E.T., Call Your Banker

“E.T.” is coming back for another visit--but it won’t be the same. No longer the innocent, he’ll be coming back in high style to pick up some more profits.

The videocassette arrives at neighborhood stores Oct. 27, and, of course, parents will have to fend off the kids clamoring for more E.T. products.

Industry analysts predict the video will generate an unprecedented $150 million.

Although neither Universal Pictures nor parent MCA Inc. would discuss the number of cassettes that they expect to ship by Calendar’s deadline, sources report that it should be about 8 million. (Generally, such new shippings are in the hundreds of thousands.)

Many vid watchers are convinced that with its bargain $24.95 suggested retail price and a $5 Pepsi rebate offer--claimable by mailing an “E.T” video sales receipt and Pepsi proof of purchase seals (there’s no such thing as a free rebate!)--the video ultimately will break the 10-million-unit mark in sales. Samplings of retailers indicate that pre-orders are brisk.

Not that the little fella needs for money: According to Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, the all-time box office champ has taken in $720 million worldwide gross--$395 million in the United States and Canada, $325 million abroad--representing 240 million admissions.

As for retail spinoffs, a highly placed MCA source estimates that “E.T.” merchandise has brought in roughly $1 billion to date.

(By comparison, “Star Wars” has grossed about $530 million. “Star Wars” and its sequels, acknowledged by marketing experts as the biggest film licensing success, have racked up $2.6 billion in world retail sales, said a spokeswoman for Lucasfilm Ltd.)

In terms of licensed merchandise attached to the movie’s imminent release on video, “You’re not going to see anything like what we had before,” said marketing consultant Marvin Levy, who acts as a liaison between Amblin and MCA.

For one thing, Levy said, most of the licensing deals made in ’82 have expired. For another, “We’re making a concerted effort to limit the merchandise. After all, the cassette itself is the prime item.”

Amblin marketing veep Brad Globe adds: “We made a decision not to do any major licensing program. We could have done a lot more than we’re doing.”

Amblin and Universal went pretty much hog wild with merchandising the first time around. The 200-plus E.T. items spawned by about 55 licensees ran the gamut: clothing, linen, breakfast cereal, vitamins, sleeping bags, backpacks, whatever. The alien invasion led to several licensing-related lawsuits and a widespread view among merchandisers that “E.T.” was overexposed.

Among the items back then:

Putnam’s “E.T.” hard-cover picture storybook sold more than a million copies; Berkley’s soft-cover novelization notched more than 3 million; Simon & Schuster’s “E.T.” activity books for children topped 5.5 million.

L.J.N. Toys, which brought out a product line including a talking “E.T.,” a windup Elliott-on-bike toy, and several vinyl figures, anticipated sales of more than $100 million in its first “E.T.” year back in 1982-83. L.J.N. President Jack Friedman wouldn’t talk to us, but a source at the firm burbled that “ ‘E.T.’ was wonderful for us.” In fact, the Toys R Us chain reports that some items from the L.J.N. “E.T.” line are still showing up in their sales figures eight years after the movie’s release.

Avon cosmetics sold “E.T.” items ranging from figurines, bath decanters and decal soap to coin holders, jewelry and “pot pals” (tiny smiling E.T.s who peer out of potted plant foliage). The line was a major success, according to an Avon rep, who refused, citing company policy, to cite figures. “Our brochures change every two weeks, but ‘E.T.’ stayed in the product line for a full year.”

Although Atari Inc. wound up losing money on its not-so-fun “E.T.” video game, the company paid a reported $21 million for rights to the space critter’s name, according to a trade paper account.

Texas Instruments fared much better with its “E.T.” Speak and Spell educational toy. “The item was already established and immensely successful when we started the ‘E.T.’ exploitation,” says a TI spokesman, who also refused to divulge figures. “ ‘E.T.’ was like icing on the cake.”

The “few items” we’ll be seeing in conjunction with the forthcoming video include reissues of the “E.T.” novelization, picture storybook (this time as a Berkley “digest format” trade paperback) and soundtrack album. Plus a line of “E.T.” playthings under a new licensing agreement with the Applause toy company.

Applause President Bob Solomon reports that the line will consist of a 9-inch plush toy ($12) and six assorted polyvinyl figurines ($3), which come in their own little closets. Shipping of “several hundred thousands of pieces” to upscale department and gift stores and some video outlets will begin mid-October.

“The aim is to bring ‘E.T.’ into the classic marketplace,” says Solomon, whose company also markets the California Raisins, “Sesame Street” and Disney characters, including Roger Rabbit.