By HARRISON JOHNSTONE 

Rovio Entertainment continues to flood the entertainment market with this week's release of The Angry Birds Movie.

The Finnish game developer behind the massively popular Angry Birds franchise – which now includes spin-off games, TV, merchandise and theme parks – is hoping the film will help resurrect the company's fortunes after a disappointing year. 

Monash University senior lecturer in communications and media studies Dr Andy Ruddock said commercial relationships were "the bedrock of popular culture as we know it".

"[Rovio has] eradicated the boundaries between the worlds of commercial products, media content and media technologies … it's a much more effective way to draw audiences across different sectors of commercial media culture," he said.

Rovio has developed multiple pop culture tie-ins by developing Star Wars, RIO and Transformers themed games. These brand partnerships extend the catalogue of physical merchandise that Rovio produces to encompass 30,000 different items.

After operating at a loss in 2015 to develop the Angry Birds film, Rovio has diversified its  game catalogue to include titles not related to their flagship Angry Birds franchise. Newer titles include Battle Bay, Love Rocks Starring Shakira, Plunder Pirates, Nibblers, Retry and Sky Punks.

Monash business policy forum co-director Professor Stephen King said the app company would fail to maintain its highly successful entertainment business if it relied on their one hit wonder.

"The spin-off of the characters into films, TV or other merchandising is not a long-term strategy to maintain the company. Rather it is simply mining the existing intellectual property in the characters of Angry Birds," Prof King said.

"Rovio hope to make increased profits in the short term by films and merchandising but without further 'killer characters' and lead games they will slowly fade and disappear over the next decade."

Rovio contributed heavily to The Angry Birds Movie, with the company putting upwards of $110 million of their own money for creative and distribution purposes. If the film fails, it will be a big loss for Rovio as the largest stakeholder and financier of the film.

Rovio Entertainment CEO Kati Levoranta told Mobile World Live that 2016 would be a transformative year for the company, "highlighted by the release of our major global feature film The Angry Birds Movie this May".

“Expectations for the film are very strong," she said. "This year's first quarter is already profitable and the outlook for the rest of the year is positive."

The marketing behind Rovio Entertainment extends to social media platforms where the company builds influence by creating buzz.

Facebook, email and word-of-mouth took Angry Birds to the top and Rovio is implementing this strategy with its other ventures.

Mobile gaming companies such as Rovio Entertainment, Supercell and Machine Zone market their applications extravagantly with Super Bowl features and promotions that feature celebrities such as Liam Neeson, Christoph Waltz and Kate Upton.

The Angry Birds app was a catalyst for market growth in the mobile gaming sector from the mid-2000s.

The Angry Birds Movie will be playing locally from Thursday, May 12