Star Wars is going to take over holiday shopping

Sorry Elsa, but Chewie, Yoda and the gang are back and taking over the holiday shopping season.

With the Dec. 18 movie release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, some retailers stand to gain a fourth-quarter sales uptick as they make a major marketing investment and dedicate significant floor space to new toys, apparel, games and even home decor tied to the movie.

In a knock to the children's holiday favorite of recent years, Walmart is "planning it bigger than Frozen," says Anne Marie Kehoe, the company's vice president of toys.

Last week's Force Friday events, where new Star Wars products were revealed to much fanfare at midnight store openings, were only round one. With more toys expected to come out in the next few months, retailers are gearing up for a holiday season fueled in part by the rebirth of one of the most popular franchises in history.

"This is going to be a blockbuster merchandise event," says Joel Bines, managing director in the retail practice at consulting firm AlixPartners. "You will not be able to avoid Star Wars merchandise. It will be impossible this holiday season."

And compared with the Star Wars merchandise of years past, technology and increased competition among toymakers have upped the game. There are customizable lightsabers, an interactive talking Yoda doll, a BB-8 toy droid and bigger action figures that have lights, sound and movement.

For the toy industry, which does 70% of its sales in the last two months of the year, the new Star Wars movie is a big deal, says Jim Silver, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of TTPM, a website that reviews kids' products.

Starting with Force Friday, Toys R Us has indefinitely dedicated twice as much floor space as normal to Star Wars merchandise, anticipating additional product rollouts as more movies make their way to theaters in the coming years. Walmart has another round of events planned for the weekend of Nov. 15, driving customers into stores for potential holiday shopping two weeks before Black Friday.

"When you look at the next five years and all of the different products, this is a multibillion-dollar proposition," Silver says. "So it’s extremely important. The amount of room given to Star Wars at retailers is much greater than ever before."

Target has life-size Chewbacca cardboard cutouts in stores that growl when you walk past and a dedicated display that compiles everything Star Wars in one place. That will be up at least through this week."We feel the Star Wars film will be the big pop culture moment of 2015. It is definitely a strong, strong component of holiday," spokesperson Lee Henderson said.

Meanwhile, the Disney Store plans to keep interactive in-store "theaters" — 90-inch TV screens where customers can watch a range of music videos, movie trailers and film clips — set to the new Star Wars movie through December and will keep introducing new products even after the movie comes out, says Elissa Margolis, senior vice president of Disney Store North America.

Retailers such as Toys R Us and Disney Store have a lot on the line. Toys R Us has been working on launching the new line of products for several years, says Richard Barry, global chief executive of merchandising. Kehoe says that given the late-December movie release, Walmart hopes to see continued momentum through January, a typically slow sales month, when kids will be armed with gift cards and still excited about the film.

Retailers are also in a position to capitalize on the broader appeal of the latest Star Wars installment as it brings a new generation into its fandom, Kehoe says. Disney has helped with that by going beyond Star Wars nerd culture, striking licensing deals with companies including Pottery Barn, J. Crew and Cover Girl to sell merchandise such as a children's bed in the shape of the Millennium Falcon cockpit, hipster T-shirts and a makeup line inspired by the movie.

Sales of Star Wars merchandise are expected to generate $3 billion in 2015, according to a Piper Jaffray research note. An estimate by Macquarie Research puts that number at $5 billion over the next 12 months. But for a $3.5 trillion annual retail industry, Star Wars isn't a make-it or break-it deal, Bines says.

"You love this if you’re the toy buyer," Bines says. "But if you’re the CEO, you’re not building your entire holiday plan around this launch."