Netflix hopes Strangers Things can be its billion-dollar franchise

Days before the July 4 holiday in the US, hundreds of fans of “Stranger Things” lined up along the beach in Santa Monica, California, to attend a fair modeled after the Netflix Inc. show. Clad in shirts with the names of characters and the high school in fictional Indiana, they waited more than an hour to ride a Ferris wheel, eat ice cream and snap selfies in a photo booth.

The event, one of two in the US, is part of the biggest marketing campaign ever undertaken by Netflix, the world’s largest paid online TV network. Over the past few weeks, Netflix has attached “Stranger Things” to Schwinn bikes, Nike shoes and Coke soft drinks — all to hype the Independence Day arrival of the show’s third season.