Discussion What if Episode VII is a critical and commercial failure?

and this.

Episode 7 really needs to kick ass or it will quite literally cost disney one or two billion dollars on the subsequent outings.

 

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They've built up the hype to the point where it's impossible to fail financially. Seriously, first the Disney purchase and then the sequel trilogy announcements... I've never heard so many people talk about Star Wars before.

 

A commercial flop will never happen. For all the beating TPM took when it came out, it still made another $50 million when it came out for 3D. Plus Abrams already showed you what it's gonna look like. Anyone here see his Star Trek reboot-was more of a Star Wars movie than a Trek flick. I walked out of the theatre thinking I just saw a Star Wars movie set in the Star Trek universe

 

I hope he doesn't use that stupid distracting lense flare effect. :-( But in spite of that, I liked the ST reboot. I am confident he can pull it off.

Commercial success or failure, all I care about is will I like it.

 

I remember that. It was a charity run and I saw it twice during that week or two week period, making my total theatrical viewings 10 or 11.

 

the prequels sucked, but they were still successful. Disney will not fail us.....although "John Carter" wasn't exactly amazing.

 

Yes it was.

 

Then they will do something different when it comes time to make the one after that. Given the size of the investment Disney made into this, they aren't going to stop no matter what happens with the first batch of movies.

I think I'm more worried about these spinoffs, anyway. They make me more nervous.

 

The great thing/curse of Star Wars is that the will always make money, no matter how times in a row their creators completely botch them. I don't think you have to worry about them being commercial failures. Add to that the "at least it wasn't made by George Lucas" factor and I think you might even have critics giving it a fair chance.

 

I can't see Episode VII being a commercial failure. A critical failure? Anything is possible but I have great faith in Disney, Kennedy, and JJ Abrams to make it great.

 

I have faith in Abrams, I think he did a great job with the last Trek movie. I think he will breathe some life into Wars and make it more fun and kinetic, like the OT was.

 

Star Trek 2009 was basically the Star Wars version of Star Trek to me. Its kinda comforting to have a Star Wars fan thats also a great director doing a Star Wars film.

 

I think he's going to do great

 

I think the ST will do amazingly in the box office, no matter what...

Star Wars is like HSBC Bank: even after being discovered to have provided funding for companies that helped launder money for terrorists (and STILL not hardly be punished):

It's simply too big to fail!

Now, I didn't intend to paint such a negative picture of Star Wars. but my point is that even after the critical reaction to the PT, it was still amazingly successful-because it is still Star Wars!

 

If you think hype is built up now, wait until 2015-when we start seeing cardboard cutouts of characters in Walmart and freaking aliens With lightsabers on your boxes of cheez its!!!

Star Wars will be shoved in our faces like never before!! but I do agree that will all contribute to ensuring its success.

 

I don't think it's possible for SW to fail at this point. It's too important in pop culture to be a complete failure. Sure, it may suck in the eyes of most fans, but box office receipts will make up for that.

 

It will be successful financially. It can be a critical failure if they kill off too many of the iconic characters and do not have a believable plot. They need a compelling villain and a believable threat to the galaxy. The story should not be predictable.

 

There is virtually no chance it will be a commercial failure based on the one sure circumstance around of Episode 7: it will be a Star Wars movie. On the name alone, the chance of commercial failure is a small fraction of 1%, without even taking into account who has been selected to be involved in the movie (in terms of the actors, director, screenwriter, etc.)

There is 10-20% chance it will be a critical failure. It might also land in the mediocre to good range (like the PT did critically, TPM and AOTC being mediocre, ROTS being good but not great, I am talking strictly critical response); I'd say there is a 40-60% chance of that

As far as SW fans, many are going to find a reason to hate this movie no matter how good, SW fans are a curious bunch. One would think being a SW fans would induce a proclivity to like all things SW (at least more so than others who are not SW fans, that would seem to be the logical way of things), when just the opposite is true; people seem to enjoy being butthurt and playing the astute and crotchety critic of anything Star Wars that is not the OT. Go figure.

 

I think we will all be pleasantly surprised to find as this shakes out that the butthurt only applies to the PT. I'll go further. I think we will find that if the new movies are able to be critical successes, all of the butthurt over the PT will be, if not forgiven, at least forgotten.

 

I'm inclined to disagree - while SW may be somewhat more prone to it then most, this kind of behavior is pretty much inherent to fandoms, especially in the age of the Internet. Perhaps the "butthurt" over the PT specifically will fade, but I don't think there's ever going to be a moment where everyone calling themselves a fan of Star Wars will be able to join together and sing kumbaya. That's just how fandoms work.

To take just one example, no matter how the ST ultimately handles the EU, it's going to leave some people very unhappy.

 

I didn't consider the butthurt that will inevitably come from the EU corners of fandom. Otherwise I agree. I don't think that the PT haters and apologists will meet in the middle, merely that the haters will simply quit caring if there are a set of good movies that redeem the franchise.

 

Right now, there is a stigma which I have observed among the non-fans that VII is a blatant cash-grab by Lucas and will suck. Whether the film can overcome this will determine public opinion moreso than the quality of the film. If public opinion wanes, the franchise will eventually fail. It won't happen to VII, or even VIII, but it will eventually happen.

 

It won't be a critical and commercial failure, I'll tell you that. Even if it's a critical failure, it will sell tickets and put butts in seats. Even if it falls short of box office expectations, it will still get its sequel.

 

The thing is, I don

I wouldn't frame it that way. "Apologists" would imply something very different than what fans of the PT feel about those movies. There is great passion on both sides, and it is a pretty even split; look at the debates on this site and others. There are a fair amount of younger folks that got into SW via the PT, and feel quite passionate about those movies; while you have the diehard OT fans that have an equal passion about the PT in the opposite direction.

I don't think most will agree on subjective points like the movies "redeeming the franchise." What the other guy said about fandom in the age of the internet is true. The latest Star Trek was a good example. The movie was a huge critical and popular success; 95% of fans and critics alike gave it a thumbs up, look at ANY site that counts for the facts. Yet, the fanboys were not happy, it slaughtered their sacred cows, no matter what good points the movie had. I think Episode 7 will be similar in that way, fandom is a divisive thing these days.