A Logical & Business Analysis of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
Or Why the Logical & Business Side of Entertainment is not that Entertaining.
There are couple of things audiences need to understand and that is the business side of Star Wars.
The movie industry is a money “making or breaking” machine.
And Disney is a money making enterprise.
Star Wars holds a Guinness World Records title for the “Most successful film merchandising franchise” as the total value of the Star Wars franchise was estimated at US$42 billion
So in 2012, when the Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm for US$4.06 billion and earned the distribution rights to all subsequent Star Wars films — their main objective was one thing and one thing alone — To make money.
And how did they do this?
From making the Star Wars Characters more friendly and funnier in their Theme parks to bringing in humor & drama into their movies.
I mean — think about it — when George Lucas was the exclusive owner of the Star Wars Characters — did you ever see Darth Vader dancing on stage to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” to entertain children?
Never.
There was a mystery, aura & respect to each character. And they were not created to make money at any cost. However, when Disney took over — it was more like how Tim Cook took over Steve Jobs after his death — the focus was simple — lets make money any way, every way and all the ways possible.
And that is where ‘The Last Jedi’ focuses on this strategy effectively.
How do they do this?
- To focus on a new fan base — They bring in a woman as the main character.
- To focus on new business markets — they focus on an African European man as their secondary hero.
- To appeal to Global Interests and the Largest new growing economies — they bring in an Asian woman to play the Central Character. Remember China?
You may say, isn’t that how a inter-galactic rebellion should look like instead of having a golden blonde blue eyed hero & heroine taking the lead role?
Yes of course.
Given how the global economy & the shift of powers are moving towards Asians specially China — it must change or else they will become extinct. How else will the media industry survive a global shift of power?
- USA will no longer be the dominant force it once used to be.
- Running off to the Middle East to earn tax-free fast money is no longer a viable option.
- Asians are no longer ‘Poor Economies’ that the West once thought it was.
- Working for one company until retirement is no longer a badge of pride.
- Freelancing or being an outsourced project based employee is now being replacing the Fixed-Salaried employee & even the so called Entrepreneur.
- And paper currency is now going crypto crazy.
The economic landscape of our planet is changing faster than you can imagine which is why The Movies, The Internet & even Social Media Companies have now become a manipulative advertisement of hidden messages which target consumers in more ways than just a feel-good family moment.
So the next time you go to watch a movie with your children — snap out of the magical spell and look around logically to understand what companies are doing and why they are doing it.
