In a Recent Twitter post, Director Ron Howard expressed how badly he feels that fans aren't going to see his new movie Solo. He doesn't blame the fans, throw them under the bus, mock or even accuses them of being "white male racist" or bigots.
He just feels bad it's not doing well in theaters.
This is how you speak to the fans, without anger, blame or vicious attacks. And this is the opposite of the way Lucasfilm has been treating their fans for the past 6 months.
There are countless quotes and video clips on the interest where people, such as Kathleen Kennedy, Dave Filoni, Rian Johnson (to name a few) have laughed, mocked and ridiculed the fans. Like a bully taunting a small child, the way Lucasfilm has treated its fans has been nothing short of embarrassing for a company as large as them.
But Lucasfilm's spite for the fandom has finally bitten back.
Toy sales for The Last Jedi were so bad, companies pulled their orders on the second shipments. Hundreds of unpurchased merchandise still litters the aisles. At the bankrupt company Toys R Us, Last Jedi toys are 50% off and have remained on the shelves with little of no interest from the scavengers. What was once a highly collectable hobby is now packaged junk.
DVD sales for the Last Jedi re tanking as well. Losing over $40 million in sales compared to the previous movie releases. All this and the embarrassing Box Office numbers for Solo are surely the topic of discussion around the water cooler at Disney HQ.
Star Wars is dying.
Though far from dead, the best way Lucasfilm can right the franchise is start with on apology to its fan. Not for the content they've produced, but for the spiteful attitude they projected towards fans since the "New Era" began. And they don't have to look any farther than to Ron Howard for an example.
Stop. Trashing. Fans. Simple as that.
In Howard's Tweet there's no mention are residual anger the fans had for the Last Jedi effecting his movie, though it's obvious to everyone except the journalist who laughingly try to blame it on "Star Wars Fatigue" due to the movie coming out 5 months after the last.
The huge problem with that notion is that Thor 3, Black Panther and Avengers 3 all came out within 3 months each of each other and made BILLIONS, but no one wants to acknowledge it's the fans disinterest because that would be admitting the truth. And the truth (in this case) sucks.
We've been calling "Legends" novels for years. We raised money for a billboard right outside Lucasfilm's headquarters. And what did they do? Nothing. Ignored it and moved on.
What they could have done instead is acknowledge those fans with a tweet or social media post and perhaps later tested the idea of continuing the "Legends" story by releasing a new novel to see how it performs in the market.
If sales were high they could continue limited releases of novels with Del Rey but if sales were low they could point to that as evidence to the fans that "Legends" is dead AND (as EU fans) we would be the ones to blame.
Just like disappointed fans who hated Last Jedi are to blame for the Box Office decline of Solo.
But until the folks at Lucasfilm film learn how to properly address fans, the franchise is headed for a rocky ride. Hopefully that ride doesn't come crashing around them like pieces of the Death Star over Endor.
No comments:
Post a Comment