SPOILER: The Acolyte -- Disney+ Star Wars -- begins June 5, 2024

Disney Irish

Premium Member
You want to call Stanford and explain it to them? I bet there’s a paper to come out of that wisdom, yoda
I don't need to, you're the one making the claim of loss potential in the Billions not me. The burden of proof is on you, and no your college buddies from Lego don't count.

So produce the evidence or drop it as its not something you can actually prove.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
…so you’re appealing to ignorance?
Nope, I'm asking you to show your homework. You make all these unsubstantiated claims and now I'm calling you out on it to prove it.

So prove to me with actual proof that Disney has indeed lost Billions in potential earnings on SW. And just like in math class in grade school remember to show your work how you came up with the answer. Because I'm fairly certain you got no way to prove any claim you've made.
 

easyrowrdw

Well-Known Member
Well it wasn't a requel which is what we got. A google search will come up with lots of stuff including Darth Maul's return.
I hadn't heard that. I did some more googling and saw what you were referring to. It's interesting that different sites seem to have different stories about what Lucas planned. All of them seem to say it was more rough outlines (not scripts) though. I wonder if it changed over time. Anyway, thanks for the info!
Just as when Disney told the original screenwriter of ep 7 “you can’t have Luke Skywalker…he’ll steal the whole movie!”

This stuff is actually too stupid to make up
That it is one thing that I saw consistently. Disney pushed a lot of Lucas's ideas (particularly Luke) from 7 to 8. I guess they wanted to focus more on Han and do one original character per movie kind of thing. Of course, that came at the expense of the original group and their dynamics 👎
 

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
I hadn't heard that. I did some more googling and saw what you were referring to. It's interesting that different sites seem to have different stories about what Lucas planned. All of them seem to say it was more rough outlines (not scripts) though. I wonder if it changed over time. Anyway, thanks for the info!
If you believe anyone who worked for George…”planning” didn’t seem to be on his radar
That it is one thing that I saw consistently. Disney pushed a lot of Lucas's ideas (particularly Luke) from 7 to 8. I guess they wanted to focus more on Han and do one original character per movie kind of thing. Of course, that came at the expense of the original group and their dynamics 👎
I interpreted it differently…but we still end up in the same place
 

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
I hadn't heard that. I did some more googling and saw what you were referring to. It's interesting that different sites seem to have different stories about what Lucas planned. All of them seem to say it was more rough outlines (not scripts) though. I wonder if it changed over time. Anyway, thanks for the info!

That it is one thing that I saw consistently. Disney pushed a lot of Lucas's ideas (particularly Luke) from 7 to 8. I guess they wanted to focus more on Han and do one original character per movie kind of thing. Of course, that came at the expense of the original group and their dynamics 👎
Just like now, Disney had no vision or over arcing plans for Star Wars. They are throwing things at the wall hoping it sticks and they will milk that thing to death. See Baby Yoda.

Disney thought making a Star Wars movie is easy. They found they where gravely mistaken. It is an extremely difficult thing to do.
 

easyrowrdw

Well-Known Member
Just like now, Disney had no vision or over arcing plans for Star Wars. They are throwing things at the wall hoping it sticks and they will milk that thing to death. See Baby Yoda.

Disney thought making a Star Wars movie is easy. They found they where gravely mistaken. It is an extremely difficult thing to do.
Yeah, that's the feeling I've gotten from their shows. They've at least been successful when it comes to movies (box office and/or critically). Of course they haven't made a movie in 5 years sooo... I guess we'll see what happens whenever they finally release another movie.
 

Tha Realest

Well-Known Member
Nope, I'm asking you to show your homework. You make all these unsubstantiated claims and now I'm calling you out on it to prove it.

So prove to me with actual proof that Disney has indeed lost Billions in potential earnings on SW. And just like in math class in grade school remember to show your work how you came up with the answer. Because I'm fairly certain you got no way to prove any claim you've made.
At the time of its acquisition the Star Wars franchise was the most profitable movie franchise of all time. Each film, pre-Disney, made untold hundreds of millions in profit.

Disney has had some successes with Star Wars. The Force Awakens was an unquestionable success, and did well for a time moving merchandise. While the two films in that series that followed also made money, they did not share in the merchandise success of the first film. That carries on to today.

Rogue One was great, made a ton of money, but also cost a lot of money. It was a reconfigured risk that worked out in the end. Not sure there’s been a tremendous merch boom from that film.

Solo is an incredibly costly mess. It also didn’t cause a blip merchandising wise.

As far as D+ goes, the Mandalorian is an unquestionable success, both from a viewership and merchandising standpoint. Boba Fett and Ashoka haven’t done as well, and do not get the sense they are moving merch in any meaningful way. Did Obi Wan, Acolyte, and Andor have any meaningful tie in merchandise?

It may seem odd to mention merch here but that has historically been just as successful, if not more so, than the films have been (financially speaking). Put another way, it seems Disney’s been successful merchandising The Force Awakens, The Mandalorian, and the legacy films.

As far as proving the untapped and unrealized billions, that’s very speculative. What is not is that the company inherited what had been, at the time, the most wildly successful movie franchise of all time and has tactically retreated from theatrical releases. It’s like it’s afraid of movie theaters.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
At the time of its acquisition the Star Wars franchise was the most profitable movie franchise of all time. Each film, pre-Disney, made untold hundreds of millions in profit.

Disney has had some successes with Star Wars. The Force Awakens was an unquestionable success, and did well for a time moving merchandise. While the two films in that series that followed also made money, they did not share in the merchandise success of the first film. That carries on to today.

Rogue One was great, made a ton of money, but also cost a lot of money. It was a reconfigured risk that worked out in the end. Not sure there’s been a tremendous merch boom from that film.

Solo is an incredibly costly mess. It also didn’t cause a blip merchandising wise.

As far as D+ goes, the Mandalorian is an unquestionable success, both from a viewership and merchandising standpoint. Boba Fett and Ashoka haven’t done as well, and do not get the sense they are moving merch in any meaningful way. Did Obi Wan, Acolyte, and Andor have any meaningful tie in merchandise?
Not to be snarky, but thank you for summarizing what we already know.

It may seem odd to mention merch here but that has historically been just as successful, if not more so, than the films have been (financially speaking). Put another way, it seems Disney’s been successful merchandising The Force Awakens, The Mandalorian, and the legacy films.
On this I agree. Disney has been successfully merchandising the PT/OT/ST and Mando. The others not so much, and on this I'm fine as not everything was a success under prior ownership either. Anyone buy much of the Ewoks Adventures merch?

As far as proving the untapped and unrealized billions, that’s very speculative.
This is my point. Except we have a poster who trots it out every time there is discussion on Disney Star Wars. Its why I'm finally asking them to prove it, as he makes claims on it as if its a foregone conclusion of the actual amount lost by Disney on that unrealized money. To which I'm calling BS, as its something that can't be known in an actual tangible sense. Nor can it actually be calculated. Notice there has been crickets since I asked them to prove it.

What is not is that the company inherited what had been, at the time, the most wildly successful movie franchise of all time and has tactically retreated from theatrical releases. It’s like it’s afraid of movie theaters.
None of which was discussed during the exchange, to which I'll say I agree with you. Will the break from theatrical make a difference with the next movie, lets hope so.
 

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
Nope, I'm asking you to show your homework. You make all these unsubstantiated claims and now I'm calling you out on it to prove it.

So prove to me with actual proof that Disney has indeed lost Billions in potential earnings on SW. And just like in math class in grade school remember to show your work how you came up with the answer. Because I'm fairly certain you got no way to prove any claim you've made.
“Appealing to ignorance” is a category of debate fallacy. In This case…it encompasses “you can’t prove it’s guaranteed…so therefore you can’t make a premise”

Wrong…not even a hard one to diffuse.

They teach those at Traditions…and Berkeley…so you should have caught that.🤷🏻‍♂️
 
Last edited:

Disney Irish

Premium Member
“Appealing to ignorance” is a category of debate fallacy. In This case…it encompasses “you can’t prove it’s be guaranteed…so therefore you can’t make a premise”

Wrong…not even a hard one to diffuse.

They teach those at Traditions…and Berkeley…so you should have caught that.🤷🏻‍♂️
Thank you for educating me on something I already knew, and completely disagree with in this instance as you weren't arguing in good faith to begin with.

So I'm still holding your feet to the fire here. You make claims, and I'm asking you to prove those claims. Its easy to say you don't know, or can't prove your claim, or that you're spouting BS to try and prove a point. But I don't think you will because it goes against your narrative.

So here I'll make it easier on you, and even giving you an out.....

I'll concede that Disney has most likely lost some money in potential sales on SW (not that I ever said they didn't but beside the point), I don't know the amount but believe its not close to your claim that its Billions. Please provide any data to back it up to educate me on the reality since you believe I'm not educated on the subject. I'm willing to learn from you. If you can't that is fine just say so and we'll just walk away from this.
 

Wendy Pleakley

Well-Known Member
As far as proving the untapped and unrealized billions, that’s very speculative. What is not is that the company inherited what had been, at the time, the most wildly successful movie franchise of all time and has tactically retreated from theatrical releases. It’s like it’s afraid of movie theaters.

We also have to consider the amount of time Star Wars was basically dormant under Lucas. Pent up demand is a big reason Phantom Menace and Force Awakens hit like they did.

Now that Star Wars content is being released frequently, it's unrealistic to expect those extreme highs.

Lucas released 3 prequels over 9 years. Disney released 5 movies over 6 years I believe. I wonder what the average revenue per year was during each of those periods? One could argue Lucas left a lot money on the table as well, but Disney is the one being criticized for a hypothetical loss of revenue.
 

flynnibus

Premium Member
Lucas released 3 prequels over 9 years. Disney released 5 movies over 6 years I believe. I wonder what the average revenue per year was during each of those periods? One could argue Lucas left a lot money on the table as well, but Disney is the one being criticized for a hypothetical loss of revenue.
Here is one interpretation of that very question
But I don't think you can take their 'profit' analysis with much weight since it's just comparing box office revenue - which isn't all the studio's.

Then add in the D+ live action budgets - which don't drive direct viewing dollars each - but have feature film sized budgets..
Mandolarian - 295mil (80+90+120)
Book of Bobba Fett - 105mil
Obi-Wan - 90mil
Andor - 135mil
Ahsoka - 100mil
Acolyte - 180mil
(various sources)

Adding those up.. that's about 905mil. Arguably that could be about the total profit of the 5 Live Action films...

But we know the ROI calculation isn't that simple... but it is interesting to look at the orders of magnitude involved. For all intents, each D+ show is the size of a feature film... without box office revenue to directly float it's production cost. There are a lot of non-star wars people subsidizing those shows :)
 

erasure fan1

Well-Known Member
One could argue Lucas left a lot money on the table as well, but Disney is the one being criticized for a hypothetical loss of revenue.
To be fair, Disney is being criticized because they own star wars now, not Lucas. He was criticized plenty. Lucas left millions on the table by not releasing a remastered original cut of the films on dvd/blueray. I'm guessing there's something in the contract that says Disney can't release the original cuts. Because if not, they are also leaving money on the table.

I'm not sure why so many seem to defend Disney star wars with........but what about Lucas, he did..... Who cares what George did, he took his lumps for stupid decisions and decided to sell to Disney. Disney owns it now. They had every opportunity to not make the same mistakes as Lucas. They just decided to run in blind, it had nothing to do with George.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
To be fair, Disney is being criticized because they own star wars now, not Lucas. He was criticized plenty. Lucas left millions on the table by not releasing a remastered original cut of the films on dvd/blueray. I'm guessing there's something in the contract that says Disney can't release the original cuts. Because if not, they are also leaving money on the table.
The rumors were always that the original prints were destroyed when Lucas made the remastered versions. As he always felt the originals weren't complete. So he never wanted to release the originals, so the rumors make sense. Sounds like something he would do, destroy them so they could never be rereleased.

I doubt there is anything in the contract that prevents Disney from releasing the original prints if they exist.

I'm not sure why so many seem to defend Disney star wars with........but what about Lucas, he did..... Who cares what George did, he took his lumps for stupid decisions and decided to sell to Disney. Disney owns it now. They had every opportunity to not make the same mistakes as Lucas. They just decided to run in blind, it had nothing to do with George.
The comparison is made because it shows that business decisions aren't made in a vacuum. Even if they seem like "mistakes" from the outside, there could be many reasons why Disney made similar decisions as Lucas. Including but not limited to it being run a person who was very close to Lucas, so made similar decisions on the business side that he would make.
 

Serpico Jones

Well-Known Member
I honestly think the decision has already been made, just not official yet, based on how Filoni was the one presenting for Lucas at D23 instead of Kennedy or anyone else.
The decision was made last summer. Disney don’t want to embarrass a producer with a 45 year track record so the announcement will be made sometime after Andor debuts on Disney+ so that she’ll go out on a high note.

The decision to make The Mandalorian movie was made by Jon Favreau and Bob Iger. Kennedy wasn’t involved. Look for Filoni to share duties with Lynwen Brennan who was recently promoted to president of Lucasfilm Business.
 

Wendy Pleakley

Well-Known Member
To be fair, Disney is being criticized because they own star wars now, not Lucas. He was criticized plenty. Lucas left millions on the table by not releasing a remastered original cut of the films on dvd/blueray. I'm guessing there's something in the contract that says Disney can't release the original cuts. Because if not, they are also leaving money on the table.

I'm not sure why so many seem to defend Disney star wars with........but what about Lucas, he did..... Who cares what George did, he took his lumps for stupid decisions and decided to sell to Disney. Disney owns it now. They had every opportunity to not make the same mistakes as Lucas. They just decided to run in blind, it had nothing to do with George.

It's not a defense per se, it's just pointing out that "Disney left money on the table by not releasing more movies" is a simplistic way of looking at it.

Letting demand build up resulted in at least two movies that likely made waaay more than they would have if Star Wars product had been produced regularly.

Maybe Lucas makes more money with a more aggressive release schedule. Maybe he doesn't because people are more discerning when the next movie is a year away, instead of three.

With the Disney launch we had four movies in a three year period. Would they have made more money on a per film basis with more time between movies? Would that work out to more or less per year on average?

It's too hypothetical to really argue one way or the other.

We'll see if the next movie hits bigger again, but even then you have to consider the TV shows factor in terms of audience fatigue.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
The decision was made last summer. Disney don’t want to embarrass a producer with a 45 year track record so the announcement will be made sometime after Andor debuts on Disney+ so that she’ll go out on a high note.

The decision to make The Mandalorian movie was made by Jon Favreau and Bob Iger. Kennedy wasn’t involved. Look for Filoni to share duties with Lynwen Brennan who was recently promoted to president of Lucasfilm Business.
Wasn't Brennan's promotion like awhile ago, like years ago at this point?

I wouldn't be opposed to her being the business head and Filoni being the creative head. I always thought that is the way Disney should run many of their divisions, especially on the Studios side.
 

erasure fan1

Well-Known Member
It's not a defense per se, it's just pointing out that "Disney left money on the table by not releasing more movies" is a simplistic way of looking at it.
It's come up a lot over the time Disney has owned star wars. It's not so much a defense for, Disney but more of a deflection. All I'm saying is it's really not relevant what Lucas did. Disney has had every opportunity to avoid the pitfalls Lucas fell into. So it's really all on Disney.

As far as the money being left on the table. That's mostly about the merchandising, not the amount of movies they released. That's the the argument that was made. With Disneys handling of the brand, they've cost themselves a lot of money in non box office related income.
Letting demand build up resulted in at least two movies that likely made waaay more than they would have if Star Wars product had been produced regularly.
Yea, you had huge stretches of no real star wars on the big screen. That demand was a huge factor in the results of the two movies.
With the Disney launch we had four movies in a three year period. Would they have made more money on a per film basis with more time between movies?
Not with what they released. The problem wasn't quantity, it was quality. Now maybe more time gives the ability to adjust better or spend more time working the story. Even then, the mistake was rushing it to market. Personally I don't think having at least a movie a year would be bad, if the quality is there of course, i.e. the mcu.

So I have to agree with @Sirwalterraleigh that they've left a ton of money on the table. Is it billions? Maybe, maybe not. But I do believe it's a sizable number. From video games, to toys and collectables, home video.... You can see it everywhere anytime something new that's star wars releases. The only thing that hit for merchandise was mando and grogu.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom