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‘The Force has left Lucasfilm’: how Disney can salvage its $4B investment

fortune.com

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Re: ‘The Force has left Lucasfilm’: how Disney can salvage its $4B investment

#71

Post by kaycebasques »

I'll take the other side of the popular opinion about Disney and Star Wars: I think Disney is doing a fine job with Star Wars. Great? No. Fine? Yes.

* The Mandalorian is some of the best Star Wars content ever produced, period. They really need to get Jon Favreau at the helm of all things Star Wars. By the way, if you've watched Friends, look up his face. You'll recognize him as the late 90s software entrepreneur that dated Monica.

* They need to step away from the cliche hero's journey stuff (as I mention in another comment on this thread). The Mandalorian is great and refreshing precisely because Mando is not really trying to save the world and it's not following that super boring and predictable narrative arc. The Rey saga sucked because they stuck to the playbook too much.

* Visions is pretty cool. Of course it's kind of jarring to see so many different intrepretations of the Star Wars universe, but I respect what they're doing there.

So yeah, I could keep going, but you get the gist: they're doing fine. It hasn't crashed into the ground.

Re: ‘The Force has left Lucasfilm’: how Disney can salvage its $4B investment

#72

Post by thrill »

fnbr wrote: post #48
d3ckard wrote: post #4

The new trilogy killed my interest in the franchise and I was a lifelong fan.

I went from being a lifelong fan, especially of the EU, to not caring at all. I’m now a Trekkie.

All watchable sci-fi series have "By Grabthar’s hammer..." as their tagline.

Re: ‘The Force has left Lucasfilm’: how Disney can salvage its $4B investment

#73

Post by bluedevil2k »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #36
bluedevil2k wrote: post #13

> At the heart of this mess is Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy Took too long for the article to mention this. How can she possibly still have a job? It was her call to hire 3 different directors for the sequels (initially, I know Abrams came back) with no agreed upon direction of the plot . Complain about Rian Johnson’s (awful) episode 8, but ultimately it was Kennedy that gave him free reins to do what he wante…

The problem is that her resume of successful productions is strangely amazing for how she's run Star Wars. Gremlins; E.T.; Indiana Jones; Jurassic Park; Twister; Schindler's List; Back To The Future; etc. Presumably, it's partially because she hitched along as Producer for almost all Spielberg films and it did her career wonders by association. So who is the replacement? She's produced on so many successful series th…

A resume only tells you what she did in the past (or way past in her case), not what she could potentially do in the future. And not to sound ageist (I’m old as well), but she’s almost 70 and at some point she won’t be in touch with what “the kids” want any longer. Feige is 50 for comparison. I know I don’t always understand why my kids like certain things nowadays.

Re: ‘The Force has left Lucasfilm’: how Disney can salvage its $4B investment

#74

Post by wnevets »

the_doctah wrote: post #68
mcphage wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet you didn't notice that progressive ideology was a big part of Marvel's entire existence?

Yes, I know because Stan Lee created the X-men, people love to claim Marvel was always super progressive. I'm sorry, but that simply is not the case, and you are wrong. 99% of comic books I own have zero trace of your supposed progressivism.

What's an example of Disney "progressivism" that didn't exist in Pre-Disney Marvel?

Re: ‘The Force has left Lucasfilm’: how Disney can salvage its $4B investment

#75

Post by tiffanyh »

drdec wrote: post #69
tiffanyh wrote: post #44

Loss leader for Disney+ They are purposely taking a hit on box office sales, to drive Disney+ subscriptions. Turning Red, Soul, and Luca were all movies that dropped on Disney+ the same day they hit theaters. How can you gauge the "success" based solely on box office sales, when Disney's strategy is using this content as a loss leader strategy to drive subscriptions to Disney+?

Perhaps because, as the article cites, the streaming platform has lost $9 billion dollars since it launched.

The economics of forgoing a $1B movie release for a $10/month subscription instead, that math will never add up.

Which is why Hollywood is cutting back on writers pay, actors pay, etc ... and hence the guild strikes.

There's also GAAP accounting issues as well on timing of match those expenses to revenue.

Re: ‘The Force has left Lucasfilm’: how Disney can salvage its $4B investment

#77

Post by pneill »

mcphage wrote: post #63
pneill wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To some extend that's true, but it was always in service of the story. What's happening at Disney is just the opposite - they're randomly inserting ideological stuff which has no relation to the story or they're contorting stories in support of an ideological narrative. And I don't care what your politics are, but when you insert politics into a story, your gonna alienate a major part of your audience OR you're going…

> they're randomly inserting ideological stuff which has no relation to the story or they're contorting stories in support of an ideological narrative Which bits in particular is this a reference to?

There are lots, but here is one examples:

In "Falcon and the Winter Soldier" there is a random scene where the police hassle Falcon. (this was shortly after tragic George Floyd incident). It wasn't part of the story, had nothing to do with the plot. Why was that there? The first thing they teach you in dramatic writing is cut fluff. That was fluff that just got people worked up.

"She Hulk" also was filled with political narratives.

And again, I'm not taking a political stand here. I'm just saying when I sit down to watch a Marvel show, I want to escape and have fun. I don't want to be reminded of controversial political issues - unless it's essential to the plot. Otherwise, if I wanted to watch a show about politics, I'd just turn on the news for free instead of paying for Disney+.

Side note: I heard second hand from someone who works at Disney that Tune out Times (ToTs)- when a user stops watching a show, spike at these things. The data is telling them they're aggravating their audience, but they just keep on trucking... God knows why. They're a business, not a political activist group.

Re: ‘The Force has left Lucasfilm’: how Disney can salvage its $4B investment

#78

Post by marcosdumay »

bluedevil2k wrote: post #13

> At the heart of this mess is Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy Took too long for the article to mention this. How can she possibly still have a job? It was her call to hire 3 different directors for the sequels (initially, I know Abrams came back) with no agreed upon direction of the plot . Complain about Rian Johnson’s (awful) episode 8, but ultimately it was Kennedy that gave him free reins to do what he wante…

> an amazing job building a unified “universe” with Marvel

It's about as unified as it's creativity-free. Disney is killing both universes, one is just way more blatant than the other.

(But well, the series aren't going through the same path.)

Re: ‘The Force has left Lucasfilm’: how Disney can salvage its $4B investment

#79

Post by lajy »

mcphage wrote: post #65
lajy wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Times like this I really wish I could downvote people on here

You can, I believe the requirement is 500 karma.

I’m aware, but thank for your sharing the info for anyone who might not be :)

I just meant that I wish that /I/ could downvote people. I don’t comment much, but racebaiting like that should just be greyed out

Re: ‘The Force has left Lucasfilm’: how Disney can salvage its $4B investment

#80

Post by the_doctah »

Timon3 wrote: post #18
anankaie wrote: post #9

> “The problem isn’t Kathleen Kennedy.” I am not entirely sure that matters. Pissed-off fans undoubtedly want to see metaphorical blood for what, to their eyes, was a forced, ideologically-driven tarnishing of their childhood memories. At the end of the day, the buck stops at the top. Chapman was already punted as a general scapegoat, but is it enough?

> a forced, ideologically-driven tarnishing of their childhood memories I'm sure there is a minority that believes this, but the majority know that there is no ideological drive, only a greed one. Alignment with current social issues happens based on calculations of profit, not based on sincere ideological commitment. Making good movies is hard, making movies following current social issues is easy. Both bring money,…

>Alignment with current social issues happens based on calculations of profit, not based on sincere ideological commitment.

I guess they need to do a better job with their market research. Because destroying Luke Skywalker and redefining the Mary Sue trope doesn't seem like what the public wanted.

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