My latest column for Adweek is a compliment to the marketing recap for Star Wars: The Last Jedi I published at Cinematic Slant, taking a slightly higher-level look at some of the themes of the campaign Disney put together. And of course, all the sections use quotes from various Star Wars movies, because that’s how I roll.

Despite how audiences seem pretty willing to accept frequent franchise entries (Marvel Studios, which like Lucasfilm is owned by Disney, put out six films between 2013 and 2015 alone), the threat of burnout has to weigh heavy on the minds of studio execs. How much is too much? Will older audiences, who are used to waiting 10 or 15 years between series, keep turning out every December? What’s the right “Saga” versus “Story” balance?

To account for all that, the cryptically titled The Last Jedi (wearing an “Oxford Comma, Jerks” sweatshirt in a college writing class wouldn’t have triggered more debate around grammar) has been marketed in a number of interesting ways, some of which take advantage of the latest technology and some of which clearly show adjustments being made from one campaign to the next.

via How Disney Managed the Tricky Marketing of Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Adweek

UPDATE: A few cool updates about this column. First, apparently it was cool enough to be used in a paid post by Adweek. Second, it was picked up Jeff Beer for his “After These Messsages” marketing-centric newsletter. Screenshots of both below.

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