While Hurricane Sandy surged onto the Eastern Coast, a
torrent of social media posts surfaced regarding the purchase of Lucasfilm by
the ever more powerful Walt Disney Company.
Fans immediately gave the $4 billion Disney purchase the
moniker “A New Hope” coined after the title of the first Star Wars movie
released in 1977. This might be a long
day remembered but it’s far from the end of the rebellion for fans. Simultaneously Star Wars fans were blessed
with the news that a new Star Wars movie would be released by 2015. Not only that but there would be a brand new
trilogy with movies released every 2 to 3 years! The Harry Potter movies obviously taught the
conglomerate that episodic
movies series really rake in the dough.
However the sale of “The Force” doesn’t completely make
sense. It’s surprising Lucas let the
franchise go for only $4
billion when the whole of the franchise has generated $27 billion. The franchise includes the movies with Box
office sales of $4.3B),DVD sales ($3.7B), Video Game Sales ($2.9B), Book Sales
($1.8B), and Toy Sales of at least $12 Billion on their own. If you’re keeping count, theirs even some
loose change totaling $1.3 Billion of miscellaneous revenue. Lucas is apparently getting cash & stock
for the deal but it still doesn’t completely add up.
Lucas apparently wants to hand over the deal to someone he
trusts and frankly, who doesn’t trust Disney.
Disney movies & the old Sunday show World of Disney practically
raised me from my infancy until Star Wars took my adolescence. But let’s not forget how powerful Disney
is. Disney is a global power in its own
right owning Marvel, ESPN, ABC, parks, restaurants, resorts and even a fleet of
cruise ships. If that wasn’t enough, Disney even owns the Jonas Brothers.
Star Wars grabbed the imagination of the world. I personally watched Star Wars in the theater
at least a dozen times the last few times with my grandmother and cousin. We even watched the 3 movies
back-to-back-to-back when the first trilogy was re-released in theaters the
first time. Most fans are still
mega-gaga over the stars of the first film.
Even I was a little speechless with a brush I had with the force when I
was standing in line with Mark Hamill at one of Richard Garriott’s last
haunted houses in Austin, where we actually got to tell him, “May the Force
be with you” before he went in. We had
apparently just missed Harrison Ford too.
I trust Disney will do its best with the Star Wars franchise
but let’s not forget that Disney is a major global corporation. As the writers of SouthPark noted, “Disney
has run the show for last 50 years” and now it owns “The Force”. Disney
loves to outsource, they like high prices and it all comes down to the bottom
line. They have built a monopoly on
content and they will most definitely exploit it for their own gain. Just don’t be surprised if a chain of Star
Wars restaurants pops out of hyperspace in a galaxy near you.
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