【opi nail polish love is in the bare】'Star Wars': Are the original actors too old for a sequel?
'Star Wars': Are the original actors too old for a sequel?opi nail polish love is in the bare
Joss Whedon probably wasn’t intending to make a provocative statement when he
dropped an opinion
on Disney’s plans for its
Star Wars
sequel. With evidence mounting that original trilogy actors Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, and Mark Hamill will appear in Episode VII,
The Avengers
writer-director said, “You know, I wouldn’t go back, I’d go forward. I would want to create characters that would resonate the way that they did.”
Other
Star Wars
fans have posted similar thoughts over the past week. A
Forbes
writer
argued,
“There’s a big risk here that the awkwardness of these older actors will hurt the film. That’s what happened with
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
… Karen Allen, returning as Marion Ravenwood, seemed out of her element the whole time … I’m hoping for something fresh and exciting.” While on EW,
one reader countered
, “Joss is dead wrong about not bringing back Ford, Fisher, and Hamill for
Star Wars
VII. People want to see those characters and for Disney to pay 4 billion for
SW
rights and to throw something out there with all new characters…that would be beyond stupid.”
To be clear, Whedon did not say the original actors are too old to continue on the franchise. His comment simply advocated a fresh creative start. So let’s put aside what Whedon may or may not have meant and leave him out of this. Let’s tackle the “too old” question all by itself.
Fisher is 56. Hamill is 61. Ford is 70.
The notion that they are “too old” for a
Star Wars
film is completely absurd. One of the best characters in the franchise was the 1977 original film’s version of Obi-Wan Kenobi. He was played by 63-year-old Alec Guinness in a performance that earned him an Oscar nomination.
But there is a version of this question that arguably has merit and it goes like this: Are the actors too old …
to play their original characters
.
Ahh, see, that’s a question you can chew on.
It’s been 30 years since we last saw Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia in
Return of the Jedi
. The trio were youthful, attractive and iconic figures who were branded into the memories of a generation of moviegoers. Realistically, their characters wouldn’t look or act like how we remember them, no more than your typical 50 year old looks or acts their 20-year-old selves. As an audience, we kind of know that, but we kind of don’t. Because if Ford isn’t wearing a vest and red-stripe pants, flying the Millennium Falcon, jabbing with Chewbacca, shooting first and being a smart-mouthed bad ass, he just isn’t Han Solo. But that would be like your dad walking around in 2013 wearing acid jeans, partying with his old college roommate and driving a Trans Am. If you thought it was rough sledding watching Ford try to recapture Indiana Jones in
Crystal Skull
, that performance was, by comparison, “only” 19 years after the release of
Last Crusade
. In other words: There is something to be said for preserving the memory of the original characters rather than stretching to recapture a magic moment in time.
Another point to consider, as Whedon seemed to suggest, is it’s arguably more exciting to start a new trilogy with an entirely fresh story and cast. One of the great things about the first
Star Wars
is how utterly alien its universe felt — every character, every ship, every planet, every weapon was new and strange and exciting. The film was the Cantina scene on a macro level. The more the new film tries to continue characters from the original trilogy, the more it risks making the same missteps as the prequels, which were obsessively focused on filling in the mythology of the original films with details best left to our imagination (we didn’t really need to know what Darth Vader was doing when he was 9). As comedian Patton Oswalt
ranted about the prequels
, “I don’t give a s–t where the stuff I love comes from, I just love the stuff I love.”
One hopes the original stars, if they show up in VII, will have relatively modest roles that feel natural and organic to launching a new story; characters that feel lived-in and age-appropriate, and not like an ’80s heavy metal band that reunites and tries to jump around on stage with their bellies spilling out of their spandex.
Ultimately, the reader above who supported the idea of bringing back the original cast is correct — “people want to see those characters.” Frankly, I want to see them too … just like I wanted to see a fourth Indy film. But unless director J.J. Abrams pulls off a miracle, we will probably walk away feeling a tad deflated about the on-screen reunion, like a delicate illusion has been cracked. I found a quote online that sums up this whole point. Conveniently, it’s from Whedon,
back in 2001
, when asked about fans who wanted his
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
storyline to progress a certain way. He said, “Don’t give people what they want, give them what they need.”
Star Wars: Episode VII
will probably give us what we want, but the better choice might be to give us what we need.
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- 5%, led by a 17% increase in average ticket and a slight decline in traffic. Growth in the quarter reflected the impact of households stocking up on essentials like paper goods and cleaning supplies as the pandemic became a nationwide concern, along with strength in discretionary categories as the quarter came to a close and stimulus dollars and tax refunds were disbursed.
As shown below, the results in the quarter materially changed the trend in two-year stacked comps for each of the banners, along with a significant acceleration for consolidated comps.
The increase in consolidated comps was the primary driver of an 8% increase in revenues to $6.3 billion. The company ended the quarter with 15,370 locations, up less than 1% year-over-year. This reflects a 7% increase in Dollar Tree units, offset by a 4% decline in Family Dollar units.
The top-line results at each banner flowed through to their respective income statements, with Dollar Tree gross margins and operating margins declining year-over-year while Family Dollar gross margins and operating margins expanded year-over-year. On a consolidated basis, gross margins contracted by 120 basis points in the quarter to 28.5%, reflective of a shift to lower-margin consumables, tariff costs and the impact of markdowns from the Easter headwinds at the Dollar Tree banner. The company saw slight operating leverage on SG&A from higher comps, with the net result being an 80 basis point contraction in operating margins to 5.8%, with operating income declining 5% to $366 million. This is not adjusted for $73 million of pandemic-related costs, such as PPE supplies.
In the first quarter, the company opened 85 stores (net of closures) and completed 220 Family Dollar renovations to the H2 format. Importantly, comps at renovated Family Dollar stores continue to outpace the chain average by more than 10%. On the call, management indicated that they plan on reducing both the number of new store openings (from 550 to 500) and the number of H2 renovations (from 1,250 to 750) in 2020.
Personally, given the fact that Family Dollar is seeing material benefits to its business from the pandemic with new or lapsed customers coming into its stores, I think the company should try to get more aggressive with its renovation plans, not less. On the other hand, you could argue that renovations cause short-term disruptions and limit their ability to fully capitalize on the business momentum they are currently experiencing.
As a result of fewer new stores and remodels, management now expects 2020 capital expenditures to total $1.0 billion compared to previous guidance of $1.2 billion. In addition, the company has temporarily suspended share repurchases. At quarter's end, the company had $1.8 billion in cash on its balance sheet compared to $4.3 billion in total debt.
Conclusion
In recent years, Dollar Tree has been a tale of two cities. While its namesake banner has generally delivered impressive financial results, Family Dollar has been a persistent underperformer. This quarter, those results flipped, and given what we've seen in the weeks since quarter's end, there's a decent possibility that we will see something similar in the coming months. As the CEO noted, the second quarter is off to a very good start at Family Dollar.
Here's the important question: how useful is that information is in terms of making future predictions about the business? Will recent success at Family Dollar translate into long-term success for the banner? The optimistic take is that new or lapsed customers, especially those visiting the renovated stores, could become recurring business for the banner. The pessimistic take is that they have experienced short-term success out of necessity as people went to any store that was open to try and find essentials like toilet paper and hand sanitizer that were largely out of stock throughout the retail landscape. From that view, many of these customers could abandon the retailer when life returns to normal. As Philbin noted on the conference call, early on [during the pandemic], folks needed us. Will people still shop as much at Family Dollar when it's no longer a necessity?
Personally, I do not place too much weight on the recent results. I will need to see incremental data points that indicate that Family Dollar has truly won sustained business from these new customers. While I still believe that the Dollar Tree banner is a well-positioned retailer with attractive unit returns, I'm not yet willing to say the same thing for Family Dollar. For that reason, along with the recent run-up in the stock price, I plan on staying on the sidelines for now.
Disclosure: None
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