Whether you like Chinese Kungfu or not, you probably know Bruce Lee, the famous martial artist. Today, we don’t talk about his movies or life. We focus on the brand of Bruce Lee.
Shannon Lee, the daughter and heir of martial-arts expert Bruce Lee, is trying to add some power to the late movie star’s legacy.
In a bid to tap into growing interest in Mr. Lee in China and to develop her father into a powerhouse global brand, Ms. Lee last year bought back the rights to his image from General Electric Co.’s Universal Studios, which had held them since the late 1980s. ‘They didn’t put the effort behind it I felt should be put behind it,’ she says. Universal declined to comment.
Then she formed Bruce Lee Enterprises, a licensing company, and LeeWay Media Group, a production company, to raise his profile. Ms. Lee also consulted with the estates of other famous people, including Elvis Presley and Steve McQueen, to learn more about how to successfully revive a deceased icon’s image.
In recent years, the Bruce Lee brand has brought in around $1 million a year, the estate says. With the new push, Ms. Lee hopes she can squeeze $5 million to $10 million from it annually. She has already signed deals with companies ranging from Lucky Brand Dungarees Inc. to Charter Communications Inc. Charter is using her father’s image in an ad featuring a woman who watched Bruce Lee’s kicks and chops on a TV screen and then imitated them, a Charter spokeswoman says. Lucky is using his image on T-shirts, Lucky’s marketing manager says.
Ms. Lee, who studied martial arts under one of her father’s former students, has also signed a deal with Corbis Corp.’s Greenlight, the company that represents scientist Albert Einstein, actress Mae West and others, to represent Mr. Lee. Later this month, she will kick off a Web site to serve as a social-networking community for his fans and a home for an expanded blog, which will alert followers to new projects and events.
Too many people know her father just from his movies, the 40-year-old Ms. Lee says. ‘I feel very responsible about having a certain level of care.’ By bringing him back into the public eye, she hopes more people will learn about his values, such as the importance of sticking up for what you believe and breaking down racial, gender and generational barriers. Her family foundation, the Bruce Lee Foundation, tries to get those messages out through seminars and scholarships, but she thinks raising her father’s profile in pop culture will help as well.
Licensing a dead celebrity can be very lucrative. Last year, Forbes figured that Elvis Presley brought in $52 million, including revenue from the singer’s Graceland estate and from licensing his image. Actor James Dean, whose image was licensed to peddle everything from sneakers to cars, took in $5 million, the magazine said.
Mr. Lee’s image is potentially worth seven figures annually, according to David Reeder, vice president of Greenlight. ‘He’s truly a global icon, and there aren’t many of those around.’ While there are ‘probably 30, 40 of those people that really resonate’ in the U.S., he adds, internationally the list shrinks to just a handful, including Michael Jackson, Muhammad Ali and Bruce Lee.
If she didn’t try to market her dad, Ms. Lee says, others would — and have. His face has already shown up on everything from T-shirts to key chains without the estate’s permission, she says. ‘It seems very unfair for perfect strangers to benefit from my family’s work,’ Ms. Lee says.
Mr. Lee, who died of a brain edema in 1973 when he was 32 years old, wasn’t well known in China during his lifetime because of the country’s closed political and cultural systems. Last year, state television company CCTV showed a 50-part series on his life after Ms. Lee licensed her father’s image to the company.
Ms. Lee says she was eager to get the series off the ground after being told in China that “the two most beloved Chinese figures throughout the world are Confucius and Bruce Lee.”
She also licensed Mr. Lee’s image to Nokia Corp., which used it to promote a new Bruce Lee mobile phone in China. The advertising campaign featured a video of the star playing ping-pong with an Asian weapon known as a nunchuck.
In Hong Kong, where Mr. Lee lived for part of his life, efforts are under way to turn his former home into a museum. It’s currently a rooms-by-the-hour establishment called the Romance Hotel. Ms. Lee, who lives in Los Angeles, will fly to Hong Kong soon to help judge a design contest for the house.
In the U.S., people tend to admire Bruce Lee’s success at bridging cultures and his role as the underdog, both in his movies and in real life. At the time, achieving stardom as an Asian was a breakthrough. Luminaries ranging from action star Jackie Chan to famous director Quentin Tarantino cite Mr. Lee as an influence.
Ms. Lee has signed off on a Broadway musical about her dad, expected to cost $10 million to $15 million, for the 2010-11 season. The producer is Stuart Oken, former executive vice president of Walt Disney Co.’s theatrical division, who helped bring ‘The Lion King’ to Broadway. A score and script are almost done, he says. Director Bartlett Sher, whose ‘South Pacific’ won seven 2008 Tony awards, is on board. So are Tony-winning writer David Henry Hwang of ‘M Butterfly’ and musician David Yazbek of ‘The Full Monty.’
