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 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
When Americans start having good things to say about the EU, I want to reach for a gun!

Hey look, the EU is helping us see what the US would look like devolving into a modern Civil War.

Thanks EU! We can always count on you!

...I can see why you'd want to live in the great state of Frazzled now...

 WarOne wrote:

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
When Americans start having good things to say about the EU, I want to reach for a gun!

Hey look, the EU is helping us see what the US would look like devolving into a modern Civil War.

Thanks EU! We can always count on you!

...I can see why you'd want to live in the great state of Frazzled now...

And now I'm having fun reading it as Extended Universe! It's the gift that keeps on giving.

 htj wrote:
Is anyone else having as much fun as me because they keep reading EU as European Union by mistake? It makes for some jolly amusing posts, let me tell you.

I particularly liked the idea of European Union 'fanbois.' Although I'm willing to bet the Conservatives wouldn't.

Hey-ooooo.

What is EU in this context?

Ewok Union

 WarOne wrote:

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
When Americans start having good things to say about the EU, I want to reach for a gun!

Hey look, the EU is helping us see what the US would look like devolving into a modern Civil War.

Thanks EU! We can always count on you!

...I can see why you'd want to live in the great state of Frazzled now...

You summoned Frazzled. er what?

 Frazzled wrote:

 htj wrote:
Is anyone else having as much fun as me because they keep reading EU as European Union by mistake? It makes for some jolly amusing posts, let me tell you.

I particularly liked the idea of European Union 'fanbois.' Although I'm willing to bet the Conservatives wouldn't.

Hey-ooooo.

What is EU in this context?

Extended Universe.

Folks at work thought this was the beginning of the end. I had this to say...

From Chad Vader (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDC05B184CF339B19)

Make sure you choose the right one...

Looks like Disney is already making changes to the films.

What has Lucas given us recently? Indiana Jones & the crystal skulls, and he butchered Red Tails. Before that?



Let's face facts while Lucas can come up with some great original material he's hasn't been able to make good movies in decades.

Q What has Disney done recently?

A The bought out Marvel Studios.

Q What did they do with Marvel Studio?

A They left them the feth alone. Disney learned from Pixar that Pixar does it's best work when left alone, and as long as they keep grossing buckets of money leave Pixar alone. Apply that lesson to Marvel Studios and what do you get?



Lucasfilm was just saved from George Lucas.

I've been waiting all my life to see this happen, now my ultimate Disneyland dream ride will finally be possible.

Mr Toad's Death Star Adventure!

 d-usa wrote:
Sorry, the John Carter mention had me confused and thinking that you were talking about "new movies for merch" as a new concept. Sorry for that on my part.

Not a problem, I probably didn't make the two things as distinct as I should have.

My point was just that, in looking to expand Disney's merchandising ability, the company hatched on a scheme to release a handful of big budget, high profile movies, and not have the traditional smaller releases around it. The first movie in that new business model was John Carter... and it's woeful performance probably ended that business model right then and there. So instead they're just buying up an established merchandising machine in Star Wars... anything other stuff that comes along with that is gravy.

But in the end I think we are just arguing over a minor detail. They got two things: A lot of production facilities and resources, and movie franchices with merchandising volume. I think all we really disagree on is which part of the deal was the meat and which part was the potatoes and gravy.

Yeah, that's the point up for debate. And I'm saying merchandising rights are a way bigger deal than production facilities. Especially Star Wars merchandising rights.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 azazel the cat wrote:
All joking aside, merch is the core of this purchase. Nothing compares to merchandise rights. The box office and DVD sales of the Star Wars franchise probably amount to less than 10% of the empire. The rest comes from merchandise and licensing rights.

Modern movie franchises are aimed at maximizing merchandising; the box office really doesn't mean much anymore. The film itself is generall considered just a commercial for the toy lines now, and it's been this way for at least a decade.

EDIT: ILM wasn't even the gravy. Merch rights were the meat, Lucasarts was the potatoes, the film franchises were the gravy and ILM was maybe the inedible garnish that makes the plate look nice.

Exactly.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
I do blame the people!!

Well alright then

Games Workshop have been doing it for years. I did say 'if' I ever open a game store. The key word is if. If I become POTUS, if I marry Kelly Brook. If... You get the general gist.

My answer was more than a little harsh, sorry about that.

The end result will probably be average to mediocre films, that get shot down by critics, but make millions in action figure/lego sales. French cinema it will not be.

Pretty much.

Meanwhile, have you noticed how much crowd pleasing pap the French have been putting out in the last couple of years. It seems even they got bored with complex adult relationships where everyone sighs all the time and spouts little metaphors.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 schadenfreude wrote:
Let's face facts while Lucas can come up with some great original material he's hasn't been able to make good movies in decades.

Q What has Disney done recently?

A The bought out Marvel Studios.

Q What did they do with Marvel Studio?

A They left them the feth alone. Disney learned from Pixar that Pixar does it's best work when left alone, and as long as they keep grossing buckets of money leave Pixar alone. Apply that lesson to Marvel Studios and what do you get?

Lucasfilm was just saved from George Lucas.

Sure, but there's a basic difference in what is being bought. Marvel had an established, still successful creative team with a bunch of stories that were ripe for telling on the big screen. The last great Star Wars story was told three decades ago, and I'd be buggered if I can think of anything that would even half work as a new story.

Now, I agree with you that 'oh no that's the death of Star Wars I don't want no Mickey Mouse in my Star Wars' is equally wrong and just non-sensical, but I think any hope that this will lead to new Star Wars movies that are anything like the success Disney has had with Marvel is wildly optimistic.

I liked John Carter of Mars...

Kanluwen wrote:I liked John Carter of Mars...

Hey! hey, guys! Over here! We found that one guy! He's here!

 Kanluwen wrote:
I liked John Carter of Mars...

Since I haven't seen the film I'm not sure how I feel about this statement.

 Kanluwen wrote:
I liked John Carter of Mars...

A fair few people did. Now putting aside whether you're wrong and your taste is bad and you should feel bad (but seriously, you're wrong and your taste is bad and you should feel bad ), the film didn't do what Disney needed it to do. It made $280 million at the box office, which is actually not that bad on a production budget of $250 million (put it down as a hefty loss, but hardly a catastropic one), but there was just no related sales.

The problem actually started to show up a year before release - Disney was shopping the movie around at the various toy trade fairs, and getting no interest. The toy companies could see what Disney had missed - no-one was going to buy action figures of Taylor Kitsch and those monster designs.

Now compare that to The Phantom Menace. That film genuinely sucked, underperformed its box office from early estimates by many hundreds of millions (though still made a whopping big profit)... but the real story is in the sales afterwards. Look at all the computer games that were tied in to it, look at the Darth Maul masks, and the plastic light sabers, and the action figures. That's real money.

There's also a massive chunk of money in all the film production assets that Lucas Film, Skywalker Sound. ILM, Lucas Arts, etc hold as a collective.

The toy fancise is pretty epic, but what Lucas Film signifies in the film industtry is absolutely titanic and gives Disney massive reach beyond just Star Wars. Between Disney and the Lucas production elements there aren't too many films that were already tied to them, now by bringing everything in house they are going to literally be profiting from every action or special effects driven movie which long term is worth far more than the inital 4 billion.

It's an incredible move and is going to make Disney insane amounts of money independant of Star Wars.



Also I liked John Carter, most people expected it to be a mordern action movie when it's entire concept is to be a throwback homage to the 30s-40s. I understand why most people don't care for it, but it's a great movie if you follow film history.

 paulson games wrote:
There's also a massive chunk of money in all the film production assets that Lucas Film, Skywalker Sound. ILM, Lucas Arts, etc hold as a collective.

The toy fancise is pretty epic, but what Lucas Film signifies in the film industtry is absolutely titanic and gives Disney massive reach beyond just Star Wars. Between Disney and the Lucas production elements there aren't too many films that were already tied to them, now by bringing everything in house they are going to literally be profiting from every action or special effects driven movie which long term is worth far more than the inital 4 billion.

It's an incredible move and is going to make Disney insane amounts of money independant of Star Wars.

No, seriously, numbers matter. Star Wars merchandise grosses $1.5 billion a year. The production elements of Lucasarts aren't anywhere near that.

I think you're confusing the merchandising with other figures, based on Bloomberg's article: "If released today, the last three “Star Wars” films would have each generated $1.5 billion on average when adjusting for inflation, the expanded movie market. Sales of related merchandise will total about $215 million this year, and Lucasfilm earned $550 million in operating profit in 2005, when the last movie, “Revenge of the Sith,” came out, Disney said in its statement."

Big differance between 215 million for the merch and the 1.5 billion you are claming. (NY Times also cites the yearly merch total as being $215mil)

The $550 million in profit came from one movie. (and ILM is a seperate entity not calculated in that figure) If you look at the average big budget special effects movies drop 80 million or more into special effects, much of that budget goes to ILM. If ILM does several films a year thats a huge chunk of additional profit they make off record setters movies like Titanic, Avatar, etc. Plus it also slashes their in house costs for Disney films, like the Pirates movies for example.

The purchase of Lucasfilm and ILM gives them a huge indirect reach into the profits of future blockbuster movies regardless of if they are under the disney label or not.

Disney, Lucasfilm and ILM by extension have been basically printing money together for a long time. Now that George is getting up there in years it makes total sense they are bring everything under one roof so it doesn't get split up by his retirement or passing. If they can keep their quality at where it is or better then it's a good thing for the industry. If they loosen their grip and let things slide and get lazy it'll have very negative effects on the entire film industry. That's why this merger is such a big deal.

@sebster, No worries.

Somebody on the radio was saying that Disney haven't had an original idea in their entire history. Their early success was built on fairy tales, they took over Pixal and Marvel, and now they've got Star Wars. There's a lesson here...

I have one word to say: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
@sebster, No worries.

Somebody on the radio was saying that Disney haven't had an original idea in their entire history. Their early success was built on fairy tales, they took over Pixal and Marvel, and now they've got Star Wars. There's a lesson here...

True, Disney buys other people's original ideas.

Although Mickey Mouse and all his friends are original. The only original ideas Disney will ever have, but thats ok.


The company really went downhill after Walt died.

Grey Templar, Walt was a racist and an anti-semite! Modern Disney has gone to great lengths to airbrush him out of their history If anything, some people at Disney were glad the day he died!

I agree with what rockerbikie said. Let's have a collective noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Some fantastic memes are coming out of this though

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Grey Templar, Walt was a racist and an anti-semite! Modern Disney has gone to great lengths to airbrush him out of their history If anything, some people at Disney were glad the day he died!

I agree with what rockerbikie said. Let's have a collective noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Yes, let's get angry over something when we haven't even seen the results.

I keep going from hope to terror



This is terror

I actually like that.

But maybe this one will be more to your liking:

I actually like the original image I posted, it's well done... the second image appeals directly to lizard brain

Mickey did a Convoy before

 Commander Cain wrote:
The only image I have in my head after reading that is one of Mickey Mouse wielding a lightsaber...

Next time Mickey will wield Parabellum pistol.

 Cheesecat wrote:

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Grey Templar, Walt was a racist and an anti-semite! Modern Disney has gone to great lengths to airbrush him out of their history If anything, some people at Disney were glad the day he died!

I agree with what rockerbikie said. Let's have a collective noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Yes, let's get angry over something when we haven't even seen the results.

This is the same company which said the Jonas Brothers and Highschool Musical are ok... nothing good will come out of it.

And the Jonas Brothers and High School Musicals are a pretty big success, in the market that they target.