Disney to acquire Lucasfilm

[Elfdart]

Was the sale necessary? How bad were Lucasfilm's financial straits? I know Redtails bombed, and so did the TPM 3d re-release.

The TPM re-release earned over $43 million and cost very little to transfer to 3D. Red Tails cost $58 million and earned over $49 million. At that rate, Lucas could make a hundred flops like Red Tails without having to worry about going broke.

Between his retirement, putting Kathleen Kennedy in charge, pulling the plug on building a studio at Grady Ranch and now this, I wonder if maybe Lucas is in bad health and trying to put his affairs in order. He's and old man with diabetes after all.

[Darksider]

43 million might've been a high profit margin for a 3d re-release, but it's an absolutely atrocious showing for a SW film. Especially given all the marketing they did for it. Commercials, fast food toy deals, and such. TPM wasn't the most loved of the franchise, so i'm willing to see how the next ones do, (if they're even still releasing them after this deal that is) but it doesn't look good.

[Elfdart]

Another thing: Why not sell?

Lucas has already done everything with Star Wars and Indiana Jones he set out to do -and then some. Why not just take the cash and retire?

[Havok]

A franchise like Star Wars doesn't just lose 26 Billion dollars.
The value of the physical actual companies themselves may be what the 4 Billion covers.
Perhaps Lucas gets to keep licensing rights to everything that he made pre Disney and they get anything new.

I am interested to see the details of the deal.

[LMSx]

Was the sale necessary? How bad were Lucasfilm's financial straits? I know Redtails bombed, and so did the TPM 3d re-release.

The TPM re-release earned over $43 million and cost very little to transfer to 3D. Red Tails cost $58 million and earned over $49 million. At that rate, Lucas could make a hundred flops like Red Tails without having to worry about going broke.

Between his retirement, putting Kathleen Kennedy in charge, pulling the plug on building a studio at Grady Ranch and now this, I wonder if maybe Lucas is in bad health and trying to put his affairs in order. He's and old man with diabetes after all.

This does seem inevitable, in the sense that if Lucas didn't do this, when he croaked I doubt Lucasfilm would have lasted long before some private equity assholes swept in and sold off the profitable parts.

[Darksider]

That's true. It's just that so much SW stuff has failed financially in recent years. Sales of the books and comics were down last time I checked. Not sure if they're so low that there's no more profit in it, but they are down. Even before the TOR debacle, Lucasarts flopped several games so bad they had to cancel Battlefront 3 and TFU 3. It just seems like the SW franchise is trending downwards financially as well as creatively these days. I just can't believe it's really worth 30$ billion.

[Pelranius]

Perhaps Lucas gets to keep licensing rights to everything that he made pre Disney and they get anything new.

If so, would that preclude the release of the Original Trilogy (as in its 1977-1983 theatrical release) on Blue Ray?

[Havok]

http://247wallst.com/2012/02/10/the-for ... Insider%29

That's the 30billion worth article in question.

Now I am no economics major, but it looks like it is using previous merchandising sales figures to value the franchise. So... "It has made 30 billion dollars so that is what it is worth!"
I don't think it works that way.

[Elfdart]

43 million might've been a high profit margin for a 3d re-release, but it's an absolutely atrocious showing for a SW film. Especially given all the marketing they did for it. Commercials, fast food toy deals, and such. TPM wasn't the most loved of the franchise, so i'm willing to see how the next ones do, (if they're even still releasing them after this deal that is) but it doesn't look good.

Except Lucas doesn't pay Burger King or others to do commercial tie-ins: they pay him. I'd be surprised if they paid more than $10-15 million total on the re-release.

This does seem inevitable, in the sense that if Lucas didn't do this, when he croaked I doubt Lucasfilm would have lasted long before some venture capital assholes swept in and sold off the profitable parts.

Or his heirs and the tax collectors carved it up. Now he just has to worry about a huge bundle of cash and some stocks, which are much easier to negotiate than creative properties.

[Elfdart]

Don't give me shit dawg, just because your black heart has never loved something.

It's the George Lucas part... the Disney part. I never in a million years thought this would happen. I'm not sure if I am happy or astonished or excited or what.

Maybe I am worried that they have a golden opportunity to make the brand relevant and are going to just go status quo.

Now the Lucas-haters will get what they wanted: Star Wars by committee. The idea of making a Star Wars movie that isn't created by George Lucas is like a new Beatles album without John, Paul, George or Ringo.

To me the most worrying part is the bit about putting out a new SW movie every two to three years. That's really going to make the franchise get stale real fast.

Like back in 1977, 1980 and 1983?

See James Bond: a fat cash cow but a creative black hole.

[Captain Seafort]

See James Bond: a fat cash cow but a creative black hole.

I take it you haven't seen any of Craig's films. The later Brosnan films (Die Another Day in particular) went downhill fast, but the new ones are bloody good.

[Arawn Fenn]

TFN is having a freaking seizure because of this, and I was in the middle of something over there.

That's what I'm trying to tell you, kid. It ain't there. It's been totally blown away. Destroyed...by the Empire!

[LMSx]

Ars asks around the implications for fan productions and copyright

"It's time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers," said George Lucas in announcing the sale of his company today. But there's a significant group of filmmakers unlikely to fare well now that the Star Wars franchise is Disney-owned: the amateur "unauthorized" filmmakers, who enjoyed relatively liberal copyright policies while they were making remixes and fan fiction based on the Star Wars universe.

The Star Wars movies practically created their own genre of fan movies and fan fiction. Since 2002, Lucasfilm has actually hosted "Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards," offering recognition and prizes to fans who make their own films using Star Wars characters and settings.

Many of those works were spoofs or commentary set in the Star Wars world. One of the most popular early fan movies was Troops, a knockoff of the TV show Cops. In the movie, Imperial Storm Troopers irritably scour the rough neighborhoods of Tatooine looking for various types of lawbreakers. (Droid thieves, of course, feature prominently.)

....

Certainly, Disney fans who make their own a movie featuring Mickey Mouse, are more likely to get a cease-and-desist letter from a Disney lawyer than an award. After all, it was Disney who famously lobbied Congress to extend copyright terms in 1998, so much so that some dubbed the new law the Mickey Mouse Protection Act.

Perhaps no single company more than Disney bears more responsibility for the sorry state of the US public domain, which hasn't seen any significant works added to it in decades. For the most part, culture after 1923 has been frozen in a state of private ownership—mostly owned by the large media corporations that began rising at about that time.

[Havok]

See James Bond: a fat cash cow but a creative black hole.

I take it you haven't seen any of Craig's films. The later Brosnan films (Die Another Day in particular) went downhill fast, but the new ones are bloody good.

Good yes, but creative?

Have they done anything new or have they just redressed old ideas?

That is what ED is saying. Now there is every possibility that there are millions of writers out there that have been waiting for the chance to jump all over Star Wars and actually do something new with it, but at what point does something so new and creative become not Star Wars as we know it. That is the catch22 of branding, where if it strays too much it just isn't the same thing anymore so the fans won't want it, so you have to curb creativity to keep the brand.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Creatively, neither here nor there; I doubt Disney could do worse than Episode 1, and maybe a lot better- remember (for those of you who actually saw it) John Carter of Mars? It may have flopped, but I don't know why- it near as dammit was a Star Wars film, all you'd need to do would be to metaphorically file off the serial numbers, and a better one than most of the prequels at that. Not to praise Disney- if you want really good Star Wars, dig up and clone Akira Kurosawa- but the prequels were that bad.

It's Disney's lawyers that are likely to bring the suck, especially to fan sites like TFN and, well, here. You can't look at that company and tell me they are not extremely jealous of their intellectual property, especially that they lifted from other people to begin with. Not looking forward to finding out how that's going to go.

[Havok]

Ars asks around the implications for fan productions and copyright

"It's time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers," said George Lucas in announcing the sale of his company today. But there's a significant group of filmmakers unlikely to fare well now that the Star Wars franchise is Disney-owned: the amateur "unauthorized" filmmakers, who enjoyed relatively liberal copyright policies while they were making remixes and fan fiction based on the Star Wars universe.

The Star Wars movies practically created their own genre of fan movies and fan fiction. Since 2002, Lucasfilm has actually hosted "Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards," offering recognition and prizes to fans who make their own films using Star Wars characters and settings.

Many of those works were spoofs or commentary set in the Star Wars world. One of the most popular early fan movies was Troops, a knockoff of the TV show Cops. In the movie, Imperial Storm Troopers irritably scour the rough neighborhoods of Tatooine looking for various types of lawbreakers. (Droid thieves, of course, feature prominently.)

....

Certainly, Disney fans who make their own a movie featuring Mickey Mouse, are more likely to get a cease-and-desist letter from a Disney lawyer than an award. After all, it was Disney who famously lobbied Congress to extend copyright terms in 1998, so much so that some dubbed the new law the Mickey Mouse Protection Act.

Perhaps no single company more than Disney bears more responsibility for the sorry state of the US public domain, which hasn't seen any significant works added to it in decades. For the most part, culture after 1923 has been frozen in a state of private ownership—mostly owned by the large media corporations that began rising at about that time.

So what? Most fan made shit is shit.
I don't see Disney jumping down people's throat over Marvel stuff.
I see no reason why Disney would go into the Star Wars world and shut down the fan base... I mean that is just patently stupid. Disney is not stupid.

[Elfdart]

See James Bond: a fat cash cow but a creative black hole.

I take it you haven't seen any of Craig's films. The later Brosnan films (Die Another Day in particular) went downhill fast, but the new ones are bloody good.

I saw Casino Royale on DVD because Bond films had become so godawful that I had watched two of them in the previous 20 years, and only at the behest of friends. Casino Royale was the only Bond film of the last 30 years that I would willingly pay to see in a theater. That's right -the series had become such a joke that when they did put out a good one I missed it. Steven Seagal movies had a more favorable ratio of pearls to swine.

If that's what's in store for Star Wars, I'll pass.

[LMSx]

The quality of fan material isn't the issue, and I think how Disney treats Marvel is only relevant if Marvel was "nice" like Lucasfilm was before. I'm not a comics geek but my understanding is Marvel had been awfully dickish to a lot of profitable superhero's creators before as far as contracts and who owns what.

I think how this deal puts Disney and Lucasfilm's approaches to copyright in contrast is at least useful.

[RogueIce]

The written and drawn EU is just utter garbage and this is where the problem lies that I hope Disney can fix.

How has that worked out for Marvel?

(No really honest question, since I don't follow comics anymore)

For me I'm rather surprised that George Lucas has sold, just didn't seem like him. I wonder too if there's something in his life that made it seem like a needed thing to do.

Dunno about the copyright hounds of Disney. Again all I can ask is to look and see if they've been death on Marvel fan works or not to compare.

The immediate thing is The Clone Wars and what a (possible) transition to Disney XD would bring. I'm not exactly hopeful there given past experience with that channel but then I haven't watched it for a couple years so maybe it's not too bad. I remember the lower-third ad crap is annoying, do they still do that? And content wise how do the shows make out? Would some of the current stuff on TCW (like the lightsaber stabbings and some of the blaster shots) survive Disney XD's version of BS&P?

I'm not even going to worry about the movies right now, as it's too far into the future that all you can do is guess. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is pretty good though, so I don't see why a new Star Wars Movie Universe (or whatever) can't follow in their footsteps.

As for the EU, meh. It's like the whole Star Trek reboot thing: the books and comics still exist, Disney isn't going around to burn every copy of them. If the "canon" gets rewritten, BFD. Most of it was shit anyway and for me I just operate on a "keep the shit I like, ditch what I hated *goddamn TFU!*" approach when it comes to continuity. New movies won't change that; I'll always cherish The Thrawn Trilogy no matter what the new 'G-Canon' says.

[Havok]

Well to be honest, Disney does make good movies. I mean, their live action stuff is hit or miss, but I think with Star Wars, there is going to be good efforts put behind it, because no matter what, the Disney films are going to be compare to the originals just like the prequels were and they know it. They can't come out of the gate bad on this one. I can see them raiding Pixar and all their other best people to get on this.

Now that I have had time to think about this, yes, an entire Star Wars themed park... I want to go to Dagobah, go on the Millenium Falcon while it is parked in Mos Eisley. I want to go to the Cantina.
Also, the live action show is sure to be pushed up now, which as I said will probably be on ABC now.
A fucking proper video game.

[RogueIce]

Now that I have had time to think about this, yes, an entire Star Wars themed park... I want to go to Dagobah, go on the Millenium Falcon while it is parked in Mos Eisley. I want to go to the Cantina.

Pretty sure there's plenty of space still in Orlando for a Star Wars Galaxy park.

[Elfdart]

Have they done anything new or have they just redressed old ideas?

That is what ED is saying. Now there is every possibility that there are millions of writers out there that have been waiting for the chance to jump all over Star Wars and actually do something new with it, but at what point does something so new and creative become not Star Wars as we know it. That is the catch22 of branding, where if it strays too much it just isn't the same thing anymore so the fans won't want it, so you have to curb creativity to keep the brand.

Not only that, but a truly creative filmmaker isn't going to be very interested in hopping on a franchise bandwagon; he or she will be trying to create their own science fiction. The best thing that ever happened to George Lucas was being denied access to Flash Gordon, and the best thing that happened to Spielberg was being rejected by Cubby Broccoli.

[LMSx]

I wonder for how long the Special Editions took wind out of the sails for a reboot? Now that the IP is nested in Disney's warm busom, I would think that 10-15 years out there's going to be some antsy shareholders who want to see it reinvented.

[Havok]

The written and drawn EU is just utter garbage and this is where the problem lies that I hope Disney can fix.

How has that worked out for Marvel?

(No really honest question, since I don't follow comics anymore)

I'm not sure, but I don't think people really hold Marvel in as much contempt as the Star Wars EU, but in all reality, they probably won't change or touch anything as I don't think they got very heavy handed in Marvel.

[Havok]

I wonder for how long the Special Editions took wind out of the sails for a reboot? Now that the IP is nested in Disney's warm busom, I would think that 10-15 years out there's going to be some antsy shareholders who want to see it reinvented.

There is no reason to reinvent what has been done. Especially with Star Wars. Do you honestly think there is anyone out there that can recreate the magic that the OT captured? It wasn't just the movies, it was the place we were in as a society. It was also the fact that nothing like that had been seen before on screen in that way.

No, Star Wars is a big place just do some new shit and don't even reference the OT/PT unless as legend or as prophecy.