Vampire Boom Gives The Economy A Much Needed Boost

Hollywood has always used aliens, zombies, viruses, and a dash of apocalypse scare to thrill movie goers in to paying big bucks, but who knew True Blood and the rest of the vampires were helping Hollywood pay the rent. Recently the Twilight paraody Vampires Suck made $20 million, while 5 million viewers regularly watch True Blood on HBO. When it comes to books, Justin Cronin's The Passage, Stephanie Meyer's Breaking Dawn and Charlaine Harris' Dead and Gone have all made it to the best seller list. It seems that since the introduction of Twilight, the vampire genre has grossed an impressive $7 billion. From spooky and mythical tales, the genre has now become an inexhaustible and money making industry. The Hollywood Reporter breaks down the numbers:

• Film: $3 billion

• Publishing: $1.6 billion

• Merchandising: $600 million

• TV, DVDs: $1.2 billion

• Other: $600 million

How exactly do these supernaturals do it? Simple. Vampires can easily be transported into any genre. It seems there versatility is endless. Julie Plec, writer and producer for Vampire Diaries notes,

"By starting with one simple mythological creature that's been part of our literary universe for centuries, you can create a story that has it all: romance, horror, action, special effects, sex, epic love, wish fulfillment, romantic leading men, delicious bad-boy villains, female badasses, damsels in distress, death, monsters and, ultimately, the perfectly flawed hero who would give it all up if it meant they wouldn't have to spend eternity alone... It doesn't get more universal than that."

With versatility comes money making. Movies bring in money right away; the Twilight saga has brought in $1.76 billion in box office sales alone. While television shows don't tend to make money as upfront as movies, True Blood and Vampire Diaries bring a big fan base and have shown good sales in the aftermarket sales. Both shows are predicted to earn impressive figures in the coming years: $100 million-$125 million from "Vampire Diaries" and $50 million-$75 million from True Blood. And this isn't including the DVD sales, which will produce high figures; already the Season 2 DVD of True Blood has sold a million copies. With great stories also comes great music tie ins. Soundtracks are another crucial component to selling the vampire genre. The Twilight soundtrack and scores for the currents movies have easily brought in $50 million. As for books, not only are Harris and Meyers seeing their stories fly off the shelves, but there are scores of vampire novels being consumed by readers, which makes about $1.6 billion. Along with music and books, video games are also using the vampire theme to generate income. With so many poplar titles out at $40 each, the video game industry is easily raking in $200 million. The vampire genre doesn't seem to be dying out either; future projects are already in the works in every industry. So vampire fans open up another bottle of True Blood, pop in Season 1 of Vampire Diaries, download the score to Twilight and play some Legacy of Kain because vampires are doing their part to help the recession. Source: hollywoodreporter.com — Vampires Bring $7 bil to Hollywood Economy (Photo Credit: HBO, Inc.)

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