On the same weekend that The Dark Knight surpassed the original Star Wars as the second highest grossing film in United States box office history, the most recent Star Wars film, the animated Star Wars: Clone Wars, opened in third place to a disappointing $14.6 million. How is it possible that a film produced under the banner of the most recognizable brand in the cinema history––and with all the money in the world behind its promotion––barely outgross a throwaway Korean horror remake which opened on 800 fewer screens? It’s because Russia’s at war with Georgia, silly!
Well, sort of. The Guardian’s David Cox outlines a complex theory, beginning with Ronald Reagan’s appropriation of both the title of George Lucas’ franchise and the phrase “evil empire” in his 80s-era rhetoric against the Russians. Cox says that even though we’ve got another president with a “plan to plant anti-missile missiles in the very eye of the Russian Death Star,” a mix of public apathy for Bush’s Wars and Clone Wars overall suckiness has resulted in both the movie and public excitement over the political conflict generally falling flat. Excerpts after the jump; your own counterarguments are expected in the comments.
From what I hear, Star Wars: The Clone Warsis really bad. Bad enough for the king of the fanboys, Harry Knowles, to reportedly write, “I hated the film. HATED IT. REALLY HATED IT.” Bad enough that Warner Bros. had the review removed from Aint it Cool News due to a review embargo — though probably it had more to do with it being so damaging to the studio’s marketing of the film (apparentlyWarners had no issue with Variety publishing its so-so review on the same day).
I’m not in the least bit surprised. Most people I know who used to be big Star Warsfans won’t be bothering to see the film. But if it bombs at the box office this weekend, what will that mean for Lucasfilm’s upcoming Clone Wars animated series, which is set to spin off from the movie? The show will probably do OK, thanks to the few geeks who still worship the franchise, but it’s not likely to make my list of best animated series spun off from movies:
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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