Disney and Star Wars
I recently read an interesting article regarding of Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm. Back in 2012, Disney acquired Lucasfilm for $4b. At the time, many analysts thought this was a great deal including one remarking:
Lucasfilm was sitting on top of the world’s richest oil deposit, but didn’t want to drill.
They were right. Since the acquisition, a relaunched Star Wars comic book sold a million units, retail sales for toys have totaled to $2 billion, and The Force Awakens has just set the record for the richest opening weekend for domestic box office with $209 million.
Compare Activision Blizzard’s purchase of Candy Crush for $5.9 billion , it seems as if Lucasfilm’s purchase of Disney was a blind robbery. Why do you think Lucasfilm sold Star Wars for that little amount? Do you foresee this as being one of the “Deals of the Century”?
Ahhh, not so fast. Disney is making hay off the new films, but the previous 6 I believe are still help by 20th Century Fox. Hasbro has the toys. Not sure who has the books. It is a pretty convoluted mess.
IMO, I stopped watching anything Star Wars once Disney owned it. Lucas sold his soul making the 3 prequel movies (which I didn't love, but didn't hate), but the trash coming out of Disney now is horrendous. These movies have to be targeted to younger kids and they won't have the same cult following as the originals. And lets face it, the original three are what caused this lasting obsession with the brand. I see younger kids watching it once and moving on vs. middle aged people collecting toys, reading the novels, going to shows, etc.
While I agree on some points, there's also the fact that Disney's theme parks are a consistent money maker and the ability to add Star Wars anything to the parks as well as the theatres adds to the brand's value significantly for the next few years. The numbers don't lie even if that "cult-film" allure is gone--Disney knows how to bring people to the box office and theme parks consistently and repeatedly.
...you honestly think Rogue One is worse than the prequel trilogy? c'mon...
What's the dollar adjusted gross for all the movies? Or the net dollar adjusted revenue.
I also read that Lucas gets the rights back in 2020.
I lean towards agreeing with you but I think there is more too it.
Take a look here: http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/Star-Wars#tab=summary
I don't think he gets the rights back, but Disney currently only has very vague plans for 2020 and beyond (Episode 9 is slated for 2019)
I think Lucas just wanted to get rid of it. As far as the films, 21st Century Fox has distribution, but they still have to pay Lucas Film royalties on that don't they? Also, Disney has a completely different approach to this--its not the same fan building type stuff that Lucas did originally but trust me, I think Disney will manage to create a following in its own, Disney like way out of this too--remember all the older people who went to see Toy Story 3 for example?
Wait, Candy Crush went for $5.9B? Lordy
Lucas gave them a sweetheart deal to be done with the business and ensure proper handling of his life's work.
You can tell in interviews with him post-movie releases that he is very disappointed in the approach Disney took, though.
Given his approach to Star Wars since the OT released, I have a feeling he would be disappointed regardless of what they did as long as it did not involve his direct continual input.
Similar to how the rest of the world was very disappointed in the approach he took toward the prequels
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