Has merchandise mania finally spiralled completely out of control? A key anecdote from movie history relates how George Lucas's advisers couldn't understand why the director was so keen on securing a percentage from sales of Star Warslunchboxes, T-shirts, and action figures. We now know, of course, that this is where the serious money is generated.

Confirmation of this fact arrived last week when the brains behind Avatar, gathering at a conference in Las Vegas, announced the next move in their plan to take over the world.

No, they weren't announcing a sequel. No, discussion did not surround an extended cut on DVD. The announcement was, rather, concerned with outlining plans for 20th Century Fox's latest Avatar"merchandise strategy". Over the past six months, the conglomerate has raked in some $153 million (€124 million) in retail sales of games, figures, apparel and other unclassifiable knick-knacks.

Apparently this is not enough. Despite having no immediate plans for a sequel, Fox has its eyes on the wildly lucrative Halloween and Christmas markets.

Robert Marick of Fox Consumer Products was infuriatingly buoyant. " Avataris a true game changer. I don't think the world has seen anything like it, and the best part is that it's just the tip of the iceberg," he said.

Why bother making a movie at all? Next time, cut straight to the merchandise.