Does Disney have a Star Wars problem?
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2023
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Disney has planned out the next decade of Marvel and Star Wars films, but are audiences still willing to keep up with all its content, or is fatigue setting in?
When Disney bought Star Wars and Marvel for a total $8.05 billion, it made a big bet that audiences would consistently keep up with the interconnected storylines that span movies, television shows and video games.
But while the franchises remain relatively successful, there are signs that audiences are starting to feel fatigue. Marvel’s most recent film, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” was panned, Star Wars fans criticized the most recent trilogy of films, and Disney CEO Bob Iger recently said it may be time for the company to reconsider its investments in the two franchises.
David Betancourt, who reports on comic book culture for The Post, joins us to explain.
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Read more:
- How will Marvel Studios bounce back from its wave of bad news?
- It’s time for Star Wars fans to get excited about movies again
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Earlier this week after leaving work, the only thing I wanted to do was watch the season |
| 0:07.0 | finale of the Mandalorian. |
| 0:09.0 | I'm a massive Star Wars fan, especially of Baby Yoda. |
| 0:13.1 | In Disney, the company that owns Star Wars also owns one of my other favorite franchises, |
| 0:18.7 | Marvel. |
| 0:20.0 | I grew up loving the comics, watching the movies, and I even got a fantastic 4-Tatt too |
| 0:24.9 | when I was younger. |
| 0:26.4 | But lately, I feel like Star Wars and Marvel has just been overwhelming in pop culture. |
| 0:31.4 | Baby Yoda, like, along with these things of Green Screen, but Baby Yoda is there. |
| 0:35.8 | Yes, Baby Yoda is there. |
| 0:37.2 | And then Spider-Man, no way home, goes on to be the biggest film of all time, makes |
| 0:42.2 | like a gazillion dollars. |
| 0:44.2 | It's so much fun. |
| 0:46.0 | Look, it's been a fun time to be a nerd. |
| 0:49.2 | But even for me, a lifelong fan, I've been wondering how much content is just too much. |
| 0:56.1 | And I'm getting tired of it. |
| 1:01.5 | This is a big question on the minds of Disney and its executives right now. |
| 1:05.6 | Should they be taken that kind of fatigue seriously? |
| 1:10.0 | Lately Disney's been experiencing some big financial hits. |
| 1:13.2 | They're going through layoffs. |
| 1:14.5 | And CEO Bob Eiger recently said that the company may want to reconsider their investments |
| 1:19.6 | in these franchises. |
... |
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