Not to mention that Angry Birds also sells TONS of adorable, if overpriced, merch.
Spaceballs had it right: That is where the real money is made!
I wonder how many people who have never even played the game have some of the merchandise anyways.
G.I Joe, My Little Pony, and Transformers were created based on this ideal.
Also, most webcomics that make money. (admittedly a tiny proportion of all webcomics)
Not to derail this thread, but could you link to a few example? I'm always game for some webcomics!
Notably: Penny Arcade (
www.pennyarcade.com) and Megatokyo (
www.megatokyo.com) for gaming-related things
Dungeons and Denizens (dungeond.com) and Looking For Group (lfgcomic.com) for fun pokes at RPG's
I'm fond of Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures (missmab.com), Misfile (misfile.com), Gene Catlow (genecatlow.com), Gunnerkrigg Court (Tom Siddell is a GOD with his work, also
www.gunnerkriggcourt.com), General Protection Fault (gpf-comics.com), Friendship is Dragons (Taking the first two episodes of FiM as a D&D campaign, also friendshipisdragons.thecomicseries.com)
Freefall (freefall.com), Sabrina Online (sabrina-online.com) and Kevin and Kell (kevinandkell.com) are long-runners that you can archive-binge on for days each, Boomer Express (boomerexpress.com) is a fun one, Brentalfloss has a small webcomic he does when he's not doing video game music (brentalfloss.com/comic).
Jolly Jack does several (I'm particularly fond of Sequential Art, it's fairly hefty itself, collectedcurios.com/index.html)
Code Name Hunter is very pretty (codenamehunter.com)
That's all I can think of off the top of my head. See you in a couple weeks :3