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

No they'll find another producer. Whedon would direct the second one. It's a moot point because this movie is not going to fail.

Episode 7 will probably have a comparable budget with that movie which is why you hire a proven guy like Abrams to direct. You can't take chances with such huge budgets.

Even though Disney bought out LFL via acquisition, Kennedy is still in charge of the LFL division. As for her role as the ST's executive producer, I wouldn't think that they would go against Lucas's choice after a one time failure. I could see Disney keeping her, but if she contiunes to fail as an executive producer of a trilogy, then they would step in and dismiss her.

Imo if Episode VII bombs critically and/or commercially, Disney will still proceed forward and finish out the trilogy. A waste of 4 billion, no? I'm sure Kennedy will be the producer, they will move on to the other hired writers (incluidng Kasdan), and it's up to Kennedy if she wants to keep JJ. A lot needs to go wrong in order for Episode VII to fail.

It's gonna bomb and blow everything up! Movies will never be made again! We'll have to resort to books and singing.

maybe part 8 .. return of jar jars revenge .. can come out strait to video .. just like my little mermaid 2 did

For the sake of Steve Jobs' poor widow, now the largest single shareholder of the Star Wars brand, I hope it's a huge commercial success. I hate to think of her out on the street with nowhere to live but her $138 million yacht designed by Phillipe Starck.

But how's that for a meandering path of intertwining business ownership? Lucas creates the predecessor to Pixar, a business unit of Lucasfilm, sells it to Jobs for $5 million. Jobs sells Pixar to Disney for $7 billion. Jobs dies. His widow becomes largest Disney shareholder. Lucas sells Lucasfilm to Disney for $4 billion. That's $11 billion of business value springing up directly and indirectly from the pop culture appeal of Star Wars.

It's not going to fail. It might suck but it's going to be a commercial success. People went back and saw AoTC and RoTS even though TPM was critically panned.

I've seen arguments that TPM was fairly well reviewed at the time- and that it was only later that the reviews began to go downhill.

Adjusted for inflation AOTC and ROTS aren't even close to being in the same box office league as the real Star Wars movies. In terms of commercial success, there are two authentic Star Wars movies, two pretenders, and two FAILS.

I doubt that will happen. for example people paid to the the PT, although with me after TPM it was in hope more than expectation

Yeah, you're right. SW 77 is in a box office league all its own. ESB/ROTJ/TPM are more or less lumped together with ESB being the standout leader of the middle group.

Then miles below are AOTC and ROTS. No one in their right mind would think that ROTS was a worse movie than TPM. The only explanation for its box office failure was public ill will brought on by TPM. The question for the new trilogy's commercial success is the extent to which the Phantom Menace effect lingers in the minds of the public. I would say the Phantom Menace Effect may be even stronger now than it was in 2005, because it's taken on sort of an iconic, mythic status of its own.

Star Wars has never been nor will it ever be a financial failure. Other than that, who gives one iota what critics say.

My point is there are different levels of success. There's "Star Wars" success. And then there's "Late Prequels Success." The question is whether New Star Wars will actually be Star Wars successful, or just run of the mill AOTC successful. Run of the mill isn't going to cut it to drive merchandising, which is really mostly what Disney cares about.

The worst that could happen is a few angry fans building a fan wagon of hate centered around a 50 hr long video review that completly ignores all the great parts of the movies, which there are lots of, and constantly rants on how that movie is terrible and it raped their childhood and all, that is no where fair toward the great movies that they are reviewing, and completly ignoring the younger, next generation's fanbase....

Wait? Where have we seen this before.......

This post is pointless......The prequel trilogy was a box office sensation & held the record for many years as the highest grossing trilogy although reviews were not that high all 3 "HAD" fresh rating's on Rottentomatoes so what I'm saying is the EP:7 would have to be FAR worse than EP1 for any of this to happen Likely hood of that 0% .

Completely agree, except I won't say NEVER will be. If they continue to make spin-off movies and people get tired of them, it wouldn't surprise me if one of them was a commercial disappointment.

"Pop quiz hot shot: There's a bomb on this franchise. If it grosses over 300 million domestically the fanboy rage is armed. If it grosses under 300 million, the franchise flops. What do you do kid? WHAT DO YOU DO?!"

Fanboy rage is preferable to fiscal failure.

Came for the reaction gifs, was not disappointed.

The problem is, and always has been trying to compare the Prequals to the OT, specifically the FIRST Star Wars. THAT movie was a MONSTER, and played in some theatres for a whole YEAR. We didn't have DVD's come out three months after the theatrical release, nor did we have the plethora of 'block busters' as we do now - Star Wars WAS and IS the cornerstone to which so much is measured as it was groundbreaking in a hundred different ways. The ST has an almost bigger hurdle to make as there are NO expectations () as to where the story will go (the PT - we knew the ultimate ending, just not the journey.) The ST will undoubtedly will twist some people's knickers - either rabid EU fans who want to see THE BOOKS adhered to like some sacred texts or the other end of the spectrum where some hope the whole EU is like the Bobby Ewing 'it was all a bad dream' Dallas effect.

Ultimately, someone's going to be cheesed off, and all they can hope is enough movie goers LIKE what they see/hear about to make up for 'Darth Fanboy's' pocketbook...

What happens? We die....



-C

If 7's a failure all it means is there will be no episode 8 & thus, there will be no episode 9 titled "Yoda's Bar-Mitzvah".

It can't commercially fail even if it sucks. Just look at The Phantom Menace.