fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #5428 ]

[ SECRET POST #5428 ]

⌈ Secret Post #5428 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Seems there's been a lot more controversy and markedly less fan enthusiasm for new Star Wars and MCU material (Disney's big franchise tentpoles) in the last few years.

Do you think that Disney has a problem with managing these franchises? Do they need to change their approach? Or is it all just Internet noise?

I think to some degree it is noise but that doesn't mean everything is fine.

We've heard on and off for years just how crappy the actors are treated for the Marvel movies. Now we have ScarJo (and others) fighting with them over contracts. There is increasing critical responses to how the amusement park is cutting perks and increasing prices for paltry offerings.

I think we are just finally seeing the cracks in the monopoly Disney holds because it is to much. Fans are expecting quality and Disney is pushing quantity.

+1

I think people are also just getting burned out on most of their properties -: they own practically everything now. Personally, it's just boring.and i can't stand the Monopoly they have on everything. The cool thing about back when Disney had more competitors (I'm thinking back to 1990s/early 2000s) like DreamWorks, Pixar, and there were even smaller studios way back when making wild sci-fi/fantasy animated movies -- you had such a diverse set of stories being told and HOW they were being told, and I really miss that. DreamWorks was my favorite (I wanted to work for them when I was a kid) -- I feel like they told their stories with more freedom -- from The Prince of Egypt to the Iron Giant and El Dorado -- they went places and touched on themes Disney merely hinted at, and in a few movies at that, like Hunchback of Notre Dame or Pocahontas. Not to completely shit on Disney, they have classics for a reason, but the landscape has been completely decimated -- it's all grazing land. None of the biodiversity that previously existed. It bums me out. And then you need to go deep diving to find smaller studios putting out interesting projects.

Seems to who? I hate MCU but enthusiasm for it, including the tv shows, is absolutely everywhere. I can’t speak as objectively about Star Wars since I’m in the fandom but my SW fandom spaces have grown. And there’s a lot less in-fighting now the last trilogy is done and The Mandalorian and The Bad Batch have come along. Not much shipping, haven’t seen any tin-hatting, just fans excited about their fave franchise.

One thing I do know is that Disney+ subscriptions have dropped off, and Disney is unhappy about that. It makes sense, though. When D+ subscriptions were going like gangbusters, we were in the middle of lockdowns and desperate for entertainment that we could enjoy in our homes. Also, Disney+ doesn't produce as much new premium content as Netflix, so from that perspective, Netflix is going to look like a better value to a lot of people. The main thing Disney+ has going for it is its vault.

I still have enthusiasm for some of the new MCU franchises, like Shang-Chi and The Eternals, but my enthusiasm for the more established parts of it are definitely waning. Endgame killed a lot of my love, and the way they're trying to shove legacy characters down our throats rather than developing new franchises is annoying, as is the sheer number of crossovers. I've gone from eagerly anticipating Doctor Strange 2 to dreading it because of that. Marvel has literally thousands of characters and franchises that they could be developing as their own thing, but business is business and they're going to go for the sure bet.

I feel like everything they're putting out right now is fair to middling at best. There were 3 MCU movies out this year but Suicide Squad is somehow better than all of them (fite me). Most of the MCU shows shave been pretty blah too. The new Star Wars Trilogy tripped at the finish line (or starting line, or second lap, or all three whatever) and Solo/the sad one got a mixed reception. Pixar movie and Disney movies are pretty much the same thing now, and it sure isn't Disney rising to Pixar's level. And they are so same-y that they might be sequels to each other. I'm not sure and I don't care enough to google it. As for the live action remakes, literally none of them have been loved and they fade from the public consciousness so quickly. Did they release A Little Mermaid yet? I might have slept through the whole hype cycle. As for the parks... you couldn't pay me to go to Florida right now. Fuck, you couldn't threaten me to go to Florida. The whole state is just one secondary location.

Are they in trouble? I doubt it. Their movies, every single one I've disparaged above, make absolute bank. I thought we were hitting block buster fatigue in 2016 but lord knows we kept on buying tickets. Disney+ seems to be making tons of money too. Best case scenario is they start selling off the properties that aren't preforming, but who would they sell too? And they won't stop making stuff from these properties, not if they keep being profitable or even just keeps dollars out of WB's projects. But then again, there is much less enthusiasm now. There have been a lot of disappointments. We'll see I guess, but I wouldn't move all my savings to Disney stock right now.

From a financial point of view, they're not "in trouble" in the sense that they're going to go broke, but the pandemic was a huge financial hit to them, they under-performed on their most recent earnings report due to slow streaming growth, and their executives are clearly starting to get pretty desperate to increase cash flow. And a lot of their behind-the-scenes stuff seems relatively chaotic right now in general. And there's been a lot of news stories suggesting that the business guys are going to be running the show when it comes to content rather than the creative guys going forward. There's also been suggestions that they're considering spinning off ESPN, which doesn't really make sense to me under any circumstances to be honest, but it definitely doesn't make it seem like they have a great overall plan.

So when you put all of that context together, I think it is worrying, and the inability to generate new big hook-y content for their franchises and recruit new fans (rather than just making money off existing ones) becomes a real problem for them.

If they buy another giant franchise (what's left? Pokemon?) I bet they'll over extend and really contract. But I doubt the business guys would let that happen. I foresee a really boring few years ahead as they play it even safer than we thought possible.

It's tough, though, because they need strong growth and it's really hard to get strong growth by playing it safe. Cutting costs only gets you so far. They're in a tricky spot.

Money-wise I'd said they're more than fine.
Production value of their entertainment on the other hand has gone right down the toilet and have succeeded in becoming a poison in the movie industry - especially with the amount of bland forgettable movies they can afford to churn out, but shit themselves over doing anything 'too different' and just pat themselves on the ass for any tiny little representation they allow or hard work by somebody else that they've recently bought as their own company property (like the Simpsons, Marvel, etc).

They've hit saturation on their current franchises: anybody of moviegoing age who's going to be interested in Marvel or Star Wars already is.

Which means the question is, whether they can handle a plateau or whether their investments mean that they need constant growth.

i don't think so. maybe hardcore fandoms are dying down but that's not their market anyway, it's always been normies and they will watch any old shit as long as it's familiar. all of the incredibly shitty remakes were a success even though you will have a hard time finding people who admit they liked them online.

I think some people are hungry for Disney/MCU to fail. Certainly that.

Some are hungry for it due to their imagined culture war and their fear of "woke", however they define that day-to-day. Some were on board with the sneer train right from the start due to snobbishness and a bit of a cringe when it comes to seeing superhero stuff instead "real" cinema, however they define that.

And a huge chunk of the people who want it to fail are the younger fans who weren't there when Marvel/Disney began their takeover of cinema, to be in the fans who got excited and built the fanbase. They want it to fail because they couldn't be there to build it, but they can still feel like they made their cultural mark by running it down and, in their minds, causing it to fail.

There are also the Zack Snyder/DC fans, but those three guys are just jealous.

Disney/MCU are gonna be just fine. The MCU is changing, because it has to to keep going post-Endgame, and that inevitably means a slowdown as the change is handled and they introduce new characters into the franchise/move the pieces around. Anyone who thinks the suits at Disney haven't anticipated that is fooling themselves though. Disney's own movie empire is just fine, churning out first gay character evers on a regular basis. And even Lucasfilm, which is having a rockier transition, thanks a lot Rian, is still chugging along nicely.

Disney Plus is having a slowdown, but again that is anticipated, as it reaches market saturation, and is dealing with post-pandemic blues in terms of not having quite as much content ready to go as it would like, but that will be anticipated and copeable too.

So, no, Disney is not in trouble. It is going through a lull, but only a lull.

"I think some people are hungry for Disney/MCU to fail. Certainly that."

This is me. I'm tired of their formula and would like them to take up less oxygen in the room. I want other options.

I don't want them to fail to the point of going out of business, but I would like them to put out, oh, 15% of movies/shows/entertainment media, rather than eating other companies and pop culture icons and shitting out bland mass produced sludge until everything's owned by them.

Also I'd like them to fucking pay the royalties they owe to creators who haven't been paid since Disney bought their contracts.

I just want monopolies to fail and die in a horrible, horrible crash and burn fire <3 And you shilling to Disney and painting everyone who dislikes it as unreasonable makes you a fucking crapsack of a human being who should suck lemons.

That's weird. I thought I saw something resembling a point in there, but then it got lost in all the hostility and ad hominem attacks.

(I'm kidding, of course. Your point is wrong and assumes there's no difference between just disliking Disney, and rooting for their destruction. It also assumes that being told something inconvenient but likely true means that the other person must be promoting something or someone, which is not always the case, and doesn't automatically become the case just because you want to think the worst of someone else.)

NAYRT

AYRT goes too far but the original post also goes too far in implying that the only reasons that people would dislike Disney or the products they're putting out are right-wing culture politics or snobbery

Your case about people who dislike Disney not being unreasonable, you are not helping it.

you know very well people have legitimate issues with the disney corporation, this is very disingenuous.

Disney is certainly doing a good job at pissing off its hardcore park fanbase, the people who go to the parks every year and the like, with its massive price hikes and giving customers a lot less while charging more and more.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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