MCU to "Refocus” and Disney sinking faster than the Titanic (Starwars is dead Marvel is dead)

Soldato
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It was loss making and, I believe, not actually that popular. Business gonna business.
Disney and KK have ran Star Wars into the ground.

All they had to do was treat the older material with respect but they didn’t want to do that.

Did you ever hear the plans for Galaxy edge?

They wanted to build Tatooine but instead KK demanded they build it around her universe and had to throw the plans out and start again.
 
Man of Honour
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There’s been rumours of that shutting down for some time. It’s very popular but I’m not sure Star Wars as an IP has that big of a ‘draw’ compared to, say, Harry Potter.

@Bigpig you could be told that Galaxy’s Edge was on Tatooine and wouldn’t know otherwise - it’s as aesthetically close to Tatooine as you can get whilst still having the core functionality of being a theme park and not looking like a total dump. It’s pretty good. I thought Ronto Roasters was cool: https://www.disneyworld.co.uk/dining/hollywood-studios/ronto-roasters/
 
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There’s been rumours of that shutting down for some time. It’s very popular but I’m not sure Star Wars as an IP has that big of a ‘draw’ compared to, say, Harry Potter.
Star Wars prior to the recent Disney abominations was a much bigger draw than Harry Potter, nowadays not so much sure. Ep7 is the 5th highest grossing film of time!! (not adjusting for inflation) Even ep9 after it had lost half its 'customer base' still beats out 7 of the 8 Harry Potter movies.

I think folks forget just how popular star wars was.
 
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Star Wars prior to the recent Disney abominations was a much bigger draw than Harry Potter, nowadays not so much sure. Ep7 is the 5th highest grossing film of time!! (not adjusting for inflation) Even ep9 after it had lost half its 'customer base' still beats out 7 of the 8 Harry Potter movies.

It can be argued either way, but I don’t think it’s close, personally - even prior to the Disney takeover.

I don’t think ‘film takings’ is a very good yardstick. People do like the Star Wars films but intense fandom isn’t that common. Meanwhile, the world of Harry Potter is much warmer and more inviting - presumably almost all children grow up reading these books.

I could foresee a similar hotel experience staying at Hogwarts and going to lessons etc, as being infinitely more popular than the Galactic Star Cruiser. Pre and post the Disney takeover. This assumes reasonable pricing though.

I think it’s more likely that obsessive Star Wars fans would pay a high price for the experience. The downfall of the Starcruiser was not the brand, but it’s pricing. You are on the Starcruiser for less than 48 hours and that’s not good value for most people at $2-3k per person.
 
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Soldato
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It can be argued either way, but I don’t think it’s close, personally - even prior to the Disney takeover.

I don’t think ‘film takings’ is a very good yardstick. People do like the Star Wars films but intense fandom isn’t that common. Meanwhile, the world of Harry Potter is much warmer and more inviting - presumably almost all children grow up reading these books.

I could foresee a similar hotel experience staying at Hogwarts and going to lessons etc, as being infinitely more popular than the Galactic Star Cruiser. Pre and post the Disney takeover. This assumes reasonable pricing though.

I think it’s more likely that obsessive Star Wars fans would pay a high price for the experience. The downfall of the Starcruiser was not the brand, but it’s pricing. You are on the Starcruiser for less than 48 hours and that’s not good value for most people at $2-3k per person.
You are right it's not even close, take merchandising sales from a quick 30 second google, in 2018 Harry Potter made 1 billion whereas Star Wars sat at 1.9 billion.
 
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You are right it's not even close, take merchandising sales from a quick 30 second google, in 2018 Harry Potter made 1 billion whereas Star Wars sat at 1.9 billion.

Again, raw numbers isn’t really a very good yardstick. I don’t deny that Star Wars is very popularity but I’m not sure that lunch boxes and novelty ties are really a true reflection of the specific landscape.

It doesn’t ‘back up’ my position in any conclusive matter, but this article alludes to what is and isn’t popular in Star Wars.


Everyone loves Darth Vader and the Millennium Falcon - those are timeless, cool, appealing things. I’d also add ‘the force’, ‘lightsabers’ and the ‘death star’ as being the things in the franchise with super appeal.

But outside of that… I suspect there is more affection for Harry Potter than Luke, more affection for Hermione than Leia etc.

Star Wars super-fandom is like an exclusive club, where most people know the films but ‘geeky’ people - those who would go to the Star Cruiser - have invested time into the expanded universe etc. Meanwhile, the HP books means that many people have a quite intimidate familiarity with that universe.

Given the choice, I do genuinely believe more people would prefer to spend their vacation cash/time on a Potter-equivalent experience. If the price was right of course. Both franchises would have successful hotels at the right price.

It’s all conjecture from me though :)
 
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Soldato
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Aye, the topic could be debated until the cows come home. I just think that whatever metric used to determine the 'draw' of the IP Star Wars tops Harry Potter, be it merch sales, movie sales or the value of the franchise itself


Book sales are the only area that Potter does better than SW, given it was a book series 1st that's to be expected though :)
 
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Disney and KK have ran Star Wars into the ground.

All they had to do was treat the older material with respect but they didn’t want to do that.

Did you ever hear the plans for Galaxy edge?

They wanted to build Tatooine but instead KK demanded they build it around her universe and had to throw the plans out and start again.
Show me on the doll where KK touched you.
 
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It's amazing how so many people seem to know about every decision Kathleen Kennedy has made or over-ridden.

Galaxy's Edge looks like Tatooine, does it matter if it was called Batuu instead?

Either way these places do not exist, it's a theme park!
 
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I have to pre-face this with I'm not a Star Wars megafan by any stretch. I had seen the films over the years but until last year I had never seen the original trilogy in its entirety. Had watched the most recent films (Rogue One and the newest trilogy) in the cinema and I can remember going to the cinema to see The Phantom Menace along with all of Andor, Mandalorian, Obi Wan and Book of Boba Fett.

I did right my wrong though and last year watched all of the trilogies as well as fitting in Rogue One and Solo in the correct places. Still think Rogue One is the best SW film and Andor the best SW TV Show (notice a theme?) out of the bunch but in terms of the three trilogies It would have to be Original > Prequel > Sequel. Only thing a bit naff about the original series is how dated it looks but it had the best story, how very hipster of me.

I say that to say even with how bad (I didn't hate them that much but they weren't as good as the sequel series but bonus points for no Jar-Jar) the sequel series was, I'd watch that trilogy on repeat before I ever get into Harry Potter. Never clicked with that franchise. We had the books read to us in primary school and the first film came out when I was in year 7 but it also came out around the same time as LoTR and my uncle who was a LoTR mega-fan pushed me to that side of the coin and I never liked the wizards portrayed in Hogwarts.

As I got to the end... I'm not really sure what my contribution to the threads topic at hand is. I just rate SW higher than HP :D
 
Caporegime
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Weird. On the one hand Disney and Kathleen Kennedy touched people inappropriately, ruined their childhood, and ruined/killed Star Wars. On the other hand, lets count the box office take of the new films that we hate when comparing box office takings with other franchises

I suppose it's a bitter pill to swallow that Star Wars has made more money post Disney ownership than pre and the vast majority of people who consume the content don't even know who Kathleen Kennedy is :D

p.s. Star Wars still trumps HP for me, but for people born in the last 25 years, it could well be the other way round!


rp2000
 
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Back on topic:

50 shows disappearing from D+ and Hulu next week.


Not been through the list exhaustively, but Willow is on there. Removing 50 shows is quite a big deal, albeit (i'm guessing) it's the less popular shows, so which other provider is gonna pay them good money for this stuff?

Edit: caveat, might be USA only or worldwide.


rp2000
 
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Soldato
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The World's best IP and fanbase is without doubt Tolkien, 86 years old and counting and it can never be ruined now, that crap amazon has made will not spoil the legacy, nor will the new films reportedly in the pipeline, I seriously doubt they're going to be any good, modern entertainment doesn't care about the source material, they just want the brand name. SW is probably the biggest IP still, but seeing as they haven't made a good film for 40 years and have ruined the legacy of George Lucas, later gens aren't going to care about Disney's rubbish.

I think Potter is a strong IP and will grow, as I think like Middle-Earth that world is timeless. On the wane, definitely Marvel and DC, 95% of it is absolute bottom of the barrel scraping drivel. Also no-one reads comics anymore, though I wouldn't call that a huge drawback, it's definitely not a positive, it will interesting to see how under 30s devour entertiainment in future and how desensitized they have become to watching garbage, if that's all they grown up with, then maybe Disney style tripe will be good enough, I mean we live in a World where people actually think The Mandolorian is good, that's how far standards have fallen.

But I tend to think in the end, you cannot hide behind IPs for long, people will and are getting sick and tired of the same low-effort, mediocre, sludge.
 
Soldato
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Back on topic:

50 shows disappearing from D+ and Hulu next week.


Not been through the list exhaustively, but Willow is on there. Removing 50 shows is quite a big deal, albeit (i'm guessing) it's the less popular shows, so which other provider is gonna pay them good money for this stuff?

Edit: caveat, might be USA only or worldwide.


rp2000
Just how much money is there to be saved by pulling shows?

Willow for example.

Season 1 is done. Season two will never see the light of day.

Is it that big of a disaster that the bandwidth or royalties is not worth paying?

Or are they hoping to sell these Shows/IPs?
 
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