Kathleen Kennedy’s Track Record
The woman who “invites” criticism from the fans, who greenlit Rian Johnson, and who has shepherded the back end of the greatest sci-fi saga in the last forty years to near destruction, might be on her way out with the trash.
From the trades:
Sources close to [the trades] have told us that Disney wants Kathleen Kennedy gone from Lucasfilm and while it’s not set in stone just yet that she’s on her way out the door, from what we’ve been told, there’s a “95% chance” she won’t be with the company for much longer.
Looks like Bob Iger’s handing out pink slips in the first quarter of the New Year.
The Vaunted Chinese Audience is Not Impressed
No matter how much a Hollywood executive is hated by the fans if that executive gets butts in seats, and revenues on the bottom line, then they can stay on the dole for years.
We haven’t been cocking and crowing too much about it, but the track record of Disney Wars hasn’t been great in the one media market in the world that every Hollywood studio covets—China.
And that pattern continued this weekend with The Rise of Skywalker.
From the trades, yet again:
The Force Awakens (2015) totaled $124 million, which already was considered somewhat disappointing in light of the Chinese market’s size and the film’s earnings elsewhere. Franchise spinoff Rogue One (2017) then slipped to $69 million despite the well-received supporting performances of two Chinese stars, Jiang Wen and Donnie Yen…. Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi (2017) eroded further to $42.5 million and Solo: A Star Wars Story brought in just $16.4 million. Many local analysts believe The Rise of Skywalker will struggle to crack $20 million.
We’ll cover more of this later, but we can add this to the pile-on that Kennedy is experiencing on her way out the door, along with the other rumor, reported here, that Jon Favreau may be taking over the franchise, and then there’s the other rumor that Kevin Feige lurks in the wings.
What Are We To Make of All of This?
As an adult one of the most important lessons that should be internalized deeply is to not count chickens—or “dead” Hollywood executives—until they hatch out of the shell, fully formed and ready to go.
The same thing applies to this rumor: Kennedy wormed her way in and the only thing we know about her for sure is that she’s a survivor in the brutal politics of a Hollywood system that we only get to see from the outside.
Maybe she’s not on Star Wars anymore after the first quarter of 2020, but she’ll be around—somewhere—ruining the hopes and dreams of sci-fi fans for the near term future anyway.
