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Why The Mandalorian And Grogu Is A Box Office Failure - Video học tiếng Anh
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Why The Mandalorian And Grogu Is A Box Office Failure
Why The Mandalorian And Grogu Is A Box Office Failure
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0:00
The Mandalorian and Grogu may have
0:02
blasted off to the big screen, but the
0:04
first Star Wars film in 7 years isn't
0:06
making nearly as much money as they used
0:08
to. Are the franchise's days of breaking
0:10
the box office over for good? Let's find
0:13
out.
0:14
Remember when Star Wars used to mean
0:15
something? Star Wars used to mean
0:17
massive lines at the movie theater,
0:19
dressing up in costumes, and enjoying a
0:21
collective love of the galaxy far, far
0:24
away. Each film was nothing less than a
0:26
cinematic event. So, what happened? In a
0:29
word, Disney happened. Star Wars was a
0:32
money-making merch machine long before
0:34
the House of Mouse got the rights to the
0:36
series, but Disney expanded the
0:38
franchise in a way that made each
0:40
installment just a little less special
0:43
than the last. We went from two
0:45
trilogies and The Clone Wars to three
0:47
trilogies, multiple spin-off movies, and
0:49
so many TV shows that it's hard to keep
0:52
track. Not even the popularity of the
0:54
first Star Wars Disney+ show was enough
0:57
for the opening weekend of The
0:58
Mandalorian and Grogu to reach the new
1:00
series standard set by Rey and Kylo Ren.
1:03
As cute as Grogu is, the newest Star
1:05
Wars movie's opening weekend box office
1:07
was one of the weakest of the entire
1:09
Disney era. Only Solo: A Star Wars Story
1:13
made a comparably low amount in its
1:15
first few days, and that's the only film
1:17
in the franchise that's outright bombed.
1:20
Thankfully for Disney, The Mandalorian
1:22
and Grogu has a budget half the size of
1:24
Solo's, but that doesn't mean that the
1:26
company is satisfied by the movie's
1:28
reception.
1:30
OH, THE HORROR BABY.
1:31
OH, THE HORROR BABY. IT'S A BAD BABY.
1:34
It's easy to forget how big of a deal
1:35
The Mandalorian was when it first came
1:37
out in 2019. Star Wars had existed in
1:40
the television space for a number of
1:42
years, but only in the form of animated
1:45
series like The Clone Wars and Rebels.
1:47
This was the first time that a Star Wars
1:49
show was in live action, and when Grogu
1:51
was revealed at the end of the first
1:53
episode, we all knew that we were in for
1:55
something special.
1:56
>> [music]
1:56
>> 2019 was also the year that The Rise of
1:59
Skywalker hit theaters to a much less
2:01
positive [music] reception. Since then,
2:03
Star Wars has been nothing but shows and
2:05
the occasional video game. Movie
2:07
characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Boba
2:10
Fett, and Cassian Andor have been
2:12
relegated to the small screen to varying
2:14
degrees of success. Now, we finally have
2:16
another movie after 7 years, but for the
2:19
first time in Star Wars history, you
2:21
need to watch multiple seasons of
2:22
television for the full context. At
2:24
least, that's the impression that a lot
2:26
of people have. Even though The
2:28
Mandalorian and Grogu works fine as a
2:30
standalone story, the fact that it's
2:32
basically a feature-length episode of
2:34
the show just adds insult
2:36
[clears throat] to injury for anyone who
2:37
only watches Star Wars in theaters. I
2:40
told you that was a bad idea.
2:42
To see how rough a time Disney has had
2:44
integrating movies or streaming shows,
2:46
all we have to do is look next door to
2:48
the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Some of
2:50
the MCU's worst box office does in
2:52
recent years have been films that
2:54
require a Disney Plus subscription to
2:56
understand.
2:57
>> [music]
2:57
>> The Marvels, Captain America: Brave New
2:59
World, and Thunderbolts all
3:01
underperformed, which wasn't never a
3:04
good sign for The Mandalorian and Grogu.
3:06
There will always be fans that watch
3:08
everything no matter what size screen
3:09
it's on, but some more casual viewers
3:12
felt inclined to stay home this time
3:14
around.
3:15
It's not just going from the TV to the
3:17
big screen is an uphill battle. It's
3:19
also that The Mandalorian already had
3:21
its time in the sun. The first season
3:23
was novel and exciting, like a western,
3:25
but with a whole lot more aliens. With
3:28
Pedro Pascal in the lead role and Grogu
3:30
as a series' adorable mascot, the future
3:33
seemed bright. Unfortunately, the show
3:35
only lasted two great seasons before it
3:38
largely lost its way. And if there's
3:40
anyone who knows how important it is to
3:42
have a way, it's Mando.
3:44
It's not like The Mandalorian season 3
3:46
was the worst thing that Star Wars has
3:48
ever produced, but there was definitely
3:50
a dip in quality along with some
3:52
questionable creative choices. Some
3:54
viewers thought that the season paid too
3:56
much attention to Bo-Katan Kryze and not
3:58
enough [music] to Din Djarin. Others
4:00
were annoyed that major plot
4:02
developments for the main characters
4:03
>> [music]
4:03
>> took place in The Book of Boba Fett. If
4:06
The Mandalorian and Grogu would come out
4:08
in, say, summer of 2022, its [music]
4:11
opening weekend probably would have been
4:12
a whole lot better. Not only did The
4:15
Mandalorian season 3 change the way that
4:17
people think about the show as a whole,
4:19
but it's also been more than 3 years
4:21
since the series finale premiered. In
4:23
the meantime, Star Wars fans were
4:24
treated to some of the best television
4:26
in the franchise so far with season 2 of
4:28
Andor. The Mandalorian just isn't the
4:31
new hotness anymore, and unfortunately
4:33
for Disney, [music] the end of Cassian
4:35
Andor's story has already been told.
4:38
When the sequel trilogy kicked off with
4:39
The Force Awakens, one of its biggest
4:41
selling points was the return of
4:43
characters we grew up with after decades
4:45
away. Han Solo, Princess Leia,
4:47
Chewbacca, everyone knows those names
4:50
even if they've somehow never seen a
4:52
Star Wars movie before. That's helped
4:53
episode 7 become the highest-grossing
4:56
[music] film in the franchise.
4:57
Let's compare that to the familiar faces
4:59
in The Mandalorian and Grogu. Aside from
5:02
the two title characters, we have names
5:04
like Zeb Orrelios, Rotta the Hutt, and
5:07
Embo. If you ask your mother who Embo
5:09
is, do you think she'll know the answer?
5:11
Mm, probably not. But show her a picture
5:14
of Luke Skywalker and there's a 90%
5:16
chance she'll recognize him. I like
5:18
those odds. You've probably seen plenty
5:21
of jokes and memes about there being
5:22
hundreds of uniquely named Star Wars
5:24
characters. It's one of the things that
5:26
gives the series its special charm.
5:28
There's nothing wrong at all with giving
5:30
some of these characters a turn in the
5:31
spotlight, but you shouldn't be
5:33
surprised when they don't make as much
5:35
cash. Apologies to Dave Filoni, but you
5:37
can't expect people to get excited about
5:39
Trapper Wolf as they do for R2-D2 and
5:42
C-3PO.
5:44
If you're making a movie, one of the
5:45
most important elements to get right is
5:47
its name. George Lucas knows how
5:50
important a good movie name is. His
5:52
oddly titled debut, THX 1138, wasn't a
5:56
box office success. And his second film,
5:59
American Graffiti, might have been
6:00
called Goodbye Burger City or Ask
6:03
Wolfman Jack if Universal executives had
6:06
gotten their way. Star Wars? Now, that's
6:09
a snappy title. The Empire Strikes Back?
6:12
Flawless. No notes. The Phantom Menace?
6:15
The movie might have some problems, but
6:17
its name isn't one of them.
6:18
Unfortunately or fortunately, depending
6:20
on who you ask, Lucas isn't calling the
6:22
shots anymore. None of the titles of
6:24
sequel trilogy movies were particularly
6:26
horrible, but let's just be honest, The
6:29
Mandalorian and Grogu is not a good name
6:31
for a movie. Sure, it's accurate. It is
6:34
indeed a movie about The Mandalorian and
6:35
Grogu. That doesn't make its title
6:38
exciting or fun to say. It's not that
6:40
people don't want to see Grogu. We
6:42
[music] do. We all love Grogu. I would
6:44
like to see the baby.
6:47
It's just that in hindsight, maybe Grogu
6:49
wasn't the most marketable choice of a
6:51
name for the most popular Star Wars
6:53
character introduced in the past decade.
6:55
There's a reason a lot of people still
6:57
call him Baby Yoda, after all. We're not
7:00
exactly sure what a better title for The
7:02
Mandalorian and Grogu would be, but
7:04
Disney probably could have afforded a
7:06
few more focus groups to find it.
7:08
Star Wars has mostly been critic proof
7:11
as far as money is concerned. The Rise
7:13
of Skywalker was panned as a poor
7:15
conclusion to the sequel trilogy by
7:17
plenty of professional reviewers, but
7:19
that didn't stop it from making a
7:20
billion dollars. Given the polarized
7:23
reception to The Mandalorian and Grogu
7:25
and its unfortunate opening weekend, one
7:28
can't help but wonder if that era has
7:30
come to an end.
7:31
Some sizable publications don't hold
7:34
back. Slate published a review titled We
7:37
have a new worst Star Wars movie, with
7:39
critic Sam Adams calling The Mandalorian
7:41
and Grogu lifeless and half-hearted. He
7:44
didn't stop there saying, "If The
7:46
Mandalorian and Grogu isn't the worst
7:48
Star Wars movie, and it might be, it's
7:51
certainly the least the least essential,
7:53
the least engaging, the least
7:54
necessary." Over at The Atlantic, critic
7:57
David Sims declared The Mandalorian and
7:59
Grogu a Star Wars movie to fall asleep
8:02
to.
8:03
He called the film a nothing burger
8:04
[music] and argued that the only
8:06
character with something of a
8:07
personality is Hugo, the Alden
8:10
shopkeeper played by Martin Scorsese.
8:12
Woah. For this price, I'll tell you
8:14
whatever you want.
8:15
>> I'm looking for a hat. Closed for the
8:16
night. Thank you.
8:18
Finally, Hoai Tran Duy at Inverse put
8:21
out a review called The Mandalorian and
8:23
Grogu is barely a movie. They likened
8:25
the film to a filler arc in the middle
8:27
of a season or one of those videos you
8:29
half watch while waiting in line for the
8:31
next Mandalorian-themed ride. The
8:34
Mandalorian and Grogu had a Rotten
8:35
Tomatoes critic score of 63% on the day
8:38
of its release. That's not the worst
8:40
percentage in the world, but take a look
8:42
at the positive reviews and you'll see
8:43
an ocean of three out of fives. Even if
8:46
that's not terrible, it's middling. And
8:48
when the box office is involved,
8:50
sometimes there isn't much of a
8:52
difference.
8:53
With the long-awaited return of Star
8:55
Wars to the big screen being a
8:56
disappointment in multiple ways, the
8:58
series is in a bit of a strange place.
9:00
There are a number of Star Wars projects
9:02
that Disney has announced, but the rocky
9:04
reception of The Mandalorian and [music]
9:06
Grogu calls into question whether or not
9:08
they'll actually be any good or whether
9:11
they'll come out at all. The next film
9:12
planned is Shawn Levy's Star Wars
9:15
Starfighter, a standalone story starring
9:17
Ryan Gosling as a pilot that's slated
9:20
for release in 2027. Casting a
9:22
completely new set of characters is a
9:24
gamble, but it could prove to be the
9:25
shake-up that the series needs. Coming
9:27
that same year on the other end of the
9:29
spectrum is Ahsoka season 2, which is
9:32
more aimed at pleasing long-time fans of
9:34
the Star Wars universe. After that, it's
9:36
hard to say. Given that there's no
9:38
shortage of canceled movies and shows
9:41
littered throughout the Disney era,
9:43
there's been a talk of a new trilogy
9:44
written and produced by Simon Kinberg.
9:47
And if these spin-off movies keep
9:48
failing to meet expectations, chances
9:50
are that executives will want to put out
9:53
episode 10 sooner rather than later. Can
9:55
Star Wars turn things around and bring
9:57
back the colossal [music] crowds,
9:59
costume parties, and general excitement
10:01
for the most popular space opera saga in
10:03
human history? It won't be easy, but
10:06
through the force, all things are
10:07
possible.
