Leslye Headland’s “Star Wars: The Acolyte,” is now out officially cancelled. Although it was heavily promoted as “the gayest Star Wars ever,” It ended its run with lowest Rotten Tomatoes ‘audience score’ in the franchise’ history. Now it appears that the show’s merchandise was nearly cancelled by Disney as well.
You can find all the missing merch at Ollie’s along with all the other Star Wars flops. If you really care you can buy it there.https://t.co/deeShzpNc3
— itsagundam (@GundamIsHere) August 21, 2024
Now it appears that the useless merchandise is available again without comment. However, it is only four shirts.
What’s going on? Some think it’s about “residuals.”
When Disney removed the series “Willow” from its streaming platform, it sparked speculation about the reasons behind the decision. The main factor was most like their desire to avoid paying residuals to writers, directors, producers, and lead actors whose contracts include such provisions. While residuals in the theatrical world are usually based on box office performance, streaming residuals are most often determined by three key criteria: the number of viewers, the number of platform subscribers, and the increase in subscribers around the launch of a show or movie.
This means that studios may end up paying residuals on a show or movie that no one watched, based on its overall subscriber number, which can be financially unsound. Moreover, hosting a show that no one watches incurs additional financial costs for the studio. In the case of “The Acolyte,” Disney found itself in an embarrassing situation, as the show was publicly and loudly canceled just days or weeks after its season finale aired. Odd are, they wanted nothing more to do with this failed show.
However, John Nolte points has another theory.
If enough people don’t buy it, imagine the massive losses involved in design, manufacturing, shipping, and storage costs. According to this report, only 50+ people in the last month pre-ordered an upcoming six-pack of Acolyte action figures from Amazon. On Amazon, 50+ means between 50 and 100. Something that sells over 100 receives a “100+” badge. If that’s the case, and there’s no reason to believe it’s not, there’s no way that Acolyte collection justifies the design, merchandising, storage, and transportation costs.
To give you an idea of how low “50+” is, last year I wrote a novel that received about a millionth of the publicity The Acolyte received, and it was selling “50+” on Amazon ten months after its release, which bummed me out.
So.
To save money, Disney pulled the merch.
To try and memory-hole an embarrassment, Disney pulled the merch.
Then.
The social justice crowd online lost its mind, and Disney caved, even though the groomers will lose money keeping the merch available.
What I love about this, and I do so very much love it, is that the social justice crowd are not even Star Wars fans. I doubt ten percent of the people who whined about the merch cancellation even watched The Acolyte. I doubt one purchased a piece Acolyte merch. As the Critical Drinker astutely points out:
The cold, harsh truth is that the mythical, “modern audience” that Lucasfilm has been chasing for ten years now simply doesn’t exist; never has existed; and never will exist. The people who shout most loudly about it on social media don’t actually care about shows like The Acolyte and won’t even bother to watch it. All they care about is what it represents, the message it puts across, and I’m afraid that doesn’t translate into money for your studio. The reality here is that Disney gambled and lost bigtime on this one.
Nevertheless, Disney has spent a decade shitting all over core fans, then lost them, and still allows the social justice tail to wag the dog, which is why the merch magically returned. Like Willow, Disney would likely love to pull The Acolyte series itself from Disney+, but the social justice warriors—the only fans Disney has left after alienating Normal People—won’t allow it.
Disney is beholden to this tiny phantom audience that is chased and only have themselves to blame. If you really want a merchandise you can wear proudly, check out our shop here.
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English (US) · 