Traveling science-themed educational exhibits, which live at the intersection of the STEM and experiential-licensing trends, continue to represent an opportunity for appropriate entertainment franchises.
Successful properties in this realm are not always educational, or even strongly science-themed, as two of the most recent examples attest. The first is Fox’s Ice Age, which has some loose connections to science due to its Pleistocene-period backdrop. It is the focus of a touring exhibition about that era, organized by Premier Exhibitions, leading up to the release of the next film in 2016.
The second is Rovio’s Angry Birds, in which gamers use theories of physics (often unwittingly) to catapult the birds accurately. It inspired a tour called “Angry Birds Universe: The Art and Science Behind a Global Phenomenon,” starting in late 2014, in partnership with Imagine Exhibitions and Jack Rouse Associates.
Many such exhibits operate in conjunction with museums. Some children’s museums, for example, offer tours based on properties for preschoolers (often connected to PBS). Institutions overseeing licensed touring programs include the Minnesota Children’s Museum (with Mattel/HIT’s Thomas & Friends, Houghton Mifflin’s Curious George, and Scholastic’s Clifford the Big Red Dog) and the Children’s Museum of Houston (Scholastic’s Magic School Bus).
Science- and sci fi-themed properties with family appeal represent another opportunity. Both CBS’s Star Trek and Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars have been the focus of educational tours making multiple stops at museums around the world. And the Fort Worth Museum helped develop “CSI: The Experience,” which encompasses both permanent and touring exhibits based on CBS’s CSI franchise and its forensic science themes.
Some exhibits offer licensors opportunities for limited royalty streams through merchandise sales, in addition to income from the productions themselves. Most of the items are specific to the show, however, meaning that the venues rarely represent a new channel for ancillary sales of existing products.
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