Tag: box office

I have to laugh whenever people say TLJ did worse than TFA and was controversial among fans because these fans are alt right racists and misogynists who were overly attached to the OT and can’t accept any change.

This argument can’t explain the scope of the backlash even inside America, but becomes even more farcical outside of it. SW wasn’t even a real thing in China and Korea, respectively the second and sixth largest movie markets in the world, before TFA with its Black, female, and Latino leads swept both markets. TLJ killed that budding buzz. Is anyone going to seriously argue that Chinese and Korean audiences, most of whom didn’t give a shit about SW in general, were suddenly so attached to 40-year-old SW characters and lore that they didn’t give anything new a chance? Or that the addition of an Asian woman to the main cast killed TLJ in these markets? Obviously racism against SE Asians and misogyny are serious problems in these countries, but it’s not as simple as not seeing a movie in large numbers because a Vietnamese woman is cast–especially because antiblackness is also serious in both countries and TFA, which had Finn in a much more prominent role, still did way better than TLJ.

Maybe the movie is just… not that good and SW brand loyalty didn’t hurt it, in fact the only reason it was still a hit in North America was because of brand loyalty. And maybe it underperformed Rogue One in Korea and flopped in China because it didn’t have that brand loyalty to prop up its poor quality. Maybe, just maybe, LF is responsible for its own movie’s unexpectedly low performance and the criticism it gets. Just a thought.

What if Reylo does happen in the third movie? A bit apprehensive because I wouldn’t know what to think if Reylo is confirmed.

actualreyofsunshine:

hanukkahfinn:

Not happening. It seriously isn’t.

I wrote this a while back and nothing have changed my mind at any point. And @lj-writes and @diversehighfantasy wrote some more on the topic yesterday that pretty covers everything I hadn’t already said.

It makes crap sense from a story point of view and JJ was never about that. I could see him be pressured into a Benny boy redemption perhaps, only Kathleen appears to be the only one who’s interested in that and her position at the moment looks, shall we say somewhat precarious. Especially when you add that Disney who’s the overruling factor in this is interested in one thing and one thing only, making money.

And so far, investing in Benny boy has been a really bad deal over all. The Kylo Ren merch post-TFA is still knocking about in some stores because it sold so badly. TLJ may not exactly have flopped but it certainly under performed according to expectation which should hammer home that overfocus on Benny boy is never going to be a seller. TFA with its focus on Finn and Rey made Disney 2 billion dollars, TLJ with its focus on Ben Yolo undershot expectations with several hundred millions.

So Reylo and Benny boy redemption doesn’t just make fuck all sense storywise, it makes for really bad business sense too. 

But let me for a second entertain the thought that reylo did become canon, I always did enjoy thought experiments, it would be the one thing that would kill Star Wars stone dead for me. TLJ came close, but it was really just a case of extreme shiptease with Rey slamming the door in Kylo’s face at the end of the day, because she’d found a place and people who cared about her for her unlike Kylo.

But if they pair the leading woman off with a neo Nazi allegory, never mind how “redeemed” I’m out. Permanently.

Not gonna happen though. My money is still on canon Finnrey, with a lesser amount on single!Rey and some ambiguous Finnpoe. You know, Korrasami style ending. Disney is ten years behind everyone else and doesn’t have the guts to make open Finnpoe canon. They’ll claim it’s because China, but really it’s the homegrown homophobes they’re trying to placate.

But I’m wandering off topic.

Tl;dr Canon reylo isn’t happening.

Here’s the other thing too–even if Reylo does happen by some incomprehensible long shot, that doesn’t make it an okay pairing or anywhere close to being in the realm of acceptability.

This is the other thing that Reylos don’t seem to understand. They think the issue boils down to whether or not the ship is canon, and that people who don’t like the pairing are angry abt it being canon in lieu of what they choose to ship, when the truth has always been that the ship is bad, period. Even if it becomes canon tomorrow, it’s a bad ship, based on bad storytelling and a horrendous mischaracterization of literally everyone involved.

There are plenty of ships that are technically still canon, but are objectively bad, and reylo would be one of them if it were to become a reality in the next movie. Thankfully, and perhaps hopefully, it won’t.

Do you think reylow has any possibility of becoming canon in ep9?

diversehighfantasy:

lj-writes:

I highly doubt it, especially with JJ at the helm. @jewishcomeradebot has made the case that JJ isn’t as disgusting a misogynist as the Jurassic guy (or RJ, in my opinion), is actually capable of keeping characters consistent, and won’t go the route of making a space neo-Nazi a secret good guy/the romantic lead. I would also like to add:

1. JJ actually listens to his actors, unlike PT-era (and arguably this started even in the OT) Lucas after he got a bloated head, or RJ who, with far less reason, fancies himself a creative genius whose vision cannot be improved upon. JJ gave us a living Poe based on Oscar’s request, and he changed Finn and Rey’s whole dynamic based on John and Daisy’s chemistry. We know Daisy has spoken against Reylow and John is sick of the racist “friendzone” bullshit. Even if JJ himself were inclined toward Reylow, which I doubt, he is unlikely to bulldoze over their objections.

2. We know JJ fought to cast John as Finn and that he is passionate about Finn’s character as RJ never was. I may not agree with everything JJ did with Finn in TFA, but Finn was the undisputed male lead of TFA and JJ is not going to sideline him like RJ did.

3. Finn and Rey are going to be together again in EpIX, something that made Daisy ecstatic much as she was devastated when she learned they would be apart in TLJ. John was not as open about being upset, but we know he watched her on set whenever he could just to let her know he was there. Canon reylow proponents were salty about Rey and Finn spending more time together in IX and they have good reason to be, because there’s a huge amount of revisionism development that has to happen for canon Reylow in IX which is unlikely to take place if Rey is spending most of her time with Finn. This is a major reason canon Reylow sidelines Finn–it necessitates he get less screen time and story importance in favor of Kylo fucking Ren.

4. John is acting excited about SW again. He has the confidence to publicly say he ships Finnrey, he has a JediStormPilot banner on his Twitter, he’s been talking about EpIX like he actually looks forward to it. I doubt he would be pumped about EpIX and SW again if this were another movie  where he plays second, no scratch that, fourth or fifth fiddle to a mass-murdering space neo-Nazi.

5. If the rumors of KK’s long-overdue departure are true (pls God), that gives me even more hope because we know she’s the one who fought John’s casting, has a creepy fixation on Driver, and casts a white British brunette in every fucking thing. With her gone there would be even less impetus for canon reylow than there is now, but even aside from that I just want her gone on principle.

Nothing is set in stone but what we know of the story, characters, the creators, and the production so far all point toward reylow not happening. If JJ/LF still decide to do it they can, of course, but if the reaction to TLJ is any indication they’ll be throwing the franchise into the toilet with that decision.

There’s also the fact that TLJ didn’t live up to financial expectations with multiple viewings and Blu Ray/digital. RJ can blame it on manbaby trolls, but in the boardroom, you better believe they’re looking at every possible reason, especially with Solo’s subsequent underperformance.

What’s one thing the successful TFA had that TLJ didn’t? Rey and Finn together. Which also happens to be the first thing LF allowed to come out via John about epIX (and there’s been no dialback a la Mark and JJ when they’ve said “unapproved” things).

I’m not as convinced as others that RJ was going for a reylo endgame (was he playing with the idea? For sure). Kylo didn’t come off as a guy worthy of her sympathy in the end. It was manipulation. Maybe I give RJ too much credit, but that’s what I saw. So I don’t personally think canon reylo has anything going for it. Under JJ, after the TLJ backlash? Very unlikely. I can see a possible kylo redemption (again, via Leia one way or another), but a happy ending with Rey? Even TLJ didn’t set that up in canon.

If centering Kylo had made the “manbabies” as happy as it made reylo shippers and that resulted in a wildly financially successful film next to TFA I might be more worried. It’s all about the bottom line. The overt racist are already out and not coming back. No reason in the world to pander to them by making Kylo the “real protagonist.”

TLJ defenders like to point out that it still made money, but Hollywood would have long gotten out of the sequel business if it were normal for sequels to underperform their predecessors by 40%. Initial Blu Ray sales are, what, half of TFA’s during the same period? This will be the second year in a row, with TLJ and now Solo, that SW becomes a loss for Disney in terms of opportunity costs–i.e. Disney would have done better to put their 4 billion in the stock market than invest it in a galaxy far, far away. Obviously some kind of change is in order, and it’s clear that the wheels, already shaky during RO’s production, came off with TLJ. TFA evidently had a trouble free production and launch, but after watching LF and Kennedy in action I’ve come to think TFA was all on JJ/Bad Robot Productions and LF really is that troubled an organization. Part of that is structural, because they seem to be pressured to put out far too many movies without adequate time for conception and development. Whatever my issues with Kennedy she is a veteran producer with a lot of hits to her name, and while I want her to step down I also can’t help but wonder, if someone with experience like hers couldn’t hack it–who can?

But yeah, whatever the hell is going on in LF it’s clear Reylowbait is not the moneymaker shippers claim it is. I agree with you that’s all it was, bait, and Making Star Wars About White Guys Again turned out not to be a viable strategy.

Box Office: ‘Black Panther’ Should Terrify Every Hollywood Studio

diversehighfantasy:

I like the original headline: “Black Panther” has become Hollywood’s worst nightmare.”

“Black Panther is so big, so good and so ‘one size fits all’ in its appeal that it has turned an entire slate of would-be blockbusters into counterprogramming.” That’s excellence baby!

Box Office: ‘Black Panther’ Should Terrify Every Hollywood Studio

thelastjedicritical:

devillikeme:

kingofjakku:

Opinion: In the short term, 1.3 billion for The Last Jedi makes it look like it won big again. But it really didn’t, and they are clearly stumbling with the results. This video perfectly explains why.

The movie is a financial failure beyond what they expected. Numbers don’t lie. Damage control is at an all-time high with the Star Wars franchise, now with the upcoming release of “Solo” and the decreased anticipation for Episode IX.

It’s so important to remember that money talks. This video will help you understand why they’ve been much more aggressive this time around on buying this episode for the “feature-length” documentary, additional bonus features and for the sake of “collecting it”. They can insult and reduce the unhappy fans all they want, but at the end of the day you will always have the high ground 😉 as a consumer if you were truly displeased with it.

Boost this if you are critical of TLJ.

I’ve been saying this since the box office locked in but I’m not good with numbers and this is a great job of showing how the movie failed financially. 

And there is another thing I’d like to point out: there were quite a few movies just last year and now with BP there will be another who have made similar amounts of money at the Box Office. This is nothing special for a blockbuster anymore, wheras TFA was special, it was in another league. This position was lost by TLJ.

So logically Disney/LF should now try everything in their power to stop this downwards trend. And that means they can’t continue like this …

What the video says about the new characters is harsh. But it is the truth. Rey is now bland, Kylo is bland, Finn and Poe were turned into jokes and no one cares about Rose … so how do you sell these characters? Bc everybody else is dead!!

And Kathleen Kennedy still has a job at LucasFilm why?

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

‘Black Panther’ Projected for $60 Million Opening in China

When Black Panther premieres in theaters in the People’s Republic of China, analysts predict it will make between $50 million and $60 million on its opening weekend, potentially bowing out between $100 million to $120 million, according to a report from Deadline… .

The film has already performed beyond expectations in international markets, and is tracking well in the Middle Kingdom.

It has outsold advance ticket figures for Spider-Man: Homecoming by 30 percent. That movie made $71 million before closing its theatrical run in China.

You know what this means, right? Once it opens in China Black Panther could top The Avengers as the highest-grossing Marvel movie, and by the time it closes could threaten The Force Awakens and even Titanic.
‘Black Panther’ Projected for $60 Million Opening in China