Why’s Scarface Big On Mobile?
Scarface was a big mobile content seller in 2006, clocking up 2 million sales of ringtones, voicetones, graphics and games reports THR. The article claims that meant it accounted for “1 percent of all mobile consumption and 15 percent of those consumers purchasing an action game, according to research firm M:Metrics”. I’m assuming that’s a serious misquote, considering that (for example) there was $727 million worth of content sold in the US in the third quarter of 2006. “Disney and Universal Mobile Entertainment declined to break out revenue from “Scarface,” but the 2 million purchases range from the $5.99 fee necessary to pay to play the game “Scarface: The Rise of Tony Montana” to the $1.99 that will get you one of an assortment of wallpaper images that features Pacino’s menacing mug.” There were 186,000 voicetones based on Scarface sold, with 110,000 of those featuring the “Say hello to my little friend” line, which topped Nielsen RingScan’s rankings for 18 weeks.
As a comparison that illustrates how far mobile content has to go, Vivendi Universal’s console game Scarface: The World Is Yours sold more than one million copies.
Anyway, 2 million bits of content sold is still pretty good for a 24 year-old movie, and Walt Disney and NBC Universal plan a swath of new mobile content in a bid to keep the sales flowing. The new content includes “a new casual game (Scarface Casino), a separate console-style game (Scarface: MPR), made-for-mobile animated shorts based on the film and a total of 30 new voicetones and mobile images combined”. The video shorts will be created with elements designed to view specifically over mobile.
Rafat adds: The story goes into all kinds of spin on why it is popular on mobile, including some lameness about “the collaborative approach between Starwave and Universal and their mutual embracing of the brand’s irreverent nature when it comes to creating innovative mobile content.” The real reason: the power of gaming, not really anything else.
Scarface has been a cultural iconic brand for years and now it has been converted over into a new media format and that along with our country's lust for anything "gansta" and the hip-hop culutre and whalla you have enormus sales.
Personally, I feel the design work on the wallpaper content is top notch, along with the quality of the ringtone files produced, and when you add all this up – it has enabled them to extend the life of this 20+ year old brand.
Darren's right on the money – it resonated with a group of users who are actually "spending money" in mobile.
If you look at T-mobile and Cingular decks for the majority of last year, there was one wallpaper that was consistently at the top of their decks – Scarface. This alone would add a huge volume in downloads.