Hymie said:
They're promising six, but its even possible that is not going to happen.
Where did you read that there would be only six? I read a bunch of articles about this, and everyone said that Disney was just going to keep making Star Wars films indefinitely. But it is possible that I missed one that reported something different.
The spinoff films are not the big news here. Those were announced back in January or something. The big news this week was Allan Horn's announcement of a new Star Wars film every summer. And it was taken to mean every summer from now until forever.
Hymie said:
Why don't you wait and judge the movies to see if it was a worthy venture.
Of course I'll keep an open mind when the films show up, but I see nothing wrong with expressing reservations about an idea that has never worked in the past (that is, oversaturating the market with a franchise).
Hymie said:
Its unlikely they'll maintain the schedule they propose but if they can produce at least three more quality movie over the next decade, who does it hurt if there's a few more bad ones?
The franchise could very much be damaged if there are too many bad films. For instance, Disney used to put out a new animated film once every 3 or 4 years. It was an event when a new one came out. Then they ramped up the production to one new film a year. For a while, the quality stayed, but eventually it dropped off and audiences got sick of them.
The traditionally-animated feature department at Disney just shut its doors forever the same week this announcement was made, so I think it's very relevant and timely to question whether it's a good idea to use the exact same strategy with Star Wars.
Another example is the way Disney (again) overused Winnie the Pooh. There were cheaply made movies about Piglet and Tiggler and the Heffalumps, and there was merchandise everywhere, and there were several Pooh-related attractions at each park at the same time, and on and on and on. And audiences eventually started to see that the product had deteriorated.
Finally, in 2011, the feature animation department made a last-ditch effort to save the Pooh brand. They created a new, lovingly made movie that was finally once again based on the original stories by A.A. Milne. But by that time that the film (simply called
Winnie the Pooh) was released, Disney itself had tired of the brand and released it to very little marketing. The film sank without a trace, killing both the Pooh brand and (essentially) the feature animation department at the same time.
So when you ask me -- what's the harm? -- that's my reply. I can very much see Disney running this franchise into the ground the way that they've run other things into the ground and then discarded them like used toilet paper.
Of course, if it's only six films, that's not such a big deal. It's the possibility of Disney pumping out endless product like a sausage factory that has me saying: I have a bad feeling about this.