It’s official: Frozen is now a bona fide pop-culture phenomenon.
And I’m not just talking about its eye-popping global box office performance, where Disney’s latest epic about two tragically alienated sisters has raked in a mind-boggling $1.1 billion in ticket sales—the most ever for any animated movie. In case you’re wondering, that’s good enough for No. 6 on the all-time worldwide box office chart … and counting. And the movie just spent its 22nd weekend in American theaters—a feat surpassed only by The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (24 weeks), Avatar (34 weeks) and Titanic (41 weeks).
Meanwhile, the soundtrack has sold 2.2 million copies and notched 11 nonconsecutive weeks atop Billboard’s album chart, the most since Adele’s unstoppable 21 spent 24 weeks at the top in 2011-12.
And all of that is pretty impressive for statistic nuts like me.
But, arguably, the most telling metric of all when it comes to parsing a movie’s real pop-culture influence is in the realm of merchandise. And if you’ve got young girls in your home—as I do—you probably know exactly what I’m talking about. Those looking for a little Anna or Elsa doll for their little girls to play with are going to need a lot of luck, a lot of money or both, as Frozen dolls have suddenly joined the ranks of fabled must-have toys like Beanie Babies and Cabbage Patch Dolls.
I’ll vouch for this personally.
My daughters both wanted to get an Anna or Elsa figure, and we found examples of each on the Toys “R” Us website for a seemingly reasonable $7 or so. They were sold out online, however. So with hope springing eternal in our hearts, we trekked down to our local Toys “R” Us store, hoping that maybe, just maybe they’d have some in stock.
Nope.
In fact, the Frozen section looked as if a biblical plague of locusts had picked it clean. There was virtually nothing left, save a couple of bigger dolls that were in the $50ish range and a dress or two that was in that neighborhood price-wise as well. More than I cared to spend.
Turns out I should have bought everything that they had left, because people are apparently spending more—a lot more—in a number of places around the country.
In New York, for instance, anecdotal reports suggest that parents desperate to dress their little girls up as Anna and Elsa have ponied up as much as $1,000 for outfits that retail at the Disney store for $150. (Which makes the ones I saw at Toys “R” Us last week of $50 or an absolute steal, apparently. And I thought they were way overpriced already! )
A Spanish tourist to New York told the local CBS affiliate that she’s practically been stalking the Manhattan Disney store in the hopes that a new shipment of the dresses would arrive before she heads home. “I’ve been here four days, and I come every day and nothing. I haven’t found anything, it’s impossible!” Paula Martines said. “I’ve been a month and a half looking for it in my country.”
And it’s not just dresses. You can forget about finding those coveted Frozen dolls of Anna and Elsa, too. Unless, of course, you’re willing to pay piles money. The Huffington Post reported on a woman who spent $1,200 for an Elsa doll, for instance. Another pair of dolls was listed on eBay for $10,000.
Disney store employees have reportedly even witnessed fights between customers scrambling for what little Frozen merchandise remains on store shelves. One woman lucky enough to nab the last Olaf plush doll at a Disney store told the Huffington Post, “Anywhere I was, at the Met, at the supermarket, all the mothers were going crazy screaming, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe you got it!'” said 43-year-old Donna Ladd. “They were asking me if they could borrow the doll for a few days. … I feel like I had a bag no one else could get.”
Toy industry analyst Sean McGowan of the firm McGowan of Needham & Co said of the mounting frenzy for all things Frozen, “If you’re able to get a product that nobody can get, it conveys status, I have connections or I know somebody or I have a lot of money. And it becomes more than just a toy or the item that you’re trying to get.”
Perhaps they should all take a cue from Idina Menzel’s theme song from the movie and just “Let It Go.”
Then again, maybe my local Toys “R” Us still has a few of those dresses left.
And it is almost time for my lunch break.
Hmmm …
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