Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

jayrebb · Jan 23, 2018

It was already having problems prior to the release of TLJ.

I'm interested to see if the TLJ ploy for toys works out. I'll be tracking the metrics and sales on this one.

Post TLJ release 2018 below, and its not looking good.

Many TFA toys still on the shelf from 2 years ago. Lack of rarity and demand considered a problem for collectors.

>Spend a whole full length movie, in what used to be an epic trilogy series, trying to sell toys--
>don't sell a single fucking toy.
>drink soymilk

Lithose · Jan 23, 2018

Blakkheim said:
I've about come to the conclusion that Rian Johnson wrote this movie in one afternoon on the back of a used napkin. What a complete cluster fuck. This guy should never be allowed to touch another Star Wars movie.

Rian Johnson Addresses the Absence of The Knights of Ren in The Last Jedi

Johnson’s answer to the conspicuous absence of Kylo Ren’s followers is actually a pretty simple one. Apparently, he felt that the movie was just already too crowded to shoe-horn them in…

“We have a very full movie already there literally was just not room for another element…”

He also addressed the complications of having them be Snoke’s guards, even though he definitely considered it as an option in the beginning…

“I guess I could’ve used them in place of the Praetorian guards but then it would feel like wasting them because all those guards had to die. And if Kylo had some kind of connection to them it would’ve added a complication that wouldn’t have helped the scene… truth is I just didn’t see a place for them in the movie.”

lol, saying this while having that Casino scene in the movie shows a stunning lack of ability to prioritize existing elements in a shared universe and simply play well with other writers and directors. He had literally 45 minutes of completely wasted screen time, and characters (Shrek/Finn), that he could have used for an entire sub plot about the Knights of Ren.

How about the tracking system that can monitor light speed is actually a massive installation on a moon somewhere and its guarded by the Knights of Ren? Finn leads a secret team to try and disable it. No though, lets have Shrek teach Finn how freeing animals makes everything worth it while neglecting slave children. LOL--well, at least it really did work as a modern piece of symbolism for our virtue signaling society.

jayrebb · Jan 23, 2018

Great highlight of the European Press Conference for TLJ. You can see how low on testosterone Rian is here compared to some of the women on stage.

Lanx · Jan 23, 2018

Ewan McGregor Officially Files For Divorce From His Wife of 22 Years
jesus christ obi wan

ah the upgrade

wonder if this is gonna get some woman backlash?

Royal · Jan 23, 2018

jayrebb said:
>Spend a whole full length movie, in what used to be an epic trilogy series, trying to sell toys--
>don't sell a single fucking toy.
>drink soymilk

I wouldn't rely on a guy going around to a few stores and taping merch still on the shelves to draw that conclusion from. He obviously doesn't like the Disney era of Star Wars in general. I suppose that's why he doesn't bring up actual sales figures. Star Wars led all movie brands in toy sales in 2016 and did the same last year. The decline in sales last year that has gotten a decent amount of attention resulted in sales only growing about 3.5% over 2016, not an net decline. And that is probably sales normalizing after inflated demand for toys and other merchandise caused by the franchise returning after a period of dormancy with TFA. Another instance of people failing to account for the outlier status of the movie.

And traditional toy sales in general are down. Toys R' Us didn't declare bankruptcy just because it's Star Wars toys aren't selling. Notice the lack of customers in the stores he was in. I didn't watch both videos all the way through but I didn't see him in either the LEGO section or where the Funko toys were (though some of both brands were mixed in with the other SW toys he showed). Those two are still in high demand.

One thing I agree with him on though is the absurd spectrum of toys they're slapping the SW label on. I don't think that's sustainable. As the brand sinks down to just another blockbuster status on the movie side with the regularity of the releases there is going to be a day of reckoning for toy sales, it just has't happened yet. With that many active toy lines it will be all the uglier.

Jive Turkey · Jan 23, 2018

Lanx said:
Ewan McGregor Officially Files For Divorce From His Wife of 22 Years
jesus christ obi wan

ah the upgrade

wonder if this is gonna get some woman backlash?

Didn't he thank both of them at an awards show recently? (edit: maybe I should have actually read the article)
It's hilarious that the new one just looks like a younger version of the old one

Drakain · Jan 23, 2018

Lithose said:
How about the tracking system that can monitor light speed is actually a massive installation on a moon somewhere and its guarded by the Knights of Ren? Finn leads a secret team to try and disable it.

So... basically Return of the Jedi?

Muurloen · Jan 23, 2018

Drakain said:
So... basically Return of the Jedi?

Siliconemelons · Jan 23, 2018

Jive Turkey said:
Didn't he thank both of them at an awards show recently? (edit: maybe I should have actually read the article)
It's hilarious that the new one just looks like a younger version of the old one

Thats what I was going to say... its not like she is really "better looking" or even different...she is literally just like a younger version.

Haast · Jan 23, 2018

Saw it. I assume spoilers are OK at this point, but just in case

Leia's bizarre force flight recovery scene (I guess?) was one of the most immersion breaking things I've seen in film. In a movie full of space wizards that can deflect speed of light projectiles with a sword, you really have to go above and beyond to get me to think "wait, what the fuck is this bullshit, that can't happen." Bravo, Disney.

It was a fun action movie with a bad script, bad character development, bad pacing and the usual truckload of crass merchandising plays the series is practically famous for at this point. I assume a Transformers or Fast & Furious comparison would be apt, but I've never seen a Transformers movie and haven't seen a F&F since the first and it had much better character development, which should give an idea of how low the bar is set.

Also, Emo Ren is the worst fucking slap in the face to the badass Star Wars villain legacy that James Earl Jones gifted them. Someone forgot to tell Disney that a conflicted villain is supposed to be nuanced, not a blubbering faggot with nerd rage.

jayrebb · Jan 23, 2018

Domnhall cringing with defensive posture, arms crossed tighly across his body, leaning forward and down in to a ducking posture starring straight down, later looking on with disgust and skepticism as the male actor to his right was describing his own sentiment.

Not quite as flagrant as George Lucas laughing off the Han Solo movie, but its up there. Domnhall is definitely a JJ guy and wants to know what happened to his character.

Oblio · Jan 23, 2018

I thought of this analogy on the way to work this morning, apologies in advance to all the #MeToo...

The experience of watching this movie must be akin to the way a girl feels when she regrets hooking up with a guy after the fact.

You wanted to be there, well you thought you wanted to be.
You were excited to be there, but it just wasn't what you expected.
The more you think about it you are uncomfortable with what happened and you are not sure that you gave consent to what happened.

Basically, I am saying I am not sure I gave Disney consent to fuck me.

Kovaks · Jan 23, 2018

Haast said:
Saw it. I assume spoilers are OK at this point, but just in case

Leia's bizarre force flight recovery scene (I guess?) was one of the most immersion breaking things I've seen in film. In a movie full of space wizards that can deflect speed of light projectiles with a sword, you really have to go above and beyond to get me to think "wait, what the fuck is this bullshit, that can't happen." Bravo, Disney.

It was a fun action movie with a bad script, bad character development, bad pacing and the usual truckload of crass merchandising plays the series is practically famous for at this point. I assume a Transformers or Fast & Furious comparison would be apt, but I've never seen a Transformers movie and haven't seen a F&F since the first and it had much better character development, which should give an idea of how low the bar is set.

Also, Emo Ren is the worst fucking slap in the face to the badass Star Wars villain legacy that James Earl Jones gifted them. Someone forgot to tell Disney that a conflicted villain is supposed to be nuanced, not a blubbering faggot with nerd rage.

The F&F moves are much better, they k now what they are and you know what your gonna get, they are a fun ride

Lanx · Jan 23, 2018

mindblown,
when you try to forgive TLJ and think that Luke was milkin that seal, b/c he grew up milking the air for water (moisture farmer)

Vycron · Jan 23, 2018

Oblio said:
I thought of this analogy on the way to work this morning, apologies in advance to all the #MeToo...

The experience of watching this movie must be akin to the way a girl feels when she regrets hooking up with a guy after the fact.

You wanted to be there, well you thought you wanted to be.

You were excited to be there, but it just wasn't what you expected.

The more you think about it you are uncomfortable with what happened and you are not sure that you gave consent to what happened.

Basically, I am saying I am not sure I gave Disney consent to fuck me.

pound me too

Siddar · Jan 23, 2018

Royal said:
I wouldn't rely on a guy going around to a few stores and taping merch still on the shelves to draw that conclusion from. He obviously doesn't like the Disney era of Star Wars in general. I suppose that's why he doesn't bring up actual sales figures. Star Wars led all movie brands in toy sales in 2016 and did the same last year. The decline in sales last year that has gotten a decent amount of attention resulted in sales only growing about 3.5% over 2016, not an net decline. And that is probably sales normalizing after inflated demand for toys and other merchandise caused by the franchise returning after a period of dormancy with TFA. Another instance of people failing to account for the outlier status of the movie.

And traditional toy sales in general are down. Toys R' Us didn't declare bankruptcy just because it's Star Wars toys aren't selling. Notice the lack of customers in the stores he was in. I didn't watch both videos all the way through but I didn't see him in either the LEGO section or where the Funko toys were (though some of both brands were mixed in with the other SW toys he showed). Those two are still in high demand.

One thing I agree with him on though is the absurd spectrum of toys they're slapping the SW label on. I don't think that's sustainable. As the brand sinks down to just another blockbuster status on the movie side with the regularity of the releases there is going to be a day of reckoning for toy sales, it just has't happened yet. With that many active toy lines it will be all the uglier.

I think we can call the star wars toy franchise a train wreck at this point. They still have force awakens item sitting in stores at this point two years and two star wars movies later. I would be interested to see actual sales figures for the line. There was a great deal of hype when the force awakens first released. I'm sure a lot of companies in supply chain took a bath on second waves of force awakens toys. The results for rogue one and last jedi must have been terrible but at least they saw that coming and had time to cut production.

This a franchise that historically has sold two dollar in toys for every dollar the movies have made. I think trying to blow some air back into toy sales is what led to some of the scenes in last jedi. Canto Bite was almost entirely a toy related add on in last jedi. They may be all right with box office performance of the new star wars but the toy sales are a different story.

In the end that was a completely self inflicted wound. They took a monster toy franchise aimed at boys 6-12 and turned it into female centered franchise. There aren't enough Picard's on the internet to adequately display how big of screw up that was from a the toy merchandise perspective.

Royal · Jan 24, 2018

Siddar said:
I think we can call the star wars toy franchise a train wreck at this point. They still have force awakens item sitting in stores at this point two years and two star wars movies later. I would be interested to see actual sales figures for the line. There was a great deal of hype when the force awakens first released. I'm sure a lot of companies in supply chain took a bath on second waves of force awakens toys. The results for rogue one and last jedi must have been terrible but at least they saw that coming and had time to cut production.

This a franchise that historically has sold two dollar in toys for every dollar the movies have made. I think trying to blow some air back into toy sales is what led to some of the scenes in last jedi. Canto Bite was almost entirely a toy related add on in last jedi. They may be all right with box office performance of the new star wars but the toy sales are a different story.

In the end that was a completely self inflicted wound. They took a monster toy franchise aimed at boys 6-12 and turned it into female centered franchise. There aren't enough Picard's on the internet to adequately display how big of screw up that was from a the toy merchandise perspective.

I don't know the actual figures but I suspect that toys are a smaller slice of the overall SW merch pie than they used to be. The fan base has aged and evolved over the 40 years it's existed. The ones who wanted those toys in the 70's and 80's now have their own money to spend on other types of merchandise (though they still buy toys as well).

Frankly I'm amazed that traditional action figures and vehicles are even still a thing for kids today. I had a quite a few SW toys growing but up once the Atari 2600 showed up under the Christmas tree they didn't get too much more use. If I'd have had half the options kids today do I honestly don't think I'd have had very many SW toys to begin with. Hell if even Transformers had been around when I was growing up I'm sure I'd have been way more in to them. I played with my Micronauts more than I did my SW action figures and they were only transformer-ish.

Big Phoenix · Jan 24, 2018

jayrebb said:
Great highlight of the European Press Conference for TLJ. You can see how low on testosterone Rian is here compared to some of the women on stage.

Daisy going for the Sarah Kerrigan look?

Royal · Jan 24, 2018

If you wanna see what chopped TLJ's late legs out from underneath it you need look no further than Jumanji. Sony of all studios is proving that the great steel giant has clay feet, even in December. Solo better make it's money quick this summer.

Lanx · Jan 24, 2018

Royal said:
If you wanna see what chopped TLJ's late legs out from underneath it you need look no further than Jumanji. Sony of all studios is proving that the great steel giant has clay feet, even in December. Solo better make it's money quick this summer.

or they can learn from this and give The Rock a light saber

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

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