Warner Bros. Joins the Retailing Rage, but That’s Not All, Folks! : Merchandising: Store openings by entertainment firms are booming, thanks to cartoon-loving baby boomers.

Thanks to advances in marketing more than in medicine, the life expectancy of some of Hollywood’s best-known characters is soaring. After moving from the big screen to television and video, Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse and their ilk live on and on and on in starring roles at stores run by their creators.

Time Warner Inc., which recently opened its flagship Warner Bros. Studio Store in Manhattan in an event attended by celebrities and company executives, is adding stores at a rate of four a week. As part of the expansion, Warner plans to hire about 3,000 employees.

Walt Disney Co., which helped start this new rage in retailing, will have 250 Disney stores by year’s end. Sony Corp. plans to open its first next month in Manhattan. Other companies with retailing ambitions include Turner Broadcasting, Motown and Viacom Inc.

Retailing experts say sales are largely driven by baby boomers with an attachment to the characters and shows featured at the stores.

While the broader retailing industry is in a slump, one consultant recently estimated that sales at entertainment company stores will double this year to $700 million.

Warner, which has 43 stores nationwide, sees retailing as a natural growth area.

Not all entertainment-driven retail ventures are successful. Disney’s Mickey’s Kitchen restaurants failed in two test outings. And Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus closed its three stores.

Warner’s 30,000-square-foot Manhattan store is designed as a virtual amusement park devoted to film, television and cartoon memorabilia. The facade is decorated with 8-foot-long friezes of Looney Tune characters, while inside, customers travel the three shopping floors in a glass elevator pushed by a life-size Superman, complete with a billowing cape.

Life-size Warner cartoon characters greet shoppers at the door. And, while walking through the store under miniature movie lights, you may find Batman bursting through a wall.

Large-screen video monitors play excerpts of Warner Bros. movies, music videos and cartoons. There are computer displays, where customers research animation cels, and 3-D holograms, in which Warner characters explain the process and history of animation.

“We started the idea of interaction in our first stores,” says Peter Starrett, president of Warner Bros. Worldwide Retail. “One of the designers came up with the idea for kids to color in animation scenes. The coloring station came out of that. We added the Marvin the Martian spaceship, which you can’t get the kids out of. And in New York, we have interactive devices that teach the history of animation and how interactive TV works.”

According to Starrett, there was a 60-40 ratio of adult merchandise to children’s when the Warner stores began two years ago. Now, recognizing the older set’s interest in the Warner characters, 75% to 80% of the products are designed for adults.