Official Star Wars Thread

[Dan]

*double checks post*

But didn't Episode VII already come out?

[Dacey]

Fixed.

I suck at Roman numerals, but calling it "Episode 8" seems improper somehow.

[Ben]

Haha...I'm going to savour *that* for a bit!

Seriously...I am surprised...kinda. On one hand you'd think Hollywood - which has always assumed Christmas films make less than in the summer - would want to top what they just made (as I said above, if they could make this at Christmas, just think what it could make in the summer!), but on the other hand the unimaginative beancounters just want to replicate what just happened.

That the SW release also factored in to toy giving Christmas time probably didn't hurt their decision, but I still think they're missing a trick on basically owning May the Fourth as a date and making a real big annual thing about it, when even casual fans won't have the holidays and other things to occupy their minds.

[Dacey]

It's competition.

In summer, there's essentially a blockbuster a week (Disney has two high profile releases set for that May alone). This past Christmas, at least, Star Wars was essentially the only movie of its kind. There was no where else to go for a crowd-pleasing action movie (except for Point Break?), which probably explains why Daddy's Home and Sisters were the only other movies to make significant money (as comedies tend to be great counter-programming to a "big" release). Star Wars pretty much had two weeks to itself, and while it's running out of gas a lot faster than Avatar did (and, at this point, seems very unlikely to top its worldwide total), it has so much thanks to the holidays that everything it makes from now on is just gravy.

The only question is if James Cameron will choose to move Avatar 2 from its supposed Christmas 2017 release now, and since it has no "official" date yet, I think he probably will. Heck, maybe this will even cause Cameron to go back to summer as he did with Terminator 2 and Aliens. But a move to December 2018 seems far more likely.

[Randall]

Slow clap.

[Ben]

I reckon Cameron might actually enjoy the competition. He has enough of an ego to think he could wipe the floor with Star Wars...and he could possibly be right...

[EricJ]

That the SW release also factored in to toy giving Christmas time probably didn't hurt their decision, but I still think they're missing a trick on basically owning May the Fourth as a date and making a real big annual thing about it, when even casual fans won't have the holidays and other things to occupy their minds.

If they're appealing to TRUE fans, it's May the 25th...
Which has now become pushed back to an afterthought, after the last sixteen years made the first week in May the most desirable movie week of the year, which means it would be the Fourth--A practice, ironically, first started by other studios trying to outstrategize Phantom Menace opening on the 25th.

As for Avatar, Cameron's had his chance to have a sequel in the last six years, and blew it. Even a good director is going to let his ego loose and bobble his own hit sequel through story-destroying self-indulgence (ahemavengers2 ), a director who neurotically obsesses and procrastinates over it to the exclusion of his entire career is not going to do any better.
Ep. VIII has a change of directors, so, like Irvin Kirschner directing Empire, there's a good chance that Star Wars is going to have the better survival skills.

(Just look on the Disney Parks blog every time there's an announcement of their upcoming Avatar attractions and see the flood of "Oh, don't DO this to yourself, it's so over!" fan sentiments...)

[Dacey]

Well, that didn't take long...

http://www.slashfilm.com/avatar-2-delay ... 17-window/

I suspect this was a mutual agreement between Cameron and Disney, as with the Mouse House adding Pandora to the parks, they are actually both invested in the Avatar sequels being hits.

[Dan]

Even a Steven Spielberg-directed film gets moved to avoid direct competition with Star Wars.

As noted on the front page: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4154

The move also ends up moving around a DC film that appears to be The Flash.

[EricJ]

Oo, and I can hardly wait for "Untitled New Line Tentpole" in '18...Will it be some more Peter Jackson Tolkien-mutating? A Golden Compass reboot? Another stab at reawakening Elm Street or Jason?

[Bill1978]

I would be happy with anything His Dark Materials related at this point to be honest.

[Ben]

None of the above.

[EricJ]

None of the above.

(Is that a preference, or insider rumor?)

[Dacey]

Peter Jackson can't make any more Tolkein films for New Line due to legal reasons (others own the material).

New Line wouldn't make a new Golden Compass film with a TV series in production.

A Freddy/Jason film wouldn't be labeled as a "tentpole."

[LotsoA113]

The New Line tentpole is probably either the Dwayne Johnson Rampage movie or that Justice League Dark feature. No clue what the March 2, 2018 film is though.