Searches and sales of unofficial merchandise have been used to calculate the short-term impact.

A report suggests that the decision by director Jon Favreau not to have a full merchandise plan ahead of release of The Mandalorian on Disney+ has had a significant impact on Disney’s short-term revenue.

Jungle Scout, a company that assists Amazon merchants with sales, has suggested that Disney has potentially lost out on almost $3m worth of revenue.

According to the report, the term ‘Baby Yoda’ has been searched for over 90,000 times, while the calculation is also based on 1,842 pieces of unofficial Baby Yoda merchandise which are being sold by Amazon merchants. Each one of these transactions is said to average around $23 and the – admittedly rough – calculations have been extrapolated from there.

While the lack of merchandise may be hitting Disney’s bottom line in the short-term, the long term strategy for Baby Yoda merchandise appears to be well underway, with numerous licensees set to release product in 2020. So the question remains whether the money has been lost, or simply deferred – a conundrum which will become clear in the fullness of time.