The Ratings Are In: Disney Has Officially Killed One of Its Most Beloved IPs
Many of us who grew up on the original “Star Wars” trilogy have long since stopped paying attention.
Judging by viewers’ initial response to Disney’s latest iteration of that once-beloved franchise, we have plenty of company.
According to the newest ratings from the longtime audience-data company Nielsen, Disney’s premiere of “Skeleton Crew” failed to make the top 10 for streaming content during the week of Dec. 2-8, 2024.
Moreover, the show’s dreadful debut made history.
Cosmic Book News, a website focused on entertainment news related to comic books and other genres in popular culture, noted that “Skeleton Crew” became the first “Star Wars” show to debut outside the Nielsen top ten.
Worse yet, the first two episodes of “Skeleton Crew” premiered on the same night. That means that both episodes had an entire week to attract streaming viewership yet failed to do so.
Of course, the problem runs much deeper than “Skeleton Crew.”
In fact, never having watched the show, I can venture no insights into its content. Perhaps its streaming performance will improve via word of mouth.
As Darth Vader said of Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1983’s “Return of the Jedi,” however, it now seems irrefutable that Disney’s “Star Wars”-related “failure is complete.”
For instance, viewers fled in droves from Disney’s “The Acolyte,” a widely-panned “Star Wars” series that debuted in 2024.
And for good reason. After all, “The Acolyte” subjected viewers to lesbian space witches, intergalactic creatures with pronouns, and — as if runaway wokeness did not alienate enough of the show’s prospective audience — a mile-wide plot hole.
Amandla Stenberg, the show’s black lead actress, responded to backlash by playing the race card in a vulgar rap video.
Then, in August, Disney mercifully canceled “The Acolyte” after only one season.
Again, those with long memories who have largely stopped watching “Star Wars” should probably analyze its recent offerings with humility.
Indeed, fans’ general disenchantment with the franchise’s direction dates back decades. I, for one, can recall the relative excitement of traveling an hour with three friends to watch a midnight premiere of “Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace” in 1999, as well as the relative disappointment on the car ride home.
That episode has improved with time, in my opinion, but it remains one of the least-popular “Star Wars” movies. Its mediocre 6.5/10 rating on the movie database website IMDb, for instance, ranks worst among the franchise’s first six films.
In other words, the decline of “Star Wars” began at least 25 years ago.
Still, it reached new depths with “The Acolyte,” to which fans on IMDb have given an abysmal 4.2/10 rating.
By contrast, early reviews on IMDb have returned a 7.2/10 rating for “Skeleton Crew.” So perhaps that word of mouth will begin to reflect in the show’s ratings.
That is, however, about the only silver lining for Disney, which has done its best to hasten the demise of a once-iconic franchise.
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