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Lego have got this down pat. Rather than being solely reliant on external IP like Star Wars and Harry Potter where they only get one slice of the cake (and share that) they made their own IP. The most successful IP is Ninjago, there's about a dozen TV series, one film, one computer game, a theme park ride, books serialising the TV series, "fact books", clothing and the full range of merchandise.

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This is a recent development for LEGO though, likely triggered by a lull in sales that they experienced after their first wave of modern franchised sets (which had literally saved them from bankruptcy) looked depleted. In other words, they learnt a lesson.

The rest of the toy industry has been doing this sort of combo for 30+ years with TV series, but their problem historically has been the high costs of animation. LEGO could leverage digital 3d earlier and easier than anyone else, and they did it very well, so now they can reap big rewards.

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