Few things live up to the hype and executives at Disney are more than a little afraid that there could be some backlash over Star Wars The Force Awakens. does this mean that they know something we don’t? Probably not. They do however remember the fan backlash over the prequels, and they’ve already got four billion dollars sunk into this relaunch. At this point, if the film doesn’t break every box office record, it will be considered an abject failure. Here’s the quote from the International Business Times about the recent Disney Earnings meeting:
However, despite expectations, it seems now that Disney is worried that it’s setting itself up to be too big of a giant and won’t be able to meet its own hype. To help with that perception, Disney Chairman and CEO, Robert Iger, is clearly hoping to lower expectations.
As enthusiastic as we are for what we know of the film, we have not seen a ‘Star Wars’ film — an original one — since 2005,” he said at the company’s quarterly earnings call (via Entertainment Weekly). “And there are markets around the world that are less familiar with ‘Star Wars’ than, say, the United States, for instance.