PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
Welcome to the ignore list......
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A Spirited Perfect Ten
- Thread starter WDW1974
- Start date
Welcome to the ignore list......
Nubs70
Well-Known Member
This underscores the power and efficiency of digital distribution. Digital distribution allows theaters to add seats as demand dictates instead of reliance on demand projections.
I was concerned as my 8:15 showing on Friday night was only 1/3 full.
Flippin'Flounder
Well-Known Member
the.dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
I think Ben/Kylo should have killed Han in Episode VIII. There wasn't enough on screen to really earn that moment even if the scene itself is good.
VJ
Well-Known Member
I have to agree with that.
His death also seemed like they killed him just to do it instead of enhancing the overall plot. I've heard some reasoning to justify it but honestly it doesn't make me feel any better. Plus he didn't get much screen time as you said.
Yensid1974
Well-Known Member
And the international is still without China
Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
is stock still downgraded to "sell" ?
I don't think Ford was willing to do the movie unless that event occurred in this one.
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
Because of ESPN & cord cutting, yes
the.dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
From Kernel Magazine:
http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/staff-editorials/15321/star-wars-land-fan-expectations/
http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/staff-editorials/15321/star-wars-land-fan-expectations/
Star Wars Land and Disney’s heavy burden of expectations
By Vivian Kane on December 20th, 2015
This is undeniably a great time to be a Star Wars fan. With three new movies, plus three additional anthology spinoff films, we’re eagerly awaiting new material through at least 2020. Add in the video games, the Clone Wars, and all the merch you could ever wish for, and this franchise is set to dominate the geek market for years to come. But there’s another huge component to this new era of Star Wars: the live, immersive experience being built by the Disney theme parks.
While the Disney parks hold an iconic, nostalgic place in our collective memories, they’re constantly evolving, with new parks and new rides. But even amid that constant change, Star Wars Land feels like something special. For one thing, it’s the biggest development based on a property not originally owned by Disney. When Star Tours opened at Disneyland in 1987, it was the park’s first attraction based on a non-Disney film. Now, of course, Disney does own Star Wars, after buying Lucasfilm for $4 billion in 2012, but it’s unprecedented for the company to incorporate an acquired franchise in such an expansive way.
That acquisition brought in an entirely new audience, with a passionate fan base 40 years in the making. Disney will want to reach those fans without leaving out the kids. Nearly a third of park guests are adults visiting without children. It’s done this before, by aiming rides at an older demographic (Indiana Jones, Tower of Terror) while also expanding its parks to reach a younger audience, with, for example, Cars Land and the horribly designed, soon-to-be-shuttered bottleneck that is Mickey’s Toontown. Star Wars Land is guaranteed to draw audiences of literally every age, which will be both an opportunity and a challenge.
With Star Wars Land, Disney promises an immersive experience hardcore fans have been waiting decades for. And we—and yes, I’ll say “we,” and count myself among that admittedly overzealous horde—may let our excitement run away with us, but we’re also quick to turn. We’ve been burned before (Episodes I through III, I’m looking at you), and we have high hopes, but even higher expectations.
So how can Disney possibly please fans of all ages, who may or may not already be sold on its theme park experience? Well, first, let’s break down what we know has been planned. Disney is notoriously stingy with details, but earlier this year Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger told attendees of the D23 conference:
“We are creating a jaw-dropping new world that represents our largest single themed land expansion ever. These new lands at Disneyland and Walt Disney World will transport guests to a whole new Star Wars planet, including an epic Star Wars adventure that puts you in the middle of a climactic battle between the First Order and the Resistance.”
Both parks—Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California—will be developing a 14-acre Star Wars Land. Each land will no doubt have plenty of shops and dining options—blue milk is basically a guarantee, right?—but will be centered around two signature rides. First is that “climactic battle” Iger mentioned. By that brief generic description, it sounds a lot like the existing Star Tours, but this far ahead of time, let’s give Disney the benefit of the doubt that it’s looking at significantly differentiating the two. The second ride is what you’ve been waiting nearly four decades for: the chance to pilot the Millennium Falcon “on a customized secret mission.” Finally, here’s your chance to time your own personal Kessel Run. (That’s almost definitely not going to be the secret mission, but we can dream. Maybe we could finally figure out how that mission is timed in a unit of distance and—nope, sorry. That’s a tangent for another time.)
There’s no word yet on what forms these rides will look like. The 14-acre area potentially allows for larger attractions, but the smaller 3D-motion simulator of the new Star Tours—with its customizable video, which can be easily updated and switched out or built upon based on any number of new installments in the franchise—is such a successful and efficient model, it wouldn’t be surprising if they did more with that medium.
The big question looming over Star Wars Land is: How can it possibly live up to our expectations? Perhaps the question we should be asking is, in an aggressively enthusiastic community of fans, how do we keep our expectations from spinning out of control? With a constant thrum of theories, rumors, and leaks online, it may seem impossible that hopes won’t creep higher and higher. The upcoming movies face this problem as well, but the stakes for Star Wars Land are, if not higher, at least different.
Can Star Wars Land possibly satisfy the sky-high expectations of fans, both of Disney and Star Wars?
For one, Disney fans can be as rabid as Star Wars fans, and the crossover between the two is going to cause hopes to soar to potentially unfulfillable levels. Second, and more pressing, even for casual fans, is that we know what the Star Wars galaxy looks like, and we have a clear view of how that world makes us feel—feelings intensified by decades of nostalgia. Disney specializes in creating an emotional experience appealing to children as much as it does to our desire to feel childlike. It specializes in fully immersing you not just in a physical experience, but in that childlike emotional state.
Still, from an emotional standpoint, this seems like an undertaking more ambitious than possibly anything since the creation of the park itself. Does that seem hyperbolic? Maybe it does. But just imagine enduring the years until the park opens, making your way to one of the Disney parks, and finding the experience anything less than overwhelmingly joyous. For superfans—or just anyone who’s dreamed of piloting the Millennium Falcon—that’s a special kind of disappointment.
Disney has a pretty phenomenal track record turning its movies into parks, but this time there’s an extra challenge in re-creating a land based on a live-action movie. Only a small handful of rides—again, for example, the Indiana Jones ride, and, to a lesser extent, the Twilight Zone elements of the Tower of Terror—use real-life references. Bringing animation to life makes it easier for Disney to provoke a sense of wonder. It’easy to walk through Cars Land and believe that this is what that world would look like come to life. We can look at a cast member playing Snow White and believe she is the same woman we’ve only ever seen in animated form. And because we don’t have a solid frame of reference, it’s easy to suspend our disbelief to believe the actress working the next shift, or the next day, is still the same Snow White.
But we know what Han Solo looks like. He looks like Harrison Ford, not like whatever actor is walking around the park when we visit. Conveniently, the only Star Wars characters currently walking around Disneyland are Darth Vader and his gang of Stormtroopers. That works well in today’s limited Star Wars experience, but it’s hard to imagine an entire Star Wars Land without a plenitude of costumed characters.
Disney will have to work out how to populate its world with live-action characters that we already know and love. But it has already shared a plan to reconcile fans’ knowledge of physical locations from the movies with the actual park. As Iger announced at D23, Star Wars Land will be set entirely on a new planet, one we’ve not seen before; that should capture the feel of the Star Wars galaxy without making fans compare it to their memories of Tatooine.
There may be no way for Disney to re-create the magic of a childhood spent watching Star Wars movies. It’s unreasonable to expect that. But if we, as adults, can accept that Disney is not trying to re-create our childhood experiences but instead evoke that feeling of childlike wonder, we’ll be that much closer to appreciating Star Wars Land as the singular experience it’s sure to be.
GIF by J. Longo. Star Wars Land concept art copyright Disney.
the.dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
Nubs70
Well-Known Member
And TFA is already baked into the price.
Smiddimizer
Well-Known Member
You guys think a third gate sci-fi themed park incorprating Star Wars AND Marvel would work?
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
Further proof that people downloading movies illegally is crippling the industry.
[/sarcasm]
Phil12
Well-Known Member
Of course. After all TFA had a good beat and it was easy to dance to.
AEfx
Well-Known Member
Ugh, Willow must be up to it again! Look how slanted the HuffPo is...I mean, it's like they are making TFA to be like the biggest opening of all time or something...are there no lengths Darth Iger will go to in trying to save his reputation after this disastrous Star Wars fiasco?
Star Wars' Obliterates Opening Weekend Records
It could become the highest-grossing movie of all time, box office analysts said.
12/20/2015 02:02 pm ET
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES, Dec 20 (Reuters) - "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" shattered the domestic box office record with an estimated $238 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales through Sunday, a staggering debut that re-established the celebrated space saga as a global phenomenon under Walt Disney Co.
The first "Star Wars" film in a decade took in a total of $517 million at box offices around the world, second only to the dinosaur film "Jurassic World," which had the benefit of an opening weekend that included China, where "Force Awakens" won't open for weeks.
Financial and critical success for the film mark a victory for Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger's strategy of acquiring proven brands, including Pixar Animation and comic book powerhouse Marvel, to fuel Disney's entertainment empire.
Disney purchased "Star Wars" producer Lucasfilm for $4 billion in 2012 and is betting that big-budget films can draw customers even as viewers gravitate to online streaming and mobile viewing and theater attendance declines.
Over the weekend, fans reveled in the chance to visit the "Star Wars" galaxy for the first time in a decade. Filmgoers dressed as Jedi or Sith, carried lightsabers and cheered when classic characters such as Princess Leia or Chewbacca appeared on screen. Theaters added showtimes to meet demand, Disney said.
"Jurassic World" opened in June with $208.8 million in the United States and Canada and a take of $525 million worldwide.
"Force Awakens" is the seventh installment in the epic science-fiction franchise created by George Lucas in 1977.
Disney plans four "Star Wars" movies through 2019, plus major expansions at its U.S. theme parks to incorporate the droids, spaceships and otherworldly creatures of the universe Lucas invented. "Force Awakens" toys, clothing, home accessories and video games already pervade stores ahead of Christmas.
Nostalgia, plus a carefully planned, months-long release of film trailers and character profiles boosted interest. Disney, which spent more than $200 million to make "Force Awakens," also created intrigue by keeping the plot largely secret.
Critics lauded the movie's throwback feel, doses of humor and the performances of newcomers Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac. Audiences awarded an "A" grade in polling by survey firm CinemaScore.
Disney took steps to attract more women and girls to the series, including casting Ridley as the star and running commercials during shows such as "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." Forty-two percent of the weekend's domestic audience was female, Disney said.
"Force Awakens" could become the highest-grossing movie of all time, box office analysts said. "Avatar" now holds that title with $2.8 billion in global sales.
The wild card is China, the world's second-largest movie market, where "Force Awakens" opens Jan. 9. The last "Star Wars" movie in 2005 collected just $9 million there.
Disney made an effort to build buzz, placing 500 miniature Stormtroopers at the Great Wall and striking a deal to stream the six earlier "Star Wars" films through video service Tencent .
the.dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
Illegal downloading tends to hurt small to midsize films the most, hence the rise of day and date VOD.
the.dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
Throw in Jules Verne (Mysterious Island) and Tony Baxter's Discovery Bay and you have quite a compelling lineup that can appeal to everyone with a strong thematic core like Disneyland/Magic Kingdom Park, EPCOT Center, the original Disney MGM Studios, and Disney's Animal Kingdom.