75 employees laid off at Pixar, including the director of Lightyear

[PolymerSkywalker]

Yeah! More Sequels, Remakes, and Reboots!! Abandon the previous 90+ years of storytelling and just go generic nostalgia to give the audiences what they want instead!

Where did I say abandon new stories? Just do it with reasonable budgets. If Elemental had a $75 million dollar budget instead of the $200 million it has, it wouldn't lose the truckloads of money it is set to lose.

 

[BrianL]

Ding ding ding, we have a winner folks!

So in essence give the fans what they want and you will make ton's of money. Use smaller budgets to push the envelope and do out of the box things on niche ideas. I agree with Brian that everything cannot be a massive theatrical event. However, budgets have to be brought back into line for this to be a successful plan.

Who exactly decides what "the fan's want?" YOU?

That's not some bullet-proof formula.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Who exactly decides what "the fan's want?" YOU?

That's not some bullet-proof formula.

Well, I would say I am much more in line with what the average fan wants than you are. Remember you hated Top Gun Maverick, and said it was a dumb movie!

Likely the most financially successful movie in several years when you consider its box office versus its budget.

 

[Jwaire]

You can blame marketing or Disney+ all you want, but Pixar has been struggling for awhile. Iger will have to respond.

My best guess is Pete Doctor is fired and Brad Bird is brought in to run Pixar (maybe Andrew Stanton?) or Jennifer Lee gets control of all it.

Pixar is about to get a reckoning.

 

[HokieRaven5]

Where did I say abandon new stories? Just do it with reasonable budgets. If Elemental had a $75 million dollar budget instead of the $200 million it has, it wouldn't lose the truckloads of money it is set to lose.

Your 2 example movies of Top Gun and SMB are examples of generic boiler plate plot movies that rely more on nostalgia, and Easter eggs and flashiness for entertainment. So by that metric, abandon most story telling and just give the right amount of fan service.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

You can blame marketing or Disney+ all you want, but Pixar has been struggling for awhile. Iger will have to respond.

My best guess is Pete Doctor is fired and Brad Bird is brought in to run Pixar (maybe Andrew Stanton) or Jennifer Lee gets control of all it.

Pixar is about to get a reckoning.

But but but the Red Panda is cute, and Turning Red was a great movie just mean old men don't like it.

Of course you are correct, but you will never get the pixie dusters on here to admit it.

 

[Jwaire]

Your 2 example movies of Top Gun and SMB are examples of generic boiler plate plot movies that rely more on nostalgia, and Easter eggs and flashiness for entertainment. So by that metric, abandon most story telling and just give the right amount of fan service.

Elemental was pretty trope-y too. Let's not pretend it was some amazing original story. It wasn't Coco.

I do wonder if some of Elemental's problem is that it reminds people visually of Inside Out? Hilariously, they're going to do an Inside Out 2 so that may compound the problem.

 

[BrianL]

Well, I would say I am much more in line with what the average fan wants than you are. Remember you hated Top Gun Maverick!

Likely the most financially successful movie in several years when you consider its box office versus its budget.

I didn't hate Top Gun Maverick. I hate Tom Cruise so I didn't want to watch it. I did see it at a friends house and I ssaid it is a dumb movie. I like a lot of dumb movies - just not ones with Tom Cruise in them. I would probably like it if it had a different star.

 

[BrianL]

You can blame marketing or Disney+ all you want, but Pixar has been struggling for awhile. Iger will have to respond.

My best guess is Pete Doctor is fired and Brad Bird is brought in to run Pixar (maybe Andrew Stanton?) or Jennifer Lee gets control of all it.

Pixar is about to get a reckoning.

Brad Bird would be a GREAT choice! I like Pete, but I don't think he was ever leadership material. He was better off jsut making his movies. Jennifer Lee too, and I don't think she needs to be in charge either really.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Your 2 example movies of Top Gun and SMB are examples of generic boiler plate plot movies that rely more on nostalgia, and Easter eggs and flashiness for entertainment. So by that metric, abandon most story telling and just give the right amount of fan service.

No I am saying follow the data, and the data will tell you how to make money. If you don't care about making money do whatever you like, or what Disney is currently doing I guess.

What is the single biggest event on Disney Plus ever? What got the most social media buzz? What trended on Twitter for weeks? What was 1000s of youtube videos made about it. What had the highest viewership of anything on Disney+ ever. Season 2 finale of the Mandalorian. That clearly tells you what the fans want.

 

[HokieRaven5]

Elemental was pretty trope-y too. Let's not pretend it was some amazing original story. It wasn't Coco.

Haven’t seen elemental yet to comment on it.

 

[HokieRaven5]

No I am saying follow the data, and the data will tell you how to make money. If you don't care about making money do whatever you like, or what Disney is currently doing I guess.

What is the single biggest event on Disney Plus ever? What got the most social media buzz? What trended on Twitter for weeks? What was 1000s of youtube videos made about it. What had the highest viewership of anything on Disney+ ever. Season 2 finale of the Mandalorian. That clearly tells you what the fans want.

Flashy fan service. Got it!

 

[BrianL]

No I am saying follow the data, and the data will tell you how to make money. If you don't care about making money do whatever you like, or what Disney is currently doing I guess.

What is the single biggest event on Disney Plus ever? What got the most social media buzz? What trended on Twitter for weeks? What was 1000s of youtube videos made about it. What had the highest viewership of anything on Disney+ ever. Season 2 finale of the Mandalorian. That clearly tells you what the fans want.

Your data isn't bullet-proof either. Disney doesn't make these movies thinking they will fail - they have data to support what they do too. It just doesn't always work.

You think fans want more Luke Skywalker - I guarantee you that if they got it they would hate it. They were already critical of the appearances after that finale.

 

[mdmost]

No I am saying follow the data, and the data will tell you how to make money. If you don't care about making money do whatever you like, or what Disney is currently doing I guess.

What is the single biggest event on Disney Plus ever? What got the most social media buzz? What trended on Twitter for weeks? What was 1000s of youtube videos made about it. What had the highest viewership of anything on Disney+ ever. Season 2 finale of the Mandalorian. That clearly tells you what the fans want.

Baby Yoda and the first season was a bigger deal than the season 2 finale if we're talking popular culture and a reason people flocked to sign up for Disney+. The season 2 finale was more of a Star Wars fan-centric big deal and that was mostly because people had been wanting to see more of that era Luke Skywalker.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Flashy fan service. Got it!

Ok, now let's look a case study of Indy 5 when it comes out. It's flashy fan service, correct? When it fails at the box office, what will be the reason?

Here will be the real reasons it fails:
- Massive budget due to poor management at Lucasfilms
- Some fans will have a huge issue with their childhood hero getting shown up by the younger morally superior, physically stronger, just better in every way, strong female character
- Not a story that will appeal to the masses

But the single biggest issue is the budget. Top Gun had a production budget of $170 Million and Indy 5 has a production budget of right at $300 million!

 

[Jwaire]

Flashy fan service. Got it!

You got to pay the bills eventually. Toy Story 4 was creatively abysmal, but it made the company dough.

As for the Mandalorian, it's both lip service and a new story. Jon Favreau has really tried to thread that needle. Most episodes are a new story and yet they throw in a callback episode every once in awhile. I thought the last season had some of the best writing on the series especially the Mandalore mythos plot line.

 

[Jwaire]

Ok, now let's look a case study of Indy 5 when it comes out. It's flashy fan service, correct? When it fails at the box office, what will be the reason?

You're right and Lucasfilm will blame streaming services/changing audiences and marketing too when it's the story (and the fact that they've waited too long to bring back Harrison Ford) that's the problem.

But the single biggest issue is the budget. Top Gun had a production budget of $175 Million and Indy 5 has a production budget of right at $300 million!

That's ridiculous.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Baby Yoda and the first season was a bigger deal than the season 2 finale if we're talking popular culture and a reason people flocked to sign up for Disney+. The season 2 finale was more of a Star Wars fan-centric big deal and that was mostly because people had been wanting to see more of that era Luke Skywalker.

Agree to disagree:

https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2021/01/the-mandalorian-season-2-finale-nielsen.html#:~:text='Star Wars: The Mandalorian' Season 2 Finale Claims,Top Spot On Nielsen Ratings&text=Nielsen's latest batch of ratings,performance of streaming television series.

Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian was the single most streamed thing Disney+ has put out to date. Also, it was the first time ever that they took the top spot for a brief time from Netflix. The Mandalorian trended for like 10 days on twitter, and lots of people that had never even watched the show signed up and watched both seasons in full.

 

[mdmost]

Ok, now let's look a case study of Indy 5 when it comes out. It's flashy fan service, correct? When it fails at the box office, what will be the reason?

Here will be the real reasons it fails:
- Massive budget due to poor management at Lucasfilms
- Some fans will have a huge issue with their childhood hero getting shown up by the younger morally superior, physically stronger, just better in every way, strong female character
- Not a story that will appeal to the masses

But the single biggest issue is the budget. Top Gun had a production budget of $170 Million and Indy 5 has a production budget of right at $300 million!

Indy 5 will fail because Harrison Ford is too old, Indy 4 was terrible, and Holy Grail was the perfect send off for the character. It's like Return of the Jedi, they didn't strike while the iron was hot and now too much time has flown by.

If people are scared of a younger, morally superior female character then how did Princess Leia appeal to everyone? She was all those things, except physically stronger. You appear to be bringing your own "political" issues into a movie watching experience. Rey was all those things and it didn't hurt the sequel trilogy one bit at the box office.

Top Gun did well because it looked like something you want to go see in a theater, on a big screen, which is true of all Tom Cruise movies. The trailers were spectacular. It looked like it was shot on real locations, with real planes. It looked superior in every way to its predecessor. But it also was a nostalgia fest which is what people wanted. It threaded the needle perfectly.

Indy 5 looks like something that will only appeal to the hardcore audience for Indiana Jones who don't mind seeing old man Indy. I do agree that the market for that isn't one now where a $300 million budget is going to work out well but maybe it will do wonderfully overseas. Indy 4 did better overseas than it did domestically.

 

[fatmanatee]

l thought Harrison was too old for Indy 4, let alone 5.