The Tweeting Cosplayer

George Lucas traded $350,000 in directing salary for something Fox executives thought was worthless: the right to sell Star Wars toys. It was 1976. Over 40 studios had already passed on his script, including Disney. Fox only greenlit the project because they wanted Lucas for other films. Nobody at the studio expected to make money on a space opera with no stars, so when Lucas offered to cut his directing fee from $500,000 to $150,000 in exchange for merchandising and sequel rights, Fox said yes on the spot. Movie merchandise was a dead business. Fox had lost money on Doctor Dolittle lunchboxes a decade earlier. They thought they were getting the better deal. Lucas couldn’t even find a toy company that wanted in. Kenner, a division of cereal company General Foods, finally bought the licensing for a flat $100,000. Then Star Wars opened. Between 1977 and 1978, Kenner sold $100 million worth of toys off that $100,000 investment. They couldn’t make enough for Christmas ’77, so they sold empty boxes with IOUs inside, promising to mail the action figures later. Parents paid real money for cardboard and a promise. Nobody around the production saw any of this coming. Alec Guinness, who played Obi-Wan, privately called the script “fairy-tale rubbish.” But he was shrewd enough to negotiate 2.25% of royalties instead of a flat fee. About 20 minutes of total screen time earned his estate somewhere between $50 million and $100 million. Lucas himself was so convinced the film would flop that he offered Spielberg a bet while visiting the Close Encounters set: swap 2.5% of each other’s profits. Spielberg took it. That handshake has paid him around $40 million. And then the money started compounding. Lucas poured his Star Wars profits into ILM, the effects house he’d built for the film. When its computer graphics division got too expensive to maintain, he sold it to Steve Jobs in 1986 for $10 million. Jobs renamed it Pixar. Disney bought Pixar twenty years later for $7.4 billion. Then in 2012, Disney came back for the rest, buying Lucasfilm itself for $4.05 billion. Total franchise revenue today sits around $46.7 billion, over $20 billion from merchandise alone. The filmmaker 40 studios passed on is now worth $5.3 billion according to Forbes. Fifty years ago today, cameras rolled on a desert in Tunisia. The $350,000 pay cut that made it all possible might be the best trade in business history.

@Gav_Griffiths @peterrhague ???

@TweetingCosplay @peterrhague Probably not compatible with this the reparations thing

Its tempting to attribute any trend to whatever your particular bugbear is, but surely the most parsimonious explanation here is that lots of people have just stopped watching broadcast TV?

@Gav_Griffiths @peterrhague He retired from presenting it two years ago.

@TweetingCosplay @peterrhague Haven’t a clue. I don’t watch it 😂😂

@Gav_Griffiths @peterrhague What, the Lenny Henry who doesn't present it any more?

@peterrhague Good point, combined with front man Lenny Henry inexplicably pivoting from comic national treasure to reparations activist.

Well this was actually quite funny! Always nice when the doubters are proved wrong. #SNLUK

@ALittleOri No. I do hope he doesn't think his general statement was enough...

Has anyone who complained received a personal response from Sean?

@AMadmanNotABox ...And yet they're not the cultists?...

Gotta say as an additional to yesterday, I think one of the worst things to have come out of Starfury Flux is discovering the abrasive, condescending and blunt way that some of the long-time regulars speak to people online and in-person at the slightest edge of critique.

@misterphipps @girlfacemcgirl1 Indeed, sorry Paul. I'll delete my replies, and I hope you have a good Tuesday too!

@TweetingCosplay @girlfacemcgirl1 Guys. Didn’t want to be angry twitter guy so deleted most tweets post con. I wasn’t comparing cost of photo (of course Ncuti is expensive to cover costs). My point was a £70 product should equal or excel the quality of a £15 product. Have a good Tuesday! 🙂

@mradknight You couldn't make it up!

@TweetingCosplay Nightmare. I asked about clashes with times and was assured that it shouldn't happen because of the way they do it, but it happened to me more than once with photoshoots starting late. When Arthur was late, I got told off for then being late to the Jodie and Mandip shoot!

So, what did everyone think of #StarfuryFlux then? Seeing a lot of complaints about the rudeness of the staff, and many felt it was a bit chaotic in terms of organisation. Did we still manage to have a good time?

@mradknight Got very nasty, blocked our way, wouldn't listen to us when we explained repeatedly that we'd been allowed and significantly raised her voice at us!

@mradknight Several incidents really, but the biggest being when my friend and I had a photo clash yesterday, and we tried to talk to several stewards about it. The first said she wasn't interested, the second was kind and let us use the shortcut door between the rooms, and then the third...

@mradknight Thank you! True, there were plenty who were kind and helpful (and I'm so glad that they were so brilliant at supporting you), but the significant minority were awful.

@TweetingCosplay Oh dear! Sorry to read you found it awful!! Yes, the biggest complaint (other than about organisation) I am seeing on here was about the staff/helpers. Some of them were very rude, although there were some who were really helpful and helped ease my anxiety over the weekend.

@pualnewwin I don't think so. There is quite a big difference between implying that you disagreed with a creative decision and all that happened between RTD and Eccleston.

ncuti gatwa in 20 years or so…

@misterphipps And in mine and Dan's experience, having a two photo clash. First steward says "I'm not answering that" when you ask for help, second says you can take the shortcut between the photo rooms, third blocks your way, shouts at you and ignores you when you say you were allowed...

@littleteagirl_ Bloody hell!

Nah the way Kai is still here but they released him from the autos without checking everyone got him so I some people missed him including myself

@misterphipps Definitely one for lifting!

@TweetingCosplay It’s VERY rule three. Do I need a rule four about inappropriate touching?

@Tom_Chappy_man @kianthequark Yes, so many of these stewards act like they're Gods, it's awful. The attitude of one of the women running the fan meets today stank.

Yeah this place is too much for my neurodivergent brain…. Too badly organised…. To strict on phones when queuing…. Feels like they’re over compensating

@eveofthedaleks Was this at a fan meet? Because that woman was so horrible!