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'Star Wars' Franchise Crosses $4 Billion, Eclipsing Disney's Lucasfilm Price (hollywoodreporter.com)
Combined, Disney and Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: The Force Awakens have surpassed $4.06 billion in ticket sales at the worldwide box office. That's more than what Disney paid to buy George Lucas' Star Wars franchise. From the Hollywood Reporter: While an interesting benchmark, it doesn't, of course, account for the hundreds of millions spent to produce and market the trio of films, or the fact that Disney splits box-office grosses with theater owners. Conversely, Disney has minted additional money from lucrative ancillary revenue streams, merchandising sales and theme park attractions. Opening in North America on Dec. 15, The Last Jedi zoomed past the $900 million mark on Thursday, finishing the day with $934.2 million globally, including $464.6 million domestically and $469.6 internationally (it doesn't land in China until Jan. 5). The sequel to The Force Awakens was directed by Rian Johnson, and has dominated the Christmas corridor. The Last Jedi will jump the $1 billion mark over New Year's weekend on its way to becoming the top-grossing 2017 release, eclipsing the $1.264 billion earned by fellow Disney title Beauty and the Beast. In December 2015, filmmaker J.J. Abrams' The Force Awakens shattered numerous records on its way to grossing $2.068 billion globally, including an all-time best $936.7 million in North America, not accounting for inflation.
i bet all that money has evaporated somewhere to show a loss on the balance sheet seeing as Harry Potter, order of the phoenix took $612m across all formats but apparantly made a $167m loss
http://deadline.com/2010/07/studio-shame-even-harry-potter-pic-loses-money-because-of-warner-bros-phony-baloney-accounting-51886/
I'm honestly now not sure if JJ or Lucas is worse. George Lucas, for all his (myriad) faults was at least original. JJ took the original trilogy and just put it in a blender and hit frappe. What came out was Star Wars for millennials.
Empire vs Rebels
Empire/First Order vs Resistance
Force sensitive struggles to find himself on a journey to fulfill his birthright accompanied by cute droid.
Force sensitive struggles to find herself on a journey to fulfill her birthright accompanied by cute droid.
Evil shadowy overlord who in the past persuaded angsty rebellious jedi to betray the Jedi and destroy them, turning angsty rebellious jedi into evil sidekick.
Evil shadowy overlord who persuaded angsty rebellious jedi to betray the Jedi and destroy them, turning angsty rebellious jedi into evil sidekick.
Have to destroy death star in final battle to save rebel base.
Have to destroy death planet in final battle to save rebel base.
Yawn.
Sure, the more control Lucas got, the worse his films got. Hands down awful. But at least the stupidity was his. I have to give him that. What was JJ's excuse?
The first three movies had less than 1 minute of dialogue by female characters other then Leia, who was damseled twice and the second time in a bikini. Now we have some movies with some women in better roles and it's an all out assault on men, an insult to the entire gender.
Han Solo was literally Objectified. Luke needed saving on several occasions. Leia was always the leader. Her capture and display showed the depravity and barbarousness of the outer rim, it was a different place perfect for escapism. The franchise would have died in the 80's without it. The prequels showed women senators, queens, civilization in the Republic. The latest went back to the outer rim and we get...a high end casino with a police force that cares about parking regulations?
Let's look at the characters of The Last Jedi.
Rose's sister: Dies a hero.
Rey: Beats everybody. Saves Luke from his passive self.
Leia: Space superwoman. Unkillable. Everyone worships her.
Rose: Saves Fin from himself. Makes Poe's plan possible. Saves animals in pens. Saves Fin.
Holdo: Keeps everybody in the dark. Acts like a traitor. Saves the day.
Hux: A complete failure through and through. Evil.
Poe: Reprimanded by Leia and Holdo. Every decision he makes is a mistake. Needs to be saved by Holdo's plan.
Kylo: Saved by then beaten by Rey. Evil.
Fin: Coward. Runs and needs to be saved by Rose.
Luke: Coward, isolationist. Beaten by Rey then saved by Rey.
Codebreaker: Traitorous. Thief. Evil.
Snoke: "Dies" like a bitch. Evil.
Every woman a hero. Every man a fuckup that needs saving by a woman. Any man that has no woman to save them is evil.
Yeah, it sounds like an insult to an entire gender. Especially coming from a franchise designed from the start to appeal to teenage boys, young men, and have been kept alive for decades by billions of dollars in disproportionate spending by them.
Lighthearted note: best scene in the film was when BB-8 pretended to be a mouse droid (MSE-6).