Disney buys Lucasfilm

[Farbautisonn]

I understand the whole fanboy angle, I definitely prefer episodes 4-6 to everything else that has been created, but I think some of the people in here don't realize they are not the target audience. The idea behind every new launch of Star Wars content is to bring in a new generation of fans. My kids love the Clone Wars, but I can barely get them to sit through The Empire Strikes Back. Episode 7 will be aimed at them, or even younger fans. It's smart business.

 

"Up" was aimed at kids and yet I weeped like a child during the intro. There was more storytelling in those 5 minutes of animated cutscenes explaining the love and loss of a man and wife, than the entire three prequals combined.

 

Hans Christian Andersens fairytale of "The Little Match girl" was aimed for kids in its heyday. It stil has more storytelling than the three prequals despite taking two minutes to read.

 

My nine year old watches the Clone wars for the action solely. He loves stories and my Ad & d inspired goodnite stories I tell most nights. He likes the first three movies, but cannot be arsed watching the prequals. He hates binks as much as I do. Didnt have to goad him any either. He thinks Binks is "stupid". Binks and the rest of the platitudes promoted by lucas suck. Hard.

 

Lucas wouldnt know storytelling if it came up to him and gave him a blowjob in a clowns outfit. He is one of the rare cases where the guy who thinks it up should have sold it off, right away.

Edited October 31, 2012 by Farbautisonn

[Darque]

This could either be a very good thing, or a very bad thing.... time will tell I guess.

[Tale]

It has about as much chances of disappearing as Marvel comics.

 

You don't understand... It's made by a Marvel competitor,

The Star Wars EU is not made by a marvel competitor. The publisher is largely Del Ray. Marvel has even published some themselves. http://starwars.wiki...r_Wars_(Marvel)

 

Whoever publishes it, it's still owned by LucasFilm. There's no reason to end the tie-in merchandise, which is precisely what the EU is.

 

They may kill the Dark Horse deal, but Dark Horse doesn't own the EU.

[Meshugger]

Maybe Lucas will now finally start doing porn, since he allegedly claimed that he would do that if the first Star Wars movie flopped.

[Darque]

That's... disturbing.

[pmp10]

And, all that "extended universe" you folks were discussing? Consider that to be expunged from cannon, buried, and forgotten forever. Because that's exactly what Disney is going to do to Star Wars.

Are you under the impression that Extended Universe is fan material?

 

It has about as much chances of disappearing as Marvel comics.

I think the question is whether they are going to honor it in any way.

If they are heading into episode 7 they have plenty of EU material to step on.

May be easier to ditch everything non-Lucas entirely and just start anew.

[JFSOCC]

I wonder if they'll bother keeping with EU at all.

Even Lucas was not all that fond of it.

George Lucas was the biggest flip-flopper of all time, he's held all positions in all debates at least twice. and whenever he speaks he speaks about what he "Always" wanted or "Always" thought. even though he was just making **** up on the fly.

[Huinehtar]

I don't really know if it's off-topic, but did anyone notice some link with John Carter's saga? Yes, JC fails because of lots of things (cliches, bad promotion, etc...).

 

But did Disney plan to obtain a SciFi franchise? (even if JC and SW are more "Space Fantasy" than Science Fiction)

 

Sure, new SW movies won't suffer bad promotion unlike JC, but what consequences of JC's failure will impact on the future of the SW franchise?

[Tale]

As I understand it, Disney didn't really want to do JC to begin with. It was in the director's contract that he would get to.

 

Still, I don't know if it's a "failure." It was a late bloomer and made a profit in later showings. And seemed to be doing fairly well on home release. Though my info on that is anecdotal, the Blockbuster I tried renting it from told me that everyone kept buying the rental copies after watching it.

[NOK222]

I liked John Carter.

 

As long as they respect C-Canon, I'm a ok with this.

[Hurlshort]

I'm pretty sure John Carter was a massive financial failure.

[Huinehtar]

I liked John Carter too, and I would like them to make its sequels. I didn't know that home release sold well, so there's a hope.

 

I asked about JC and SW franchises future, because of Walt Disney Studios Director's resignation.

 

After all, they have invested in SW franchise, so...

Edited October 31, 2012 by Huinehtar

[Blarghagh]

This franchise needs a lot fresh blood. But I suspect Lucas' buddy Steven Spielberg is gonna direct, which means it will be just more of the same, only a bit more competent.

 

I don't know, that seems pretty unlikely - Spielberg doesn't like sequels. He's only done a handful - the Indiana Jones sequels and The Lost World, and he's publicly stated he regretted the latter. Still, he was originally slated to do one but had to bow out due to scheduling conflicts.

[GuybrushWilco]

I think Lucas is only against sequels if it is only for sequels sake. He did pursue doing a Bond movie after all . I have to say that I quite enjoyed John Carter, so it is disappointing that the movie did so badly at the box office.

[Calax]

Maybe Lucas will now finally start doing porn, since he allegedly claimed that he would do that if the first Star Wars movie flopped.

He was so sure it'd flop, that he bet Spielberg a cut of the profits from his film on it flopping.

[Morgoth]

I'm pretty sure John Carter was a massive financial failure.

 

According to IMDB:

 

 

 

 

Budget: $250,000,000 (estimated)

 

 

Opening Weekend: $30,180,188 (USA) (11 March 2012) (3749 Screens)

 

 

Gross: $282,778,100 (Worldwide) (12 August 2012)

[Morgoth]

This franchise needs a lot fresh blood. But I suspect Lucas' buddy Steven Spielberg is gonna direct, which means it will be just more of the same, only a bit more competent.

 

I don't know, that seems pretty unlikely - Spielberg doesn't like sequels. He's only done a handful - the Indiana Jones sequels and The Lost World, and he's publicly stated he regretted the latter. Still, he was originally slated to do one but had to bow out due to scheduling conflicts.

 

Why wouldn't he like sequels? Besides this is now a chance to start anew, with completely new characters and story, who wouldn't want to get his hands on such an opportunity? I'm just saying this because Steve and George are big long-term buddies, and Steve also has very good technical and animation expertises, not to mention he's considered to be a highly efficient director in general. These are the qualities required to deliver a big name spectacle like Episode VII.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Morgoth

[Blarghagh]

That budget is not counting the advertising budget which adds quite a bit (probably another 100 mil) and the worldwide gross does not actually reflect earnings. Only 70 mil or so was the US gross and the rest was worldwide - where theater chains etc. take a much larger cut of the earnings. The general rule is that a movie needs double it's budget to be considered 'succesful' and John Carter, despite extremely strong home theater sales, just doesn't look like it's going to justify a sequel for the studio.

 

EDIT: I was typing that while you wrote the other one. I don't know why Spielberg doesn't like sequels - but he's stated it repeatedly. Don't remember any sources but he mentioned it on the making of The Lost World. I agree that he would be the natural choice but it seems unlikely right now.

Edited November 1, 2012 by TrueNeutral

[Morgoth]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/disney-deal-george-lucas-will-384947

 

Respect.

 

I forgive him for all his ****ty movies.

[Hurlshort]

http://www.hollywood...cas-will-384947

 

Respect.

 

I forgive him for all his ****ty movies.

 

I'll take a cut of that

[WDeranged]

Can't help but respect him for that, unless he's planning to open film making schools that is

[Hassat Hunter]

 

Budget: $250,000,000 (estimated)

 

 

Opening Weekend: $30,180,188 (USA) (11 March 2012) (3749 Screens)

 

 

Gross: $282,778,100 (Worldwide) (12 August 2012)

According to that it's considered a "great financial failure", like how video games that might a slight profit are and not huge are deemed such and then fired afterwards.

Sadly, that's the idiotic reality of today.

 

I blame the stock market and shareholders.

 

MacDonalds only made 1.45 billion profit, last year 1.5 billion in that time. Massive crises! Stocks are plumeting over the bad results.

Hello? 1.45 billion PROFIT isn't profit anymore? What the hell?

 

Anyway, back to the story at hand... it's absolutely ambiguish yet wheter this is an improvement or not.

And screw EU. Please let VII overwrite and obsolete all of it, right where it belongs. Adhering to it religiously will only hurt Star Wars as franchise at this point.

[Morgoth]

I'm with you here Hassat Hunter. The problem is that success only means something *within* a quaterly result. Long-term investments and revenues are deemed too risky or "unprofitable", and that's exactly why every decision making of stock exchange registered firms these days is bound to be shortsighted and bad in nature.

[JFSOCC]

 

Budget: $250,000,000 (estimated)

 

 

Opening Weekend: $30,180,188 (USA) (11 March 2012) (3749 Screens)

 

 

Gross: $282,778,100 (Worldwide) (12 August 2012)

According to that it's considered a "great financial failure", like how video games that might a slight profit are and not huge are deemed such and then fired afterwards.

Sadly, that's the idiotic reality of today.

 

I blame the stock market and shareholders.

 

MacDonalds only made 1.45 billion profit, last year 1.5 billion in that time. Massive crises! Stocks are plumeting over the bad results.

Hello? 1.45 billion PROFIT isn't profit anymore? What the hell?

 

Anyway, back to the story at hand... it's absolutely ambiguish yet wheter this is an improvement or not.

And screw EU. Please let VII overwrite and obsolete all of it, right where it belongs. Adhering to it religiously will only hurt Star Wars as franchise at this point.

the idea is that in a competitive world, if others are growing and you are not (enough), you're controlling less % of the total than you did before.

 

Yeah, I agree, it's dumb.

[Blarghagh]

 

Budget: $250,000,000 (estimated)

 

 

Opening Weekend: $30,180,188 (USA) (11 March 2012) (3749 Screens)

 

 

Gross: $282,778,100 (Worldwide) (12 August 2012)

According to that it's considered a "great financial failure", like how video games that might a slight profit are and not huge are deemed such and then fired afterwards.

Sadly, that's the idiotic reality of today.

 

I blame the stock market and shareholders.

 

MacDonalds only made 1.45 billion profit, last year 1.5 billion in that time. Massive crises! Stocks are plumeting over the bad results.

Hello? 1.45 billion PROFIT isn't profit anymore? What the hell?

 

Anyway, back to the story at hand... it's absolutely ambiguish yet wheter this is an improvement or not.

And screw EU. Please let VII overwrite and obsolete all of it, right where it belongs. Adhering to it religiously will only hurt Star Wars as franchise at this point.

 

While I agree with you on all your points regarding those other things it doesn't apply to film. Budget is not the only cost associated with a movie, especially one with such a lavish (yet ultimately pointless) advertising campaign as John Carter - that superbowl trailer alone probably cost somewhere around 10 million. General rule of thumb in the industry used to be "a would-be blockbuster needs to earn double it's budget to break even" and while the budgets have grown so enormous that this is probably not true anymore, so my modest guess is that the advertising campaign alone cost around 100 million (actually a small number compared to the advertising campaigns on movies such as Transformers which easily break 200 million in costs). That's not even counting things like the cut of the theater chains, which is substantially higher overseas than it is domestic, and John Carter made most of it's money overseas. Despite it making back it's budget throughout it's entire theater run, this movie was a huge financial failure.

 

Urgh, it's so odd to refer to the US as 'domestic' and where I live as 'overseas'.