wasn't enough, the original series got picked up for two more seasons almost eight years after its initial conclusion. Safe to say those brothers aren't going anywhere for a long time.
  • Elena of Avalor on its release quickly became one of the top girls' properties that Disney has. The show ties with The Loud House and PAW Patrol as the highest-rated kids' cartoon on TV (not counting Netflix and other streaming services), has merchandise sell well (especially the wand the titular character uses, which has multiple versions) and a very successful meet and greet at Disney World. The same logic can also be applied to its parent series, Sofia the First.
  • It seems that in a way, all of the shows on Disney Junior have become this over time. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse continues to be very successful for Disney despite ending back in 2016 to make room for Mickey and the Roadster Racers while Doc McStuffins, Vampirina and Muppet Babies have proven to be insanely popular with the target demographic and have both gained hugely profitable toylines.
  • The Descendants franchise is insanely popular with tween girls and has everything, from a toyline, to soundtrack albums, to bedsheets, to Halloween costumes, to a cartoon series, you name it.
• ABC:
  • American Idol. It was the highest rated show of the year for several years.
  • Davy Crockett spawned a licensing craze in the mid-1950s that film historian Leonard Maltin described as being bigger than Star Wars.
  • In the early 1970s, Garry Marshall sold an unsuccessful pilot to Love, American Style, where it ran under the segment title "Love and the Television Set". Two years later, American Graffiti had made The '50s cool and Ron Howard, one of the young stars of said pilot, a star. Thus ABC picked up Happy Days for the 1974 season, which went on to become the #1 Nielsen-ratings show (replacing All in the Family) on American TV; it kept Mr. Marshall busy producing eleven seasons, seven spin-offs, and two failed spin-off pilots.
• The Disney Princesses pull in about 4 billion dollars each year.
• ESPN is possibly Disney's biggest moneymaker ever. At one point in the mid-2010s it was estimated that the single division alone accounted for 43% of all of Disney's year-end revenue, compared to the studios and theme parks at 8% and 15% respectively.
• Kingdom Hearts seems to be this as well, though on a smaller scale. All the games released on the PS2 are labeled as Greatest Hits, and the series doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon, especially with Kingdom Hearts III being a much awaited title that finally got released. Since Kingdom Hearts is Square and Disney, the cash-cow...ing of the game was inevitable.
• Marvel Comics:
  • The Avengers have become this since their live-action movie, which became the highest-grossing superhero movie of all time. They've had two cartoons and two anime series in the span of a few years, a live-action TV spinoff, three live-action movie sequels, and tons of ancillary items. There's even Avengers-brand Duct Tape!
  • Wolverine. His best known superpower is the ability to appear in and boost sales of any comic he's in — simply by appearing on a cover. That and the fact he was the center of the first three X-Men films and his own spin-off trilogy, got his name as a prefix to the newest cartoon, made the Hulk a guest star in the Hulk vs. Wolverine animated feature, being the only character to appear in all four Madhouse Marvel Anime shows, and constantly having his "mysterious" past retold.
• While they're clearly nowhere near as popular as they were in the 70's and 80's, The Muppets are still very profitable. They've had at least 4 TV shows, many well received movies, tie in video games, a series of popular YouTube videos, and tons of merch with Kermit the Frog and other characters slapped onto it.
  • The reboot of the Muppet Babies franchise has become this for Disney, launching a successful merchandise line and a popular TV show.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians is becoming this. Its Universe, plus the Kane Chronicles, draws large mobs. And unlike Harry Potter, it has two more books, a Norse side series and interest in a Crisis Crossover between the Greek/Roman, Egyptian and Norse worlds.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At one time, this only existed as a ride at Disney Theme Parks. As of 2018, five live-action movies have been released and a sixth is in the planning stage. Even before the fourth movie was released, the franchise garnered billions of dollars in global merchandising revenues.
• Twisted Wonderland: The Action-Adventure game with Rhythm Game aspects developed by f4samurai and published by Aniplex and Disney has quickly become for both publishers due to its association with Disney, the Cast Full of Pretty Boys that are essentially expies of Disney villains, the game being illustrated by Yana Toboso of Black Butler fame and having an interesting story.
• For the old Playhouse Disney block, Bear in the Big Blue House was easily their biggest hit. It's success also gave The Jim Henson Company some much needed revenue, during a time where their flagship Muppets franchise was declining in popularity.
• DuckTales (1987): For The Disney Afternoon, the show was the first and biggest success, which inspired other shows to be greenlit. It's success and inspiration was such that it became the first property to be rebooted in DuckTales (2017).
• Once Disney transfered the ownership of the film from the Touchstone Pictures label to their main company, The Nightmare Before Christmas became this. It's common to see merchandise themed around it around Halloween and Christmas in retail stores. In addition, meet and greets at the Disney Theme Parks with the characters draw huge lines, and whenever the movie is re-released to theaters, it still turns in a good profit, with the most recent re-release in 2023 bringing in over ten million dollars.

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