Weirdo and I know it. Also a humanist. 28. Lesbian. I’m only here to like and or repost content. I do not reply to my DMs. In my head Katie McGrath is my sugar daddy so any other applicants need NOT apply; now or like ever. ONLY LIKES WOMEN ♒️🇨🇦🏳️🌈
The Writer’s Guild of America has voted to strike, and I want to get out ahead of something Tumblr is bad about doing and encourage y'all to PLEASE get your information about the strike from the guild itself, not from random people on Tumblr telling you it’s “actually” about this or that.
The WGA wants the public to understand why they are striking. They have plenty of info available that is written with a general audience in mind.
WGA.org is the official website of the Writer’s Guild of America West.
WGAwest is on Twitter and posting extensively about the negotiations and strike. This account is linked from the WGA website.
WGA also has a Linktree (linked from their Twitter bio) with more information about the strike, including their own Twitter threads about various strike issues, as well as articles in the media.
WGA Contract 2023 is a website full of information about the strike. It is one of the first links in the Linktree above. It’s a great resource if you want to get deeper into the subject. There is a FAQ.
Any third party explaining the issue for you has an opportunity to, intentionally or not, insert their own spin or agenda. Get the information from the source.
I cant stop thinking about the Willow drama. So lets talk about it.
A lot of folk claim the show didn’t make as much bank or what was deemed to be Disney’s standards. I tried to find a show to compare it to, but Willow is the first Non-Star Wars show since the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles back in the early 90s. I settled on the MCU’s lowest ranked show, Ms Marvel (its a hella fun show, i highly suggest watching it if you haven’t already).
Lets talk viewership first.
Ms Marvel raked in about 750K viewers within its first week. For context, at the end of 2022, Disney plus had a total viewer base of 164 Million. Ms Marvel didn’t even gain half a percent of of its subscribers view count. (Edit, link number 2 for more info)
Willow within its first week (according to link number 1 at the bottom) reached just over 2 Million viewers, 1.5 percentish of the total viewer base at the time.
Ok but what about marketing?
I’ve had a gander on the webs looking for some reliable information, but to almost no ones surprise, Disney keeps its marketing budgets highly under wraps. For this I’m going to refer you guys to a few threads from the viewers themselves (be warned, there is a lot of negativity in some of these links, links numbers 3, 4, 5, and 6).
From my personal experience, I do remember seeing a lot of promotional material for Ms Marvel and it looked like a fun and exciting show. I remember a lot of the Marvel cosplay community shared the trailers and promo for it on their socials.
In the case of Willow, I actually didn’t realise it was a thing at all until the day after episode 3 came out. You guys wanna know where I first saw it mentioned? Right here on Tumblr. It was a reblog of a Boorman quote that first made me aware of the shows existence.
What about the budgets?
Again, this is gonna be a hard one to answer due to the lack of information. What we do know is that the original Willow film cost around the $35 million mark, adjusted to 2021 USD for inflation (the time the show began production) that brings us to $80 Million. Again, this is for the movie, not the show. But if we consider the show used a lot of practical effects, on set filming (bar some scenes) and puppetry like its predecessor, its safe to assume the show at most would’ve been around the $150 Million side.
Ms Marvel on the other hand, we know (link 7) cost around $130 Million in its first 2 months of filming. We also know (link 8) the show was given a budget of $12 Million to$25 Million per episode. Lets do some quick maths on this, lets say Ms Marvel spent $16 Million each episode, 6 times 16 million is 96 Million. Moon Knight (link 9) cost $90 Million.
This might seem like a big difference, but remember that Willow had an 8 Episode season, whereas Ms Marvel and most other marvel shows have a 6 Episode season. So this math shouldn’t be too far off (wish Disney would fukn tell us tho, that’d be nice).
So was Willow really a flop?
Fuck no. Willow had the viewership right from the start and managed to maintain it (Link 10) for pretty much the whole release. While Ms Marvel is an amazing and wholesome show, it didn’t (that we know of because again, Disney and its goddamn metrics) manage to hold onto its viewers or gain a substantial amount.
Willow was rated poorly because a lot of the fans of the original went into the show with the expectation that it was going to be the exact same and that it was a show made for them. It wasn’t. It was made for a newer and younger audience.
Ms Marvel was rated poorly because how dare someone that isn’t a white male be a superhero.
None of these shows are bad. Yes, the music in Willow was jarring at times, Yes, I also didn’t understand some of the jokes in Ms Marvel. But they are not bad shows! They are shows that are made to tell that little Pakistani kid that they are unique and funny and powerful, and they are shows that are made to tell all of us with insecurities that we are never alone and are mighty.
So… Now what?
Babe I got no idea. If you find a show that speaks to you, provides you a nice little escape from the world for a while, hold onto it and share it! Talk about it! Support the cast and crew! Leave a nice review on IMDB ( Which both shows could use a lot of btw), tweet about it!
Please remember however, if you find a show you don’t like, remember this: “Was this show made for my demographic?”. Not all the media you see is specifically for you, but do not dunk on the cast and crew and let the fans who do like it, enjoy it.
Anyway, I started writing this like 2 hours ago so imma bounce. Peace.
I haven’t seen this article posted anywhere outside of my immediate library-sphere so I wanted to shout about it - remember that supporting your local libraries is super duper punk rock 📚❤️
“Credit a unique sense of solidarity across Hollywood’s aggrieved labor community in 2023 and writers’ tendency toward communication. Or the imperviousness of corporate leaders whose chief stakeholder concern appears to be shareholder value, and who have recently preferred not to wade into labor battles on the record.”
