A Long Time Ago In a Galaxy Far, Far Away.... - Star Wars General Discussion

[Steevy Maximus]

I think Star Wars is too entrenched into current pop culture to die any time soon. I'd say that Disney put out too much Star Wars too fast and have been (generally) more concerned with style than story, but there are still some bright spots.

I think most people that have been disappointed with current offerings would come back pretty quickly if a new series or film came out that appealed to them.

Really.
In my lifetime alone, I've seen Ninja Turtles "die", like, three times. Star Trek at least twice. GI Joe has died almost a half dozen times.
The cruel reality is that most long term franchises invariably go through peaks and valleys. The fact Star Wars has maintained as high profile as it has is something to be commended.
I'm also highly bemused that a LOT of the stuff Kennedy is getting railed on about...also afflicted Marvel, under Kevin Fiege.

That said, I'm also not immune to the fact that there seemed to be some bias in how certain projects were pushed and marketed. And I feel that Kennedy had no real "vision" for the brand, as we saw with the utter dumpster fire the sequel trilogy devolved into. Without any sort of consistent vision for the brand, we had an excess of media that casual consumers were often left confused because there was no foundation. I've mentioned before that I had casual coworkers who saw The Force Awakens, and were then confused by Rogue One thinking it was supposed to be a sequel!
Mandalorian was surprise hit...but its success was largely squandered because Disney and its license partners were too busy working on stuff in the pipeline to properly exploit any given success (or change course from any failure).
Not all of that was Kennedy's fault, but as head of Lucasfilm, she certainly had the target on her.

 

[Shadewing]

Lack of Vision is the main sin for the Sequel series and much of the Disney era. There's good ideas, stuff I like. But having no plan really fucked over the sequels. I really dont think thing will get miraculously better with her gone; they're just gonna find some other scapegoat when they're still getting stuff they don't like.

 

[Superomegaprime]

Is that important? Unlike broadcast shows that are going to be rerun once in about 6 months, the viewership on a streaming show continues to rise daily.

Yet the early numbers are a good messure of true sucess or not and the fact that Disney has spent so much money on these shows only to end up with sixth place with the overall streaming charts, shows how much of a money pit the service is and how poor the overall content is, besides, the more expensive the show, the greater need for it to be a major sucess and to get a second season, third seasons green lit, sure the numbers rise over time but the first couple of weeks are the most important, just like with movies in cinemas, because if word of mouth is positive, more people will go and see it, if its negative, they tend to fall off dramatically, take for example the new Captain America movie, it had no real buzz around it and after its first week, it fell dramatically in number of people going to see the movie, thus the numbers are VERY important!

 

[Axaday]

Yet the early numbers are a good measure of true success or not and the fact that Disney has spent so much money on these shows only to end up with sixth place with the overall streaming charts, shows how much of a money pit the service is and how poor the overall content is, besides, the more expensive the show, the greater need for it to be a major success and to get a second season, third seasons green lit, sure the numbers rise over time but the first couple of weeks are the most important, just like with movies in cinemas, because if word of mouth is positive, more people will go and see it, if its negative, they tend to fall off dramatically, take for example the new Captain America movie, it had no real buzz around it and after its first week, it fell dramatically in number of people going to see the movie, thus the numbers are VERY important!

Is Disney+ failing or do you just think so because you've been disappointed?

Nielsen ratings on broadcast shows give a measure of how many people tuned in for the one hour that the show is available. It will not be viewable even the next day. In competition with other broadcast shows, this is very comparable information. I didn't know Nielsen even DID ratings for streaming and I have no idea what their method and rules are, but it is pretty common for me to watch a streaming show a week or more later. I have things going on and I have the freedom to work it around my schedule. That isn't the same thing as like Moon Knight that I didn't watch for a whole year because I wasn't sure I would even like it (I did!). It's just that the night it comes out isn't convenient for me and it is no longer important.

 

[Donocropolis]

This is based on nothing but speculation, but I bet it's somewhere in between. In reality, Nielsen ratings ARE a terrible indicator of how much a streaming show is watched for exactly the reasons that people like to stream things (can watch it whenever / wherever / how often they want), but I would be completely unsurprised to find out that a lot of old-guard network higher-ups still look at Nielsen ratings as gospel.

 

[Cybersnark]

Don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I used to work in audience measurement (what Nielsen does), and if Nielsen is anything like Canada's Numeris then the numbers are all bullshit anyway (but yes, network suits treat it as Gospel because it's the only quantifiable data they have).

When I was there about ten years ago, Numeris was still using 1970s technology (paper notebooks that had to be mailed out, written in by hand, mailed back, scanned, and converted by minimum-wage employees into usable data). Most of the data received was incomplete, incomprehensible, or just plain falsified, so our procedure was to default through a list of ranked priorities (show title, network, channel number, stated time). We also only counted recorded shows if they were watched within 24 hours. Sweeps week surveys (twice a year) were a bit more high-tech, with in-home internet-enabled machines mailed out to households for a month to "listen in" to whatever's being broadcast before they have to be mailed back.

(You know why The Big Bang Theory is the most-watched show on television? Because it's everywhere. Thanks to syndication, there is never a time that TBBT is not airing somewhere, so if we couldn't find the program a respondent says they're watching, there's a 50% chance that it ended up being credited to TBBT.)

(Actually, the real most-watched show on television is "SPORTS." What channel? What network? What kind of sport? Who the hug knows?!?)

Notably, audience members are first found through telephone surveys --which means that 100% of viewership data comes from "people who answer telephone surveys" (which includes retirees, home-bound invalids, unemployable alcoholics, and stay-at-home housewives running day-cares).

(Numeris, notably, did not process any streaming data, as all of that was handled in-house by the streamers themselves, with no-one outside allowed to see their numbers.)

 

[Donocropolis]

Don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I used to work in audience measurement (what Nielsen does), and if Nielsen is anything like Canada's Numeris then the numbers are all bullshit anyway (but yes, network suits treat it as Gospel because it's the only quantifiable data they have).

When I was there about ten years ago, Numeris was still using 1970s technology (paper notebooks that had to be mailed out, written in by hand, mailed back, scanned, and converted by minimum-wage employees into usable data). Most of the data received was incomplete, incomprehensible, or just plain falsified, so our procedure was to default through a list of ranked priorities (show title, network, channel number, stated time). We also only counted recorded shows if they were watched within 24 hours. Sweeps week surveys (twice a year) were a bit more high-tech, with in-home internet-enabled machines mailed out to households for a month to "listen in" to whatever's being broadcast before they have to be mailed back.

(You know why The Big Bang Theory is the most-watched show on television? Because it's everywhere. Thanks to syndication, there is never a time that TBBT is not airing somewhere, so if we couldn't find the program a respondent says they're watching, there's a 50% chance that it ended up being credited to TBBT.)

(Actually, the real most-watched show on television is "SPORTS." What channel? What network? What kind of sport? Who the hug knows?!?)

Notably, audience members are first found through telephone surveys --which means that 100% of viewership data comes from "people who answer telephone surveys" (which includes retirees, home-bound invalids, unemployable alcoholics, and stay-at-home housewives running day-cares).

(Numeris, notably, did not process any streaming data, as all of that was handled in-house by the streamers themselves, with no-one outside allowed to see their numbers.)

I actually did do a Nielsen survey a couple of times over the years. I was generally pretty good about filling it out, I think, but I did knowing lie a couple of times (claimed I watched a show that I normally DO watch, but hadn't been able to that day for whatever reason but I wanted to support the show). But yeah, it was just a notebook that I was supposed to fill out. I can definitely see it being pretty inaccurate.

 

[Axaday]

Netflix and D+ have very good internal data, but don't share it. Star Wars shows keep coming, so they must be cool with it. The data is a lot more complicated than broadcast, but for those with ad plans, they do actually get paid per view I think. After that they just have to make sure they are staying what their customers expect them to be. A place that has new content on a semi-regular basis.

 

[Cybersnark]

Bear in mind also that the point of streaming shows is not simply to generate content, it's to drive subscriptions to the streaming service. It doesn't matter how many people are watching, it matters how many people are paying.

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

This is also why most shows created for streaming services only last for a few seasons, at most. Returning shows don't tend to generate NEW subscriptions. At most, they retain existing ones, and the return on investment tends to decline on returning shows vs. all-new ones.

 

[Axaday]

I think there are barriers on both sides. I'm sure almost all the show runners hope that they get more seasons, but the things they greenlight are short, self-contained stories. It droves me nuts when all the news and fans said Acolyte got cancelled. It didn't. It was a miniseries and it told its entire story. It certainly could have been continued if fans had all sung its praises, but it is totally different from a broadcast show where you get people on multi-year contracts and making that show is a lot of people's full time job. They make a season like a movie and then everyone goes to a new job. It may be years before you can get everyone back together. It's an example of streaming filling a niche that is more difficult for broadcast. A miniseries is a big interruption of "The Schedule", but they are a perfect fit for streaming. At an actual 6 season, 26 episode series, it is hard to compete with the networks. I think if a network will take your show like that, you're going to make a lot more money there.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

 

[Steevy Maximus]

rebelscum.com on Instagram: "A first look at some of Hasbro’s 4” Star Wars figures from their Epic World of Action line 👀 A special thanks to Hasbro for giving us access to their private booth at NY Toy Con 2025. #starwarscollector #starwarstoys #b

rebelscum.official on March 1, 2025: "A first look at some of Hasbro’s 4” Star Wars figures from their Epic World of Action line 👀 A special thanks to Hasbro for giving us access to their private booth at NY Toy Con 2025. #starwarscollector #starwarstoys #blackseries #hasbrostarwars...

www.instagram.com

Rebelscum snapped a few pics of the Epic World of Action display, and they still managed to miss some new stuff because it wasn’t “collector stuff”. But it confirmed a package refresh of the Deluxe Boba Fett, a new Speeder (ObiWan in Clone Armor with Barc), in package shots of the mechs, and several of the new “Force Strike X-Wing”, featuring Luke Skywalker

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]