New subscribers is definitely a thing streamers track. Part of the whole problem of the last few years is that they have basically gotten everyone subscribed who wants to subscribe. Their infinite growth bubble finally popped, which is why they're now trying to figure out how to make the profit line keep going up when the subscriber line has plateaued. Because they're primarily concerned with the short term, they've settled on jacking up rates and "rediscovered" ads.
Acolyte canceled. Rather unsurprising.
Indeed.
It's interesting that the Variety article emphasizes fan reaction rather than viewing figures. I suspect that reflects the extent to which so much modern journalism relies heavily on social media for supporting 'evidence' for the assertions made in articles and reports (a lamentable development in my view).
I suspect the truth is that viewing figures cratered after Episode 2 or 3, when the initial pace of the show seemed to evaporate. Also, as the Variety article notes:
"Creator Leslye Headland (“Russian Doll”), an avowed “Star Wars” super fan, set out to create the first “Star Wars” story set outside of the core timeline in the franchise that stretches from “The Phantom Menace” to “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.”"
This was a brave choice. But (seemingly) using only new characters in a new story meant that viewers weren't given an automatic 'reason-to-care' about what they were watching. (Contrast this with Ashoka where we'd met her already in The Clone Wars.) This meant that the story had to be a strong and compelling one, and it really wasn't. (An awful lot of the plot depended on the twins swapping identities... which is never a good sign.)
It'll be interesting to see what lessons Disney draws from this failure. My hope is that they recognise that they need go back to first principles and underpin their films and tv shows with strong and compelling stories. My hope also is that they recognise that using Skywalker Saga as a bridge to past doesn't automatically deliver success (see Kenobi and Solo: A Star Wars Story) and instead take a risk on using it as a bridge to the future. I still want to learn more about how the galaxy rebuilds after the Empire and the New Order.
A budget of 180$ million certainly didn't help.
A budget of 180$ million certainly didn't help.
Yes, that's an interesting point. At first, I thought, "Yikes! That's a lot for a tv show." But thinking about it a different way, it's not that expensive.
Eight 40-minute episodes runs to a little over five hours. That's the same length as two movies! I'd imagine that a movies-only studio presented with that price tag for a sci-fi film wouldn't bat an eyelid at it.
Of course, the problem for Disney is that - because 'The Acolyte' is streaming-only product - there is little opportunity to recoup those costs; let alone turn a profit. It would be fascinating to understand the metrics that Disney (and the other big streamers) uses to evaluate these investments. They all have incredibly granular data about their subscribers.
Like Stengah, I'd be very surprised if 'The Acolyte' had demanding targets relating to new subscribers. It's difficult to see the show as a subscription-seller. But it might have been given a role in stemming attrition among some set or subset of subscribers.
Timely discussion for me though. I'm currently working on a benefits management framework at work, and this kind of question about metrics and methods is exactly what I'm working through.
Conversely, if the rumored budget of $1.5 million per episode is true, that's the budget for the entire run of the Battlestar Galactica reboot. After adjusting for inflation.
I mean, they wanted too, they just told it like they were Grampa Simpson.
Conversely, if the rumored budget of $1.5 million per episode is true, that's the budget for the entire run of the Battlestar Galactica reboot. After adjusting for inflation.
That's a great shout! (Although can it really be 20 years since that show started? Man, that makes me feel old.)
What I would say, however, is that BSG was clearly a tightly budget show.. as it had to be given it told its story over 70 odd episodes. Even at the time, the visual effects were noticeably cheaper than those in feature films and the show clearly used relatively few, simple sets and locations.
Give Ronald Moore a Star Wars series please.
Revenge of the Sith had a budget of $113M, which with inflation is $186M.
Alien Love Gardener wrote:Conversely, if the rumored budget of $1.5 million per episode is true, that's the budget for the entire run of the Battlestar Galactica reboot. After adjusting for inflation.
That's a great shout! (Although can it really be 20 years since that show started? Man, that makes me feel old.)
What I would say, however, is that BSG was clearly a tightly budget show.. as it had to be given it told its story over 70 odd episodes. Even at the time, the visual effects were noticeably cheaper than those in feature films and the show clearly used relatively few, simple sets and locations.
I re-watched the series fairly recently and, yeah, it's noticeable for the robot sequences in real settings but things like space battles hold up very well.
On the other hand, I don't see the huge budget on the screen with Acolyte. Unlike something like Fallout, which was and looks expensive.
Was it affected by the Covid pandemic? This caused budgets to balloon in some cases.
The tragedy for me is that whether or not it is true, it looks like the keyboard warriors trashing the show won. Which means they will only be more obnoxious the next time a show or movie comes along that features women protagonists, or POC, or whatever their current fetish is.
The tragedy for me is that whether or not it is true, it looks like the keyboard warriors trashing the show won.
The number of times Lucasfilm/Marvel/Disney have caved to the keyboard warriors would suggest that this is more than a "looks like" situation.
The next D+ tv series will star the weird computer Luke falling in love with Mara Jade fighting the new galactic threat, Darth Antifa
Still better than "Last Jedi"
Still a better love story then Twilight.
The tragedy for me is that whether or not it is true, it looks like the keyboard warriors trashing the show won. Which means they will only be more obnoxious the next time a show or movie comes along that features women protagonists, or POC, or whatever their current fetish is.
I don't think that they had the effect you might think they did. The keyboard warriors were noisy for Ahsoka but it still did well. Acolyte failed because it was a bad show. The characters motivations made no sense. The saber fights were bad (they weren't even going for hits but swinging at open air). It was not because people didn't like the cast.
Still better than "Last Jedi"
If you said Rise of Skywalker, I would probably be with you.
Still better than "Last Jedi"
And just like TLJ, it had some great ideas with some pretty bad storytelling, imo.
I'd like to hope that Lucasfilm will learn the lesson that you should tell a complete story within a season. Fans aren’t going to stick around if you keep putting out table-setting seasons and tease a bigger/better story that will happen… someday. (Looking at you too Ashoka.)
I also hope this will finally give them some motivation to go forward and do something new. No more prequel-prequels please.
Ashoka is season 5+ of Rebels. Fans will absolutely stick around for as many seasons of Ashoka as Filoni takes to tell that story. People who have never watched Rebels might not, but it has a very loyal built-in audience, which new stories like The Acolyte don't have.
Great setting, interesting ideas, mid story pretty much describes all of Star Wars.
Great setting, interesting ideas, mid story pretty much describes all of Star Wars.
Also generally bad dialog.
UpToIsomorphism wrote:Great setting, interesting ideas, mid story pretty much describes all of Star Wars.
Also generally bad dialog.
And saber fights swinging at air too.
The tragedy for me is that whether or not it is true, it looks like the keyboard warriors trashing the show won. Which means they will only be more obnoxious the next time a show or movie comes along that features women protagonists, or POC, or whatever their current fetish is.
I'm pretty sure that ship sailed as soon as Disney chose the direction for Rise of Skywalker.
I don't think that they had the effect you might think they did. The keyboard warriors were noisy for Ahsoka but it still did well. Acolyte failed because it was a bad show. The characters motivations made no sense. The saber fights were bad (they weren't even going for hits but swinging at open air). It was not because people didn't like the cast.
I agree with your analysis. A company like Disney doesn't spend $180 million then walk away because a few thousand people start complaining on Reddit (or wherever). They walk away because the data tells them that hundreds of thousands of their paying customers didn't enjoy the show.
And there's nothing new or strange here. This is precisely the kind of ruthlessness that Neflix has been practicing for almost a decade. I quite wanted to see the where 1899 was going, but it was cancelled after one season. I'm sure there were dedicated fans too of Girlboss back in 2017, which was also cancelled after one season. And I believe that My Lady Jane, one of Prime Video's big original shows this year, also won't get a second season.
I suspect that the data shows that few (if any shows) build an audience over time. They are either successful within a couple of episodes or they aren't successful at all. Or, put another way, tv shows are far more likely to lose an audience than to gain one.
On the other hand, I don't see the huge budget on the screen with Acolyte. Unlike something like Fallout, which was and looks expensive.
I think that comes down to the producers and directors. Too many scenes just felt like they were happening on a stage. Nothing ever felt real or expansive.
On the cost of $180mm.
Disney+ has 153m subscribers. They lost 4m subs March-to-March 23/24. But they gained 7m subs in Q3 this year. So, plenty of churn but a 5% increase in your customer base in one quarter is crazy good. There are a lot of different pricing tiers but let's assume $11/mo ($8 basic vs $14 'premium').
That equates to $20.3bb/yr.
So Acolyte was .008% of their annual gross. I have no clue what the margins are in this space. 20%? 70%? 1%?
And have no idea what the breakdown is of operations (running the service) vs content creation.
Clearly Disney didn't think this thing was going to help a line Go Up. But I'm still not clear on which line these companies are looking at.
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Alien Love Gardener wrote:Conversely, if the rumored budget of $1.5 million per episode is true, that's the budget for the entire run of the Battlestar Galactica reboot. After adjusting for inflation.
That's a great shout! (Although can it really be 20 years since that show started? Man, that makes me feel old.)
What I would say, however, is that BSG was clearly a tightly budget show.. as it had to be given it told its story over 70 odd episodes. Even at the time, the visual effects were noticeably cheaper than those in feature films and the show clearly used relatively few, simple sets and locations.
Sure, Battlestar's tightly budgeted - to the point that it affected the storytelling. But that's not a bad thing. They couldn't afford big battle scenes, so they had to find more creative solutions.
If I was an exec, I'd look at the return of investment on those 180 million and wonder what would happen if I took a fraction of that and gave it to someone who'd create something more in line with a classic TV show.
Oh man. I'd watch the hell out of some procedural drama on old Star Wars sets where no shot is bigger than a ship's bridge or maybe even a comedy set in some cantina.
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