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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Lit Well, Lit is our last stronghold which hasn't been penetrated by Disney.

Discussion in 'Literature' started by IG_2000, Mar 22, 2013.

  1. Kev Snowmane

    Kev Snowmane Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Jan 1, 2013
    At the same time, Marvel has cancelled a number of joint ventures with "outside" (ie, non-Disney) companies (W&TXM with Nick, EMH with CN, etc) with the intent that their "successors" , if any, would be done "in house" with other Disney subsidiaries.

    The strategy is pure bean-counter politics. Deny profits to a competitor even if that means denying some profits to yourself as well. Just so long as you are confident that you are in a strong position without those profits.

    Simplified example:

    Company A does joint media project with Company B. The project is a big hit and very profitable.

    Company A is otherwise in good shape, so their share of the profits is "gravy". Company B is struggling, and the profits from the joint venture are allowing it to at least "break even". W/o the profits, Company B is losing money.

    Company A knows two things at this point: 1) there is a market for the venture and 2) losing the venture's profits puts Company B at a SEVERE disadvantage in terms of attracting investors.

    In corporation think, the obvious thing for A to do is cancel the joint venture and either: 1) introduce a follow-on venture done entirely "in house", which allows A to capture ALL of the profits or 2) simply sit on the venture and take a survivable hit so long as that hit hurts B more.

    That is why, for example at Marvel, they canned W&TXM and didn't replace it. The X-universe is actively downplayed in media tie ins because Fox owns the IP rights to most of the X-universe. Marvel doesn't want Fox to get good publicity and/or viewership based on Marvel's promotion of X-properties in multi-media. Mavel doesn't get the profits from a successful X-show, but they really don't need them as the film franchises are making money hand over fist.
     
  2. Arawn_Fenn

    Arawn_Fenn Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jul 2, 2004
    [UncleOwen]That's what I'm afraid of.[/UncleOwen]
     
  3. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Quite, I tend to agree that mass successes aren't easy to create or maintain - there's a great deal of luck involved too, look at Boba Fett.
     
  4. Sable_Hart

    Sable_Hart Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2009
    You have to find it first, Bob.
     
  5. BoromirsFan

    BoromirsFan Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 16, 2010
    Must they really crush my Lit? I came here as this is the last safe haven. I thought that Lit and comics were so insignificant in the grand scheme to Disney.

    I desperately hope Dark Horse keeps their license, and to a lesser extent, Del Rey.

    They have denied the 3D saga and the clone wars. Don't deny me Legacy 2.0 and Dark Times!
     
    Prodigy_Knight and spicer like this.
  6. Esg

    Esg Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    >Armored Adventures still on Nick
     
  7. CT-867-5309

    CT-867-5309 Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jan 5, 2011
    Guys.

    I'm going to sabotage your shields.
     
    MercenaryAce likes this.
  8. beccatoria

    beccatoria Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 8, 2006
    Their last major crossover event was Avengers vs X-Men? Fox owns the rights Spider-man, too, but there doesn't seem to be any sidelining of him as a major character either in the comic books or tie-in material - toys, stage shows, animation, etc.

    I mean, I'm as worried as the next fan about what Disney'll offhandedly decide to do, and "better it stay in-house than go to the competition" is a valid point to raise, because they'd rather Marvel publish SW comics than DH even if DH give the franchise more care and attention/get better sales?

    I just don't see that Spider-man or the X-Men are being particularly downplayed by Marvel right now.
     
    Esg likes this.
  9. DarkEagle

    DarkEagle Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 10, 2009
    I posted this in another thread:

    Disneyland surveying for Star Wars park

    Of particular note:
     
  10. Lazy Storm Trooper

    Lazy Storm Trooper Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 18, 2012
    This deal is getting worse all the time.
     
    tjace likes this.
  11. Mechalich

    Mechalich Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 2, 2010
    While I suspect the point Kev Snowmane has made explains a driver behind the strategic move by Disney it still seems very high risk to me.

    Looking at these things I always come back around to the question of: What if the movies are terrible?

    Star Wars is a huge global brand of course, and the international appeal of science fiction and blockbuster film-making even if the movies are awful (Battleship) means that unless someone really screws up in the marketing department a la John Carter the new films will turn a profit. That being said, the kind of sustained monetization that can be attributed to a true media phenomenon, the enduring Star Wars brand, could be irrevocably damaged by making lousy films. This already happened with the Prequels.

    The presence of an on-going, durable EU, spread across many media forms and multiple points in the timeline helps to buffer Star Wars against the vortex of fanbase drain that any one particular bad product might induce. To give a personal example - over the past year the ongoing general awesomeness of TOR has really kept me interested in Star Wars despite such travesties as FotJ.
     
    Valin__Kenobi and Zorrixor like this.
  12. Zorrixor

    Zorrixor Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 8, 2004
    I keep wondering about that myself.

    If Lucas himself had had faith in his own outline, he wouldn't have sold up, he'd have taken the risk with his own money. But he didn't do that. He took the low risk option, took the money, and ran. That's... not really a good sign, when the guy who had the ideas didn't himself want to risk his own money on it. Consequently, that's why I'm not expecting anything exactly high risk from the sequels. But even playing it safe doesn't always work out. Take Brian Wood's series: the very same people who had been hoping for a reboot have since stopped buying it, not just because it wasn't a reboot, but because they felt they'd seen it all before. But that's what franchise fiction is. It's derivative.

    A Spiderman film will always be a Spiderman film, no matter who's wearing the outfit. If people are bored of Spiderman, then they're bored of Spiderman.

    However, most reboots have at least enjoyed the benefit of a bit of a break. Take Batman. It had been the best part of a decade when Batman Begins came out, but Star Wars won't enjoy the benefit of that kind of a relaunch when it's still only recently had such a high profile campaign as TOR or the mass marketing that TCW has enjoyed. Those things didn't target EU communities: they both targeted the mass market, not KOTOR or Genndy fans. In contrast, when Batman Begins came out, I hardly even remember the earlier films as I'd been too young. TCW, though directly targeted a younger fanbase, so in a few years, when they're all a bit older, they'll be the ones a new film trilogy aimed at teenagers will be aimed at.

    But whether the main heroine being the equivalent of a 20-year-old Ahsoka is what the world really wants, and not just something that'll just be a fifteen minute wonder like TCW itself, remains 50/50. If nothing else, I'm expecting all the people who come to Lit to bash the EU will also be the ones who end up hating the ST, because they're trying to relive their OT nostalgia, and that is not what the ST will be, because it isn't being written for the 1970s generation.
     
    Prodigy_Knight likes this.
  13. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Yes, it is and SW EU has got itself into quite a hole in trying to defy that very nature.

    The best EU works combine that derivative sense of familiarity with a fresh mixing of the elements, thus we get great stories like KOTOR, Mindor, TTT. Stories that are definitely SW and have a sense of familiarity but also plough new ground, it's not either-or but both. Go in either extreme and you get a dull rehash everyone sees through or something so radical that it's a story that's had the name SW slapped on it, but that's the only connection to SW it actually has.
     
    Valin__Kenobi, Esg and Zorrixor like this.
  14. Manisphere

    Manisphere Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 25, 2007
    Remember TPM and AOTC? There's your answer.

    But seriously, Lucas is a 69 year old man. I don't think it was a matter of risk. Lucas has done a lot of risk taking in his career. I think he wanted his cake and to eat it too. And why not? His own continuing story that is written and directed by other artists. Just like ESB and ROTJ. 4 billion and a hand in the new trilogy? What sexagenarian could say no?
     
  15. Lazy Storm Trooper

    Lazy Storm Trooper Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 18, 2012
    Little off topic but I am just so mad at Disney right now.
     
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  16. spicer

    spicer Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 14, 2012
    Thus far Disney "got rid" of TCW (good riddance I say), and (possibly soon) LA, which lets be honest, the last couple of years was releasing terrible products. Also the 3D rereleases, which is nothing special IMO, considering that TPM 3D was average at best. So it got rid of the "bad" SW stuff, which gives me hope they'll keep the brilliant Dark Horse. As for Del Rey, I can't say anything, since I haven't read a SW book in years.
     
    RC-1991, Rew, JackG and 2 others like this.
  17. thesevegetables

    thesevegetables Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 11, 2012
    And the movie comes out in 2015. They can and probably will milk the fandom for money until opening day when it all becomes non-canon.
     
  18. Esg

    Esg Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Wut
     
  19. Barriss_Coffee

    Barriss_Coffee Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2003
    LITIZENS! WE MUST STORM DISNEYLAND!!! RELEASE THE CANON!
     
    tjace, RC-1991, Zorrixor and 5 others like this.
  20. Esg

    Esg Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Wait it means their expanding the EU?

    So much for killing canon
     
  21. Ulicus

    Ulicus Lapsed Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2005
    OMGZ U GUYZ WHAT IF DISNEY BUYZ DARK HORSE AND THAT'S RANDY'S ANNOUNCEMENT!? [face_hypnotized]
     
    Zorrixor likes this.
  22. darklordoftech

    darklordoftech Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 30, 2012
    I'd say it would make the Star Wars fans happy, but not the Dark Horse fans.
     
  23. Manisphere

    Manisphere Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 25, 2007
    Maybe Randy is getting married! Maybe that's the announcement!
     
    spicer, Ulicus and darklordoftech like this.
  24. darthcaedus1138

    darthcaedus1138 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2007
    [​IMG]

    A part of me is incredibly heartened by the fact that while everything around it is cancelled or aborted, the EU has yet to feel any real cuts. I wish that the high ups at Disney are secretly EU fans, and are clearing the path of all the things that got in the way of continuity over the years.

    But invariable the new movies will come and crush that hope. But for now, that's what I'm seeing.
     
    GrandAdmiralJello , Esg and Ulicus like this.
  25. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Oh man, that. Would. Be. Awesome. Might give me a reason to move back to SoCal.

    Seriously awesome.

    And the notion of being secretly EU friendly after all this panic amuses me to no end. After all, the Star Tours ride is FULL of EU references.
     
    Ulicus , Mia Mesharad and Esg like this.