This Forbes article covers only the Star Wars part of Disney, but Disney paid a lot of money for Lucasfilm, and I've heard that Bob Iger has stated that it is 'core' for Disney going forward. Relentless Mediocrity Is Killing ‘Star Wars’
The rest of Lucasfilm consists of Indiana Jones (see the disappointment that was Indiana Jones and the Insufferable Feminist), Willow (they just 86ed the Willow series from D+ it was so bad), and one other thing. Any bets on whether or not Disney will try to reboot Howard the Duck?
The leadership of Star Wars, and perhaps Lucasfilm more broadly, has been lacking. The Star Wars sequel trilogy didn't have unified plan; it didn't have any plan. The author of the Forbes article says this gave audiences whiplash as nothing tied together. As for the shows that have been airing on Disney+, they are rushed, bloated - 8 or 10 hour series that should probably be 90 minute movies - and badly written. And their future plans? Base a new movie (trilogy?) around a character that no one liked in the last movie.)
Star Wars has become relentlessly mediocre. It’s not that there isn’t anything to like about these shows, it’s that they all feel half-baked and overblown, like butter spread over too little bread, to borrow a phrase from Mr. Baggins.
(Disclaimer, I have only seen the occasional episode from D+, nothing has grabbed my attention enough to try and see more, and I have never been tempted to subscribe. Well, I have seen clips on YouTube.)
This article isn't some random blogger complaining that the latest Star Wars movie did something he didn't like. (Though the latest SW movies did some things the author doesn't like.) Forbes is a serious piece of journalism that concentrates, at least in part, on finance and investing. And part of that is acknowledging that the brand of Disney, or some of the brands owned by Disney, seem to be very damaged.
I won't copy any more, you should click thru. It is a magazine article that tries to spell out where Lucasfilm went wrong, and why. Lots of content for Disney+ was one reason why. There is a quote from David Zaslav of Warner Bros. about how streaming didn't work out quite the way the folks in Hollywood thought it would. And there are a few other suggestions as well. Not that Disney, or Hollywood in general, will take any suggestions to heart. Some of the suggestions are fairly basic, and if they were going to do it, they would have by now. (For example, why does Kathleen Kennedy still run Lucasfilm?)
They’re old adages, but good ones: Less is more. Quality over quantity. You pay for what you get. You reap what you sow.
I would add one thing not covered by Forbes. Woke. Disney decided that everything Star Wars would be female. Old heroes replaced. Old heroes actually "deconstructed and destroyed." Because why not destroy the thing that you paid billions for?
I wanted to link to the article specifically because it is from (something of) a financial news source. While a lot of the Hollywood press is finally admitting that the nerds were right when they said Star Wars was being killed by bad content, the financial press is still screaming about how "all is well." Or at least that all will well again very soon.
Hat tip goes to Valiant Renegade and his video KILLING STAR WARS | Ahsoka Numbers NOT Good? | Forbes CALLS OUT Disney Lucasfilm. It is almost 12 minutes, but it is good.
ReplyDeleteSome people have wondered why I spend so much time on Disney, Hollywood, and movies. It is the road not traveled. Back in the dark ages, a few years after college, when I had been working in IT for a while, and mostly hating it, I applied to, and was accepted into a master of fine arts program in screenwriting. It wasn't the best program in the country, but it wasn't the worst either.
If you can write something great, you can make some money, but most writers - at least back in the day - lived and worked in LA, and made a decent living. I was making more the a "decent living," and I absolutely cannot stand Los Angeles.
" Because why not destroy the thing that you paid billions for?"
ReplyDeleteI've watched corporations do this for decades. It's almost a trope that they buy a company because it's the most successful in an industry, then they change everything about it that made it successful, with the predictable result.
I'm waiting for some B school phd candidate to write the case study of GE buying Showpower. Showpower OWNED the temporary power business nationwide for anything entertainment related. Contract riders were written that insisted any temporary power equipment be colored yellow and black (the company's colors). So iconic were their crew shirts that I still have one in my collection... and when telling newbies how to run cable we used to say "run it Showpower pretty"...
So of course GE changed the logo, and the colors, and drove out all the senior management within a year or two.
That management went over to CAT to start up their entertainment temp power division.
I left the industry after that so I'm not sure how it played out, but the destruction of Showpower was complete.
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