The Left-wing media only reports on certain topics regarding certain media properties. They have a very obvious bias and agenda – mostly one aligned against the majority of normal consumers – and it bleeds through in how they cull information and data in order to maintain the Social Justice Warrior agenda. A perfect example of that is the lack of news stories surrounding the fact that Star Wars as a media brand has been tanking over the last couple of years, and it was made clear as day in Disney’s fiscal report: Getting woke is not profitable.
Only Cosmic Book News seems to be reporting on the fact that Disney admitted that licensing for Star Wars games such as Star Wars: Battlefront was down, Star Wars comic book sales were down, merchandise was down, and profits from the consumer products and interactive media division was down.
Cosmic Book News only recently reported on these facts on January 11th, 2019, but the annual report and the full year earnings report relating to the decrease in revenue from Star Wars paraphernalia were published originally on October 5th, 2018 and November 8th, 2018 respectively. However the annual report wasn’t made publicly available until January, 2019.
Regardless of when and how the reports were made available, they have some damning information regarding the Star Wars brand. The report from November 8th, 2018 revealed that the consumer products and interactive media saw an 8% quarterly decline compared to the previous year, with the gaming division taking a hit, where it states…
“Lower income from licensing activities was due to a decrease in revenue from products based on Star Wars and Cars and lower minimum guarantee shortfall recognition. These decreases were partially offset by lower third-party royalty expense and an increase in revenue from products based on Spider-Man.”
It’s interesting that Spider-Man would be the property to help stave off complete and utter revenue annihilation in that division.
But things keep getting worse the more you look into where Disney’s decreases in revenue are coming from.
Both the comic books and novels generated lesser revenue than the previous year, and this was compounded with the discontinuation of the Disney Infinity game back in 2016 and the lack of any significant games to replace Infinity, with the report stating…
“The decrease in cost of goods sold and distribution costs was due to the discontinuation of Infinity, lower retail sales and the decrease in sales of books and comics. Lower product development expense was primarily due to the discontinuation of Infinity and fewer mobile games in development”
Now Marvel’s comic book line has always been a troubled part of the business since around 2012, where the division went full SocJus, embracing fringe ideological pursuits in favor of chasing the Social Justice Warrior audience at the behest of media activists pretending to be journalists, and a loud minority on social media.
It’s no secret that Marvel comic books have tanked, resulting in them having to cancel a number of SJW comics. They replaced Axel Alonso as the editor-in-chief and replaced him with C.B. Cebulski, so it may take time for the division to eventually recover.
Cosmic Book News also points out that the fiscal year counted in the report accounts for products released from the third quarter of 2017 up through September 29th, 2018. This means that the data is looking at retail revenue generated from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Star Wars: Battlefront II and Solo: A Star Wars Story, along with novels and merchandise based on the properties.
While Frozen, Cars and Moana showed decreased revenue in merchandise, it was Star Wars that kept popping up across the field due to lowered revenue generated from licensing, merchandising, and retail sales in the consumer products category, with the report stating that it wasn’t just 2018 that saw a dip, but it was a carryover of decreased revenue from 2017 as well…
“The decrease in retail sales was due to lower comparable store sales, partially offset by an increase in online retail revenue. Lower comparable retail store sales reflected decreased sales of Star Wars and Moana merchandise in the current year, partially offset by higher sales of Mickey and Minnie merchandise. […]
”[…] The decrease in licensing, publishing and games revenue was due to decreases of 8% from our games business, 6% from our merchandise licensing business and 2% from our publishing business. Lower games revenue was due to the discontinuation of Infinity in fiscal year 2016 and decreased licensing revenue from Star Wars: Battlefront. The decrease at our merchandise licensing business was due to lower revenue in fiscal year 2017 from merchandise based on Star Wars and Frozen and an unfavorable FX Impact, partially offset by a benefit from licensee settlements and higher revenue from merchandise based on Cars. […]
“[…] The decrease in retail and other revenue was due to a decrease of 9% from our retail business driven by lower comparable store and online sales in our key markets, reflecting higher sales of Frozen and Star Wars merchandise in fiscal year 2016, partially offset by sales of Moana merchandise in fiscal year 2017.”
So to put this all into perspective: Star Wars merchandise, comic books, and video games, all saw higher revenue in 2016 than in 2017 or 2018.
The comic books are not selling as well, and have shown a decrease in revenue. The retail and consumer products for Star Wars have all seen a decrease in revenue. And the licensing has seen a decrease in revenue, so there are fewer publishers willing to license Star Wars properties in the consumer media and interactive entertainment field.
A lot of this could be due to Electronic Arts wetting the proverbial bed by trying to introduce gambling-style mechanisms into Star Wars: Battlefront II with loot boxes, which set off a chain reaction of investigations from gambling commissions, legal departments, and politicians who were alerted to the loot boxes by angry parents that saw them as a form of gambling. Research studies have also shown that predatory loot box mechanics do share similarities with casino-style gambling.
It appears Disney may need to begin course-correcting as soon as possible, especially after Solo: A Star Wars Story tanked. This was made somewhat evident with J.J. Abrams being brought back to direct Star Wars: Episode IX, and Rian Johnson quietly being moved away from the brand after blaming #GamerGate for the movie being widely derided among normies and hardcore fans alike.
Disney also fired Chuck Wendig, an author for Star Wars novels, after he went on vitriolic Twitter tirades, calling fans “white supremacists”.
It’s hard to tell if it’s too late for Star Wars at this point, between EA’s anti-consumer antics and pro-SocJus stance, and Disney assiduously antagonizing fans with agitprop slogans like “The Force is female“, will gamers and moviegoers alike pile up in front of theaters for Star Wars: Episode IX? I guess we’ll find out when it hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.
(Thanks for the news tip Migi)
