Vampiremania hits licensing

The new fantastic heroes have brought new blood to a market of which licensing definitely wants a bite.

After Le Roi Soleil and Cleopatra, Dracula will be the next hero of the musical that French star choreographer Kamel Ouali has started working on. The vampire created by Bram Stoker in 1897 is already back in bookstores in a new novel titled "Dracula l'immortel" (Immortal Dracula). Another reason to wonder like did French newspaper Le Parisien on page 1 last October: Why are vampires enjoying such a success? The answer is the Twilight saga! The series invented by Stephenie Meyer rekindled the literary gender by addressing a much larger audience.

The Twilight Effect
«Heroic Fantasy has existed for a long time but it used to enthuse mostly boys, notes Eglantine Deneux, executive director of the licensing branch at M6. Twilight is the first example of girls relating with that world.» That was proven by book sales (34 Million copies of the 1st four books sold) and completely confirmed when the first film after the saga came out with Robert Pattinson's performance turning into the idol of an entire generation of teenagers and young adults. « There are over 90 Million websites referring to Twilight and nothing but in France there are over 600 fans-clubs» says Eglantine Deneux. These addicts rushed to Twilight - chapter I: Fascination (2.7 Million tickets sold in France) and Twilight - chapter II: New Moon that was released on November 18th and are already dying to see Twilight 3 in July 2010.

A real godsend for licensees, starting with Neca the worldwide master – licensee that offers bags, jewelry, stickers, belts, hats, watches, figurines, etc. PhotoBox was a partner of the DVD and for the occasion created an exclusive poster on which fans could add their picture next to the leading actor. This huge Vampiremania that is mostly feminine has already started to trigger vocations. Vampire Knight, created by Matsuri Hino, is one of them. It’s a Shôjo, a girls' manga, that was a hit in Japan and after which an animated series was launched in 2008.

From fantasy to gothic
In Twilight or Vampire Night that is also about a pacific relationship between vampires and humans, teenagers find subjects they find important at that age such the fight between good and bad, transgression, and death experienced like a game. These themes are also important to the Gothic tribe. The Gothic trend is more a nook than fantasy but it has a lot of meaning for fans. Another example is the relaunching of Emily The Strange. This comic book character with long black hair is returning with an entire range of textile, accessories, and stationary that should attract gothic girls. Nelvana is also surfing that wave with its character Ruby Gloom, a little girl who lives in a dark mansion with her Cyclops, ghost and skeleton friends...

Nowadays who hasn’t dreamed of being a teenager fan of Twilight?
With society models swaying, little assurance of finding a job or not and family standards on the fragile side, it doesn’t seem surprising that teenagers want to seek refuge in worlds where reality is replaced by fiction, magic, virtual words or even darkness, all realms that appear fascinating and  exciting!