Iger and Chapek Livid With Lucasfilm

[Sirwalterraleigh]

What's the problem with catching up? Movies are accesible and cheap or even free if your pirate. Why is it a problem for movies to be connected to one another. It took me three months to watch all MCU movies before watching Infinity War/End Game. I made time for it even with my busy schedule. Also, I know a lot who haven't seen Captain Marvel but could not care cause her role wasn't that huge anyways in End Game.

Star Wars was a franchise tied to the box office for 30 years. The core audience that drives the money machine tends to be older and that means they are less enamored with a stream services format.

It’s no one’s fault. But the old fan base is more lucrative than the new ones. That’s kinda why Star Wars is unique. It is what it is.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

Where Marvel and Star Wars are concerned, Disney also needs to realize that release dates are IMPORTANT. Films released under the Disney studios shouldn't be competing against each other...like they did in 2018 when there were something like 5 films all released in a big cluster (I'm including Incredibles 2).

 

[rreading]

What's the problem with catching up? Movies are accesible and cheap or even free if your pirate. Why is it a problem for movies to be connected to one another. It took me three months to watch all MCU movies before watching Infinity War/End Game. I made time for it even with my busy schedule. Also, I know a lot who haven't seen Captain Marvel but could not care cause her role wasn't that huge anyways in End Game.

Ummm, she shows up and single handedly destroys the monster ship wreaking havoc on all of the heroes. Almost takes out Thanos. Apparently likely to be leader of the the next series of Avengers. Her role and story may be quite important moving forward from what I understand.

I suppose that you could say the same about Black Panther or GoTG. Sure, you can skip any releases and sure, you can pirate them if that's your style, but fortunately for Disney, most people seem to be more invested.

 

[Giss Neric]

Ummm, she shows up and single handedly destroys the monster ship wreaking havoc on all of the heroes. Almost takes out Thanos. Apparently likely to be leader of the the next series of Avengers. Her role and story may be quite important moving forward from what I understand.

I suppose that you could say the same about Black Panther or GoTG. Sure, you can skip any releases and sure, you can pirate them if that's your style, but fortunately for Disney, most people seem to be more invested.

Almost all the people I know watched End Game for the original six and some important ones. Since Captain Marvel was just a few months old when End Game came, they were interested but it's not a big deal for them to know her. Of course it changed cause they knew her powers and stuff.

Also I watched MCU upon releases. A couple not. But I did rewatch all of them again, not pirate.

 

[SteamboatJoe]

Almost all the people I know watched End Game for the original six and some important ones. Since Captain Marvel was just a few months old when End Game came, they were interested but it's not a big deal for them to know her. Of course it changed cause they knew her powers and stuff.

Also I watched MCU upon releases. A couple not. But I did rewatch all of them again, not pirate.

I saw End Game before Captain Marvel. I didn't have a lot of times for movies with a newborn in the house and had to prioritize. I was told that one did not have to see Captain Marvel to understand End Game, especially if, like me, you were already familiar with the essential aspects of the character. That advice was correct. Also, to this day, I still have not seen Iron Man 3.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I saw End Game before Captain Marvel. I didn't have a lot of times for movies with a newborn in the house and had to prioritize. I was told that one did not have to see Captain Marvel to understand End Game, especially if, like me, you were already familiar with the essential aspects of the character. That advice was correct. Also, to this day, I still have not seen Iron Man 3.

To be fair....they didn’t really tie in captain marvel...but they said in the PR tour for that movie that they did to end game.

Captain marvel has been a bit of problem child for MCU. But I still like it well enough

 

[SteamboatJoe]

But I still like it well enough

This is my sentiment as well. It was a fun film that served its purpose.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

I think Disney is trying to use the Star Trek model but expecting Star Wars results.

Now, for the last five years, Disney has been trying to release a glut of Star Wars content on a near-constant basis. Yet they are expecting new content to produce ridiculously extreme results. There is talk in this thread of it being bad that Rise of Skywalker "only" made a billion dollars. A BILLION dollars.

My point? Disney has to decide what Star Wars is. Is it an "event" franchise that releases relatively sparse content but which makes billions on each release? Or is it an everyday franchise that releases content constantly which is modestly, but not excessively, successful? I don't think it can be both.

Do we know that's how Disney feels though? I think the people at Disney are smart enough to know that every movie won't reach Force Awakens numbers.

This sounds more like how a lot of the fandom has reacted, not necessarily Disney. When Skywalker came out last year so many people were comparing the grosses to Endgame, which is a ridiculously extreme expectation.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

Wait, why are we talking about Captain Marvel?

Credit to Disney/Marvel on that one though. Seeing Captain Marvel was not necessary at all in order to appreciate and/or follow the story in Endgame, but they did an end credits tease for her and released the movie right before Endgame.

We didn't need to see Captain Marvel, but everyone largely assumed it was necessary, and therefore felt obligated to pay to see it in the theater before Endgame. Disney was smart to let everyone assume that was the case, and to schedule it in such a way.

 

[zakattack99]

That assumes that her species, togruta, age at the same rate as humans.

I think it is safe to assume that they do, while Wookiepeida does not have any "Canon" age stats for humans or Togruta, they do have info under the "Legends" section. Wookie states that Togruta can live up to 94 years and humans up to 100 (with some exceptions). With this I think we can assume that they should age roughly the same. Furthering that point we see this in the shows Ashoka aging throughout the Clone Wars series about the same as Obi-wan and Anakin. We also see that she has aged between Clone Wars and Rebels. My point being that I feel that an actress in her 40s is probably the correct age for a live action Ashoka.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Where Marvel and Star Wars are concerned, Disney also needs to realize that release dates are IMPORTANT. Films released under the Disney studios shouldn't be competing against each other...like they did in 2018 when there were something like 5 films all released in a big cluster (I'm including Incredibles 2).

Great point.

That was Bob. 100%. Putting out tent poles 3 weeks apart was - MY THEORY - his retirement push. It was tied to D+ too. Retirement prize.

I was right - he retired...well half retired...and then un-retired....

Whatever...I’ll still claim victory

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Do we know that's how Disney feels though? I think the people at Disney are smart enough to know that every movie won't reach Force Awakens numbers.

This sounds more like how a lot of the fandom has reacted, not necessarily Disney. When Skywalker came out last year so many people were comparing the grosses to Endgame, which is a ridiculously extreme expectation.

Ok...I’m tryyying...very much trying...to not go down the same route.

I think we can agree on certain things.

I’ll make you a deal:
1. I’ll not say fire Kennedy, abrams was a sham, and Disney doesn’t know Star Wars at all...
2. You don’t say “don’t you think Disney is smart enough?!?”

Both are positions were well vetted and to anyone else the truth is likely in the middle.

It’s all not bad...mistakes were made.

I’m looking for some new new stuff now that we have some distance to retrospect.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

As far as MCU and interconnected...I’ve been rewatching/reading about them lately and they are much more connected than I knew. It’s amazing.

When nick fury breaks into Captain America’s apartment after they try to kill him in winter soldier....the song playing on his stereo was the same as the final scene of endgame. That was chosen for end game (2019) and put in a film released in 2014. That’s cool.

And when cap is in Peggy carter’s office (1967) and sees the picture of himself on her desk...it’s significant for two reasons:
1. Tommy lee jones gives her the classified file it’s in in her final shot of the first avenger...she looks at it and it fades. She stole it off screen.
2. It was of the slimmed down Steve Rogers before he was captain America. The writer/director intent was that she loved him without the muscles...and again: one scene was set up in a movie released 8 years before.

I think those things are so cool.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

As far as MCU and interconnected...I’ve been rewatching/reading about them lately and they are much more connected than I knew. It’s amazing.

When nick fury breaks into Captain America’s apartment after they try to kill him in winter soldier....the song playing on his stereo playing was the same as the final scene of endgame. That was chosen for end game (2019) and put in a film released in 2014. That’s cool.

And when cap is in Peggy carter’s office (1967) and sees the picture of himself on her desk...it’s significant for two reasons:
1. Tommy lee jones gives her the classified file it’s in in her final shot of the first avenger...she looks at it and it fades. She stole it off screen.
2. It was of the slimmed down Steve Rogers before he was captain America. The writer/director intent was that she loved him without the muscles...and again: one scene was set up in a movie released 8 years before.

I think those things are so cool.

Me too.

It's why I also love Stephen King's Gunslinger series of books and almost anything he writes...all the interconnection.

 

[doctornick]

Meanwhile the ST doesn't live in the fans' imagination. Anybody needs to see 'The Origin of the First Order'? 'The further adventures of Finn as he explores his force sensitivity'? 'How its Really Casino Dwelling Arms Dealers Who Rule the Galaxy - a six-part Disney+ documentary series'?

While I agree that your point is correct, personally I'd be very interested in a Finn/Poe TV series taking place between Ep VIII and IX. I think they are both interesting characters that were undeveloped and would like to see more.

 

[Jaccsen]

$70 billion revenue and people still insist it has "fumbled"....

How do you get $70 billion? Do you mean 7 billion? If so, a 7 billion gross does not equate to paying off the loan they used to purchase Lucasfilm.

Disney has yet to pay off the Lucasfilm acquisition. After expenses, they have made around 2.5 billion. The interest payments on the initial loan have now started so it is unlikely that they will ever pay off the original loan amount. Disney needed Star Wars to be more profitable in the short run to pay off the loan.

 

[doctornick]

This actually isn't true.

ESPN isn't as profitable as it was 10 years ago (which is why people think it's a money pit), but it's still tremendously profitable. It's one of Disney's highest grossing segments and results in several billion dollars of profit every year; it may be more profitable than Disney's film studios. Carriage fees alone are likely near $10 billion a year. Of course that number could continue to drop with cord cutting, but cord cutting itself may slow down or stop as content continues to be split up among an increasing number of streaming platforms.

If they were going to get rid of television channels, ABC makes far less money for Disney than ESPN does.

Right. ESPN went from being insanely, wildly, over the top profitable 15 years ago to just significantly profitable at the moment. They have been helped out by the fact carriage fees continue to rise, so there's been some balancing in revenue even with the decline of cable subscribers. They're also bringing in about $500 million a year now in ESPN+ subscriptions.

ESPN will probably remain profitable as long as people are interested in live sports.

This. Wall Street's "problem" with ESPN is that it is not the insane money printing unit that it was a decade ago. Instead, it "only" makes a few billion in profits each year now. There's nothing wrong with that segment as long as as expectations are more modest with the new reality. And ESPN+ has the opportunity to fill in the gap at least somewhat if cord cutting continues/accelerates and people turn to live streaming for sports more.

Granted that COVID-19 isn't helping ESPN right now, but sports and sports broadcasting will be return at some point.

 

[Jaccsen]

Funny how some are already bashing this because of the “female-centric” description. SW has always had a strong female character, or did that escape their rich analysis?

Me? I’ll wait and see how it turns out. Mando has given Lucasfilm a pass in my book.

Ok. I love Mando, but let's be honest, it is a mediocre show. It was too short when averaging 30 minutes per episode with a lot of filler in each episode lie walking through the desert montages. It is excellent in comparison with the sequel trilogy; however, absent The Child, the show would have gone down in flames.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

Boy, they have really fumbled most things "Star Wars" since the purchase, haven't they? I'll say that Rogue One and The Mandalorian are good - everything else was a disappointment.

Marvel, by contrast, has been doing GREAT. Seems to me they need to put Feige in charge of Lucasfilm...

Marvel is a crazy success story, but be aware that the average gross of the Marvel movies is less than the average gross of the Star Wars movies.

 

[Jaccsen]

Not after they spent billions of dollars on Galaxy's Edge.

Plus, it's not like Lucasfilm hasn't been profitable for them.

Uh, they have yet to turn a profit. They have made good money but they have not made enough after expenses to pay off the original loan.