Tie-in

For the meaning of the term in U.S. college football, seeBids to college bowl games.

Atie-inwork is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as afilm,video game,television series,board game,web site,role-playing gameorliterary property.Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original property, and are a form ofcross-promotionused primarily to generate additional income from that property and to promote its visibility.

Types

This pannier bag is a tie-in product from theTV seriesSouth Park.

Common tie-in products include literary works, which may benovelizationsof a media property, originalnovelsor story collections inspired by the property, or republished previously existing books, such as the novels on which a media property was based, with artwork or photographs from the property. According to publishing industry estimates, about one or two percent of the audience of a film will buy its novelization, making these relatively inexpensively produced works a commercially attractive proposition in the case ofblockbusterfilm franchises. Although increasingly also a domain of previously established novelists, tie-in writing has the disadvantages, from the writers' point of view, of modest pay, tight deadlines and no ownership in the intellectual property created.

Tie-in products may also have a documentary or supplemental character, such as "making-of" books documenting the creation of a media property. Tie-in products also include other types of works based on the media property, such assoundtrackrecordings, video games, or merchandise including toys and clothing.

Novelizations

Main article:Novelization

A novelization is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, comic strip or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the invention of home video, but continue to find commercial success as part of marketing campaigns for major films. They are often written by accomplished writers based on an early draft of the film's script and on a tight deadline.

Rebranding of previously published work

Tie-in books are sometimes reprints of novels rebranded to tie in with their film adaptation. As an example, afterRoderick Thorp's 1979 novelNothing Lasts Foreverwas adapted into the 1988 filmDie Hard,it was retitledDie Hardwith the film's poster on the cover. ThePhilip K. DicknovelDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?was similarly republished to tie in withBlade Runner,the film loosely based on the book.

A tie-in book linked to a film based onshort fictionmay be published featuring the adapted story, as well as other stories from the same author; for example, whileStephen King's novella "Apt Pupil"was adapted tothe eponymous film,King's collectionDifferent Seasons,which featured the story, was reprinted asApt Pupil: A Novella in Different Seasons.Similarly, novels were published to tie in with the filmsMinority ReportandPaycheck,featuring Philip K. Dick's original short stories "The Minority Report"and"Paycheck".The official organization linked to writing media tie-ins is theInternational Association of Media Tie-In Writers.

Expanded universes

Tie-in works may also tell new stories in the form ofsequels,prequelsand other spin-offs, creating anexpanded universebased on the original work; for example, the many books, comics and video games set in anexpanded universebased initially on the firstStar Warstrilogy. In 2015, theNew York Timesnoted the flourishing market for TV series tie-in novels, coinciding with the increasing cultural significance of quality television series. The increasing number of previously established novelists taking on tie-in works has also been credited with these works gaining a "patina of respectability" after having previously been disregarded in literary circles as derivative and mere merchandise.

Video games

Main article:Licensed game

Somevideo gamesare tie-in licences for films, television series or books.

Video game movie tie-ins are expensive for agame developerto license, and thegame designershave to work within constraints imposed by thefilm studio,under pressure to finish the game in time for the film's release.The aim for the publishers is to increase hype and revenue, as the two industries effectively market one another's releases.

Film license video games have a reputation for being of poor quality;for example,Amiga PowerawardingPsygnosis's three film licenses (Dracula,CliffhangerandLast Action Hero,all reviewed in June 1994) 36%in total;that magazine being cynical towards licensed games in general, withThe Blues Brothersbeing one of the few exceptions. One of the first movie tie-in games, Atari'sE.T. the Extra-Terrestrial(1982) was deemed so bad it was cited as one cause of thevideo game industry crash.Such poor quality is often due to game developers forced to rush the product in order to meet the film's release date,or due to issues with adapting the original work's plot into an interactive form, such as in the case of thegamesbased on the last two films of theHarry Potterfilm series, where one reviewer criticised some of the game's missions and side-quests as being unrelated to the film's storyline.

Video tie-in licences for novels tend to beadventure games.The Hobbit(1982) andThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxyaretext adventures,whilstI Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream(1995) is apoint-and-click adventureandNeuromancer(1988) is agraphic adventure.Action games based on novels are less common (William Shatner's TekWar(1995), afirst-person shooter). Novel tie-ins were published less frequently after the 1990s, with developers only taking risks with stories that had already been licensed for films.

Revenue and structure

Tie-ins are considered an important part of the revenue-stream for any major media release, and both planning and licensing for such works often begins at the very earliest stages of creating such a property. Tie-ins provide both an important way of generating additional income from a property, and a way of satisfying the desires of fans who enthusiastically support a popular media property.

The lineage of tie-in works can be quite convoluted; for example, a novelization might be done of a video game, which was based on a television series, based on a film, based on a comic book which was the original media property. In several cases, a novelization has been released based on a movie which was in turn adapted from an original novel. In such cases, it is not uncommon to see the novelization and a film release of the original novel side by side on the same shelf.

These tie-ins can be considered as forms of "free advertising", as they create more exposure for the media property. Tie-ins need not have a direct association with the property; for example, a particular pizza company can offer coupons that are associated with theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesfilms, but that specific pizza company itself does not necessarily have to appear in the films. By this association, however, the pizza company is exposed to a bigger audience. If a media property does well, the tie-ins gain that positive exposure as well.

Early examples

Film

The Americanfan magazinePhotoplay,first published in 1911, originally presentedshort storiesbased on popular films of the era. It later adopted a more traditional nonfiction format.

Comics

The Adventures of SupermanbyGeorge Lowther(illustrated by originalSupermanartistJoe Shuster) was published in 1942.

Television

Some early examples of TV tie-in books areLeave It to Beaver(1960),Here's Beaver!(1961), andBeaver and Wally(1961) byBeverly Cleary.

See also

• Cross media marketing
• Media franchise
• Merchandising
• Expanded universe
• Toyetic

External links

The dictionary definition oftie-inat Wiktionary

• The International Association of Media Tie-in Writers
• Edward Jay EpsteinforSlate:The Midas Formula. How to create a billion-dollar movie franchise.
• Meredith Schwartz:See You in the Funny Pages — Comic books enter the gift market: are pop culture gifts coming of age?
• The YS Complete Guide To Film And TV LicencesfromYour Sinclairissue 60, December 1990; at The Your Sinclair the Rock 'n' Roll Years