Espera só um instante que eu consigo melhorar isso.
Disney Can No Longer Deny That ‘Star Wars’ is a Damaged Franchise
A billion dollar Star Wars theme park expansion being ridiculed as a “flop” by the media.
A steep decline in Star Wars merchandise sales that even toy manufacturer Hasbro seemingly
blames Disney for.
The last theatrical Star Wars film,
Solo: A Star Wars Story, bombing at the box office.
And a vocal fanbase that feels betrayed by Star Wars’ current custodians, and is constantly at odds with the people behind the franchise on social media.
It’s clear we’re no longer living in 1979. Or even 1999.
Welcome to 2019, where it’s obvious to anyone paying attention that Star Wars is a damaged franchise under Disney’s stewardship. And after months of denial on Disney’s part, CEO Bob Iger seems to finally,
finally be admitting it.
Kind of.
Star Wars merchandise sales are in decline. Again.
According to Disney’s
third-quarter earnings report, Star Wars merchandise sales are down.
Again.
Yes, they were also down
last year, too.
It’s pretty common to see sequel era Star Wars toys on clearance. Sometimes they collect dust on shelves for many months.
THE INCREASE AT OUR CONSUMER PRODUCTS BUSINESS WAS DUE TO GROWTH AT OUR MERCHANDISE LICENSING AND RETAIL BUSINESSES. GROWTH AT MERCHANDISE LICENSING WAS PRIMARILY DUE TO HIGHER REVENUE FROM MERCHANDISE BASED ON TOY STORY, PARTIALLY OFFSET BY A DECREASE FROM STAR WARS MERCHANDISE. THE INCREASE AT OUR RETAIL BUSINESS WAS DUE TO HIGHER COMPARABLE STORE SALES AND ONLINE REVENUE.
Go to any Walmart or bargain outlet and take a look at the glut of sequel era Star Wars merchandise they can’t even unload at rock bottom prices.
Or just ask a Toys ‘R Us employee about it. Oh,
wait…
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is being called a “flop.” Disneyland’s attendance plummets over the summer.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge effectively turned Disneyland into a “ghost town” — the opposite of what Disney had hoped for.
Despite Disney defenders
trying to put as positive of a spin on the disaster that is
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the mainstream media has seen right through it and continues to throw shade at the billion dollar expansion’s failure to draw crowds.
In fact, the Star Wars themed land
seems to be chasing people away instead of drawing them to Disneyland.
And when there was some pushback from Disney fandom about the validity of people’s claims about the park being empty,
USA Today had to step in and
provide aerial photos as proof to shut that debate down hard.
But hey, it’s just the jealous naysayers throwing shade at Disney, right?
According to that same third-quarter earnings report,
Disney Parks attendance was down overall.
So, no, it’s not our imaginations.
And Disney CEO Bob Iger had to put his own positive spin on the situation. Saying that Galaxy’s Edge will be profitable… someday.
“AND SO ALL OF THOSE FACTORS [PRINCE INCREASE, FEAR OF CROWDS] CONTRIBUTED TO ATTENDANCE THAT WAS BELOW WHAT WE WOULD HAVE HOPED IT WOULD BE. THAT SAID, GUEST SATISFACTION, INTEREST IN THE ATTRACTION IN THE LAND IS EXTREMELY HIGH, IT’S THE MOST POPULAR THING AT THE PARK. AND SO, LONG TERM, WE BUILD THESE THINGS FOR THE LONG TERM, WE HAVE NO CONCERNS WHATSOEVER ABOUT THEM. WE’RE OPENING GALAXY’S EDGE IN AUGUST IN ORLANDO, THE SECOND ATTRACTION THERE WILL OPEN IN DECEMBER, AND, AS I SAID, THE SECOND ATTRACTION IN ANAHEIM WILL OPEN IN JANUARY, SO WE FEEL GREAT ABOUT THE PRODUCT WE’VE CREATED, IT JUST TAKES SOME TIME TO, BASICALLY FOR US, TO WORK THEMSELVES OUT IN TERMS OF HOW THE MARKETPLACE IS REACTING.”
Meanwhile, Universal had
10 hour waits for a new Harry Potter coaster, and
announced a third theme park that will likely feature
Nintendo.
Kids today
love Nintendo. They don’t care much about Star Wars.
Speaking of which…
Kids today don’t care about Star Wars. So why keep insulting their parents?
According to
Bloomberg, kids today just aren’t into Star Wars.
Well, not like their parents were.
It’s just another sci-fi fantasy franchise to them, and one that doesn’t seem to hold the same level of interest as Fortnite, Harry Potter or Disney’s
other big franchise, Marvel.
While Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge has seen sparse crowds, Universal Orlando’s new Harry Potter roller coaster had wait times of up to 10 hours. However, crowds for Galaxy’s Edge may be heavier in Orlando than Anaheim.
STAR WARS TOY SALES POPPED WITH 2015’S “THE FORCE AWAKENS,” THE START OF A TRILOGY THAT UNITED HAN, LUKE AND LEIA WITH A NEW BAND OF HEROES, BUT HAVE SLUMPED SINCE. “SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY,” LAST YEAR’S SPINOFF FEATURING THE BACKSTORY OF BELOVED CHARACTERS, UTTERLY BOMBED. “THE LAST JEDI,” THE SECOND IN THE NEW TRILOGY, WAS PROFITABLE BUT FELL SHY OF ITS PREDECESSOR’S PERFORMANCE. THE NEXT INSTALLMENT, “THE RISE OF SKYWALKER,” WILL HAVE THE VERY FUTURE OF THE FRANCHISE RIDING ON IT WHEN IT DEBUTS IN DECEMBER.
Attempts to make Star Wars more relatable to today’s youth with all new protagonists and villains has seemingly been met with apathy, judging by the unsold toys clogging clearance aisle shelves.
And old school Star Wars fans were dismayed at how their childhood heroes were sidelined, the victims of character assassination, or killed off entirely.
In the case of the original trilogy’s series protagonist
Luke Skywalker, it’s all of the above.
‘The Last Jedi’ irreparably damaged the brand. But Disney will not acknowledge it.
To say that
The Last Jedi split the fandom is an understatement. In fact, it could be argued the movie’s terrible treatment of classic characters (and its poor handling of the Star Wars fandom in the aftermath) directly lead to the current state of the Star Wars franchise.
Many fans feel that the character of Luke Skywalker was irreparably damaged by The Last Jedi. Even Mark Hamill himself seems unhappy with how his character was handled in Episode VIII. Here, Luke is seen swigging some green milk, freshly squeezed from the alien teet.
Many fans threatened to boycott Star Wars after
The Last Jedi. Yet the internet media pundits laughed it off as a “
vocal minority” of disgruntled fans.
Months later,
Solo bombed at the box office. Toy sales plummeted. The theme park is a
ghost town. And there’s a deafening lack of chatter about
The Rise of Skywalker from the general public, compared to the previous two sequel trilogy films.
If Star Wars is not resonating with children, then Disney must do what it can to keep the adult fans happy if they want the franchise to survive.
It’s mostly adults who are buying the toys, and certainly adults who are paying the exorbitant theme park ticket prices for their families. And I can almost guarantee you that only an adult would purchase a
$200 designer lightsaber.
Having the director of the most polarizing Star Wars film of all times
call the fans names on social media is not a good look. Nor is letting
freelancers associated with the Star Wars brand attack people based on their political affiliation.
And
blaming Russian bots for the backlash is just really, really stupid.
Beyond splitting the fandom,
The Last Jedi weirdly became a litmus test of sorts for a fan’s
political affiliation. The fans who loved the film, generally speaking, seemed to be more progressive and those who despised it seemed to be more conservative.
And you can thank the (predominantly progressive) pop culture media outlets for that, as they stoked the fires for months by trying to incite the old school fans with endless article after article calling them misogynists, trolls and worse.
But hey, director Rian Johnson
said he loved to make polarizing films. So if he intended to troll old school Star Wars fans all along, he succeeded on an unprecedented level.
Unfortunately, the franchise has suffered tremendously for it.
Star Wars has been relegated to direct-to-TV status. How embarrassing.
The future of Star Wars seems to be direct-to-Disney-Plus. With
Solo bombing at the box office, Disney
halted their plans for more spinoff movies.
The Mandalorian is coming to Disney Plus from showrunner John Favreau. It’s mega expensive, so we’ll see how long it actually lasts.
However, they seem to be moving ahead with the trilogy from
Game of Thrones directors Benioff and Weiss, despite their recently
inking a $200 million deal with competitor Netflix.
Oh, and did we mention that
those guys are now despised by the
Game of Thrones fandom for dropping the ball on Season 8?
Yeah, this might not be the way to win back the Star Wars fandom, Disney. Just saying.
You had ONE job, Lucasfilm.
Han, Luke and Leia all together in one scene. That’s all many Star Wars fans hoped for,
and what was expected when it was announced the trio would return for the sequel trilogy.
Star Wars fans expected to see Han, Luke and Leia reunited for one last adventure together in The Force Awakens. After Han was killed onscreen and Carrie Fisher passed in real life, it was clear that this would NEVER happen.
And when Mark Hamill posted an innocuous image about what he wished would have happened in the trilogy — a sentiment echoed by
many fans —
Twitter attacked him for it.
(I might need a swig of that green milk myself.
Alcoholic, please.)
The Force is no longer with this franchise.
The proof is in the pudding. Or lack of it. Star Wars is not making the money it should be making, and Disney needs to take a good, hard look at
why and stop burying its head in the sand and blaming the fandom.
Bob Iger’s acknowledgement that the franchise is in decline is a good first step, but it might be too little, too late.
Fonte
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Além disso, tem um rumor circulando que, se confirmado, explicaria parte das merdas que aconteceram desde que Star Wars caiu nas mãos da Disney. Apesar de Lucas ter vendido os direitos da franquia, aparentemente ele teria direito a
royalties toda vez que a Disney utilizasse material criado por ele nas trilogias anteriores.
Assim sendo, sempre que um cenário ou personagem criado por Lucas fosse utilizado pela Disney, ela teria que pagar uma porcentagem a ele por isso... e para não fazê-lo, o Mickey decidiu destruir tudo o que podia, para possuir completamente a franquia. Isso explicaria porque diabos a vitória da República foi jogada no lixo em The Force Awakens, com quase nenhuma explicação a respeito do assunto. Explicaria porque Han Solo foi morto e Luke Skywalker foi completamente arrasado por Ruin Johnson. Explicaria porque a Disney parece obcecada em acabar com a história dos Skywalkers. Explicaria porque o Galaxy's Edge mostra um cenário nunca explorado nos filmes e também porque não conta com personagens das trilogias anteriores.
E, finalmente, também explicaria o esforço febril da Disney em alienar a legião de fãs cultivada por Lucas: afinal, o plano do Mickey seria destruir tudo o que caracterizava Star Wars e só manter o nome, para prostituí-lo como bem entendesse. Esses fãs ficariam no caminho e atrapalhariam: era simplesmente mais prático se livrar deles o quanto antes, perseguindo-os através da mídia puxa-saco e taxá-los com todas as ofensas possíveis, apenas porque eles não aceitariam ficar quietos observando passivamente enquanto a Disney vilipendiava Star Wars.
A parte da alienação funcionou maravilhosamente bem: a parte na qual ela teria que criar um novo público para o Star Wars Nutella que ela pretendia enfiar goela abaixo desse povo falhou miseravelmente. Nessas alturas do campeonato, os rebeldes (fãs alienados) estão vencendo o Império (Disney). A batalha decisiva ocorre no final do ano, no Episódio Nein (vou assistir).