If Disney plans its movie franchises five years ahead, Marvel Cinematic Universe plans for 20 years. Imagine the planning and the blueprints of selling movie franchise and related merchandise for two decades. It’s a business nobody can beat. Brands such as Marvel know that their movies and the related success would be solid and firmly grounded on the psyche of millennials and Generation-X along with their children.

It’s not just Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Jurassic Park franchise is the next best example of how millennial parents took their children to watch Jurassic World and made it a phenomenal hit. Good news is, this demographic and the generation to come are insatiable when it comes to movie franchises, merchandising and gamified apps. Today, if you could engage the millennial mind with a movie franchise game, you have probably hit a jackpot.

And jackpot it is, thanks to pioneering startups such as Fantasy Movie League on Fantasy Life App. Aptly called as ‘Fantasy Life App’, the application is dedicated to fantasy games built around not only leading sports leagues but also world’s highest grossing movies. For fantasy game players, this is their world, this is their life.
Co-founded by Matthew Berry – the face of ESPN’s fantasy football – Fantasy Sports App is a place “for fans to chat about sports and movies, get fantasy advice, or find sleepers for your team.”

Fantasy games built around movies

The Fantasy Movie League on the application is styled around fantasy sports. It’s a weekend movie box office game where players predict which group of movies will generate the highest gross revenue based on things such as box office openings, critical reviews and first-day responses. Players can play through Friday to Sunday and win prizes.

One of the best things about creating a fantasy movie league game is that it can be played around the year. The FML is currently divided into 52 weekly competitions where players get their own Fantasy Cineplex. These players can select upto eight films to feature on their own Cineplex. Each movie has a Bux cost and players need to stay within a fixed spending limit of $1000 Bux. At the end of the month, players with the highest total Box Office scores are rewarded with a prize.

Here’s where it gets more interesting especially for businesses that are considering to tap the fantasy games section. In this example, FML is giving away movie merchandise as prizes. For instance, an Ocean’s 11 poster signed by George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon or a cast-signed Jurassic World poster.

The potential of fantasy movie leagues

This is just the beginning and the start itself has shown enough potential in fantasy movie games. Fantasy movie leagues are a win-win for every party involved.

/ Movie franchises and production houses can keep promoting their merchandise and movie brands by creating fantasy games around the movies.
/ Startups can join hands with production houses to create mobile or web applications around movies and earn a percentage of sales.
/ Movie league apps are also great platforms to sell other products that are either related to movies or lifestyle.
/ Highest winning players can be roped in as influencers to promote fantasy movie leagues on their social media accounts.
/ Even movie tickets can be sold or given away as prizes in order to promote movies.
/ Advertisers will find movie league fantasy platforms way more relevant for their targeted demographic.

Fantasy game players are generous buyers

Several studies have shown that people with a history of playing any kind of fantasy sports –

/ Have a predisposition towards gamified applications
/ Love winning online prizes and games for gratifications
/ Are more willing than average online buyers to buy products if they find on fantasy platforms.

A report by FSTA had stated that three out of four fantasy sports players buy merchandise related to their own fantasy sports team, league or game. Imagine the kind of business this buying behavior can generate in case of fantasy movie games.

Benefits of creating fantasy movie leagues

# Selling actual movie tickets/movie premiere tickets

Movie franchises, comic brands and film production houses can easily sell actual movie premier event tickets or movie tickets on their fantasy movie platforms with giveaways, discounts and special offers.

# Promoting movie merchandise

What better than selling movie merchandise than to those who are most inclined to buy – the fantasy game players? This is also a win-win because not only does it help in selling the merchandise but also in promoting the movie brand.

# Round-the-year engagement

Another big advantage of creating movie leagues is that players or users can be engaged throughout the year based on major movie release dates. Users will get to use their past experience and knowledge of movies and production house for making movie predictions. This expands of the window of selling a business or product for a whole year.

There’s a lot of business scope in the fantasy movie league business. The Avengers Infinity War became the fourth movie ever to cross $2 billion at the global box office. It has joined Star Wars: The force awakens, Avatar and Titanic. Many more movies can join the $2 billion club if the production houses, startups, and enterprises start thinking in the direction of fantasy movie leagues.

Vinfotech is a world leader in fantasy sports app development across industry verticals. For us, fantasy gaming is not only about sports. We have helped non-sports brands such as NationBall- A Political Fantasy Software, Street Fight - A Fantasy Stock Market Software or GM Genius - A fantasy football platform to learn math skills to target their customers successfully on fantasy platforms. Fantasy sports solution is now an emerging culture and can be an effective way for building brand loyalty. If you are a brand looking for leveraging from fantasy sports website or mobile application, give us a call.