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 Walt Disney Co is reaching out to women and girls to broaden
the franchise's male-dominated audience and help recoup the $4
billion it spent to buy "Star Wars" producer Lucasfilm. Female
fans may determine if "Force Awakens" meets projections for
record-breaking box office returns after it opens Dec. 18.
The casting of Ridley, 23, as the film's star plus a flood of
R2-D2 purses, BB-8 dresses and other merchandise suggest Disney
is courting the female young adult audience that turned movies
such as "The Hunger Games" into blockbusters, said Jeff Bock,
senior box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations Co.
"The guys are already in," Bock said. "If you can get that
'Hunger Games' and 'Twilight' fan base to join up, then you are
talking about possibly $700 million domestically, maybe even
more."
Only one film, "Avatar," reached that level, selling $760
million worth of tickets in the United States and Canada after
its December 2009 release. Disney has honed its strategy in
recent years, though, with superhero and action franchises.
Stars of "The Avengers" visited talk shows such as "The View,"
and the sequel, "Age of Ultron," had two leading female
characters. About 40 percent of opening weekend audiences was
female for both films, according to Shawn Robbins, senior
analyst at BoxOffice.com.
While it's difficult to quantify the gender breakdown of fans
historically, earlier "Star Wars" movies featured just one main
female character - always royalty.
In the "Force Awakens", Ridley's character, Rey, was created as
a scrappy scavenger and a pilot, not a princess. In movie
trailers, Rey battles with a staff-like weapon, not unlike
"Hunger Games" warrior Katniss Everdeen and her bow and arrow.
Gwendoline Christie plays the first female villain, Captain
Phasma. Actress Lupita Nyong'o has a significant role, and
Carrie Fisher is back as Princess Leia, now a general.
"We have female stormtroopers and female resistance pilots,"
director J.J. Abrams told Reuters. "There are female voices and
energy throughout." It is important, Abrams said, "that we give
people a chance to see themselves in the movie."
Trailers to promote the film highlight Rey's prominence. Disney
has placed those previews in commercials for females of all
ages, according to a person aware of the studio's marketing
plan. That ranges from TV commercials in shows such as "Keeping
Up with the Kardashians," "Jane the Virgin" and the "Real
Housewives" series to ads on mobile video games popular with
young girls. "Force Awakens" stars appeared in interviews that
aired during Disney Channel shows.
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TAILORED MESSAGES
Beyond featuring women, the company appears to be tailoring some of
its messages to females, said Alvin Lieberman, a marketing professor
at New York University's Stern School of Business. In a four-minute
comedy sketch on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," Harrison Ford and Chewbacca
resolved a purported feud with an endearing, hug-it-out moment.
"That is not what your high-adrenaline, action-oriented male
population is looking to see," Lieberman said of the video, which
has been viewed more than 1.1 million times on YouTube. "It sells
the characters."
And while Rey looks tough in the trailers, the "Star Wars" women
show a feminine side in some promotions. In addition to Ridley
appearing on the covers of "Glamour" and "Elle," Nyong'o was on
"Vogue." None of those magazines put star Natalie Portman on their
covers ahead of the last "Star Wars" film, "Revenge of the Sith," in
2005.
For "Star Wars," the message is getting through. A National Retail
Federation survey found, for the first time, that "Star Wars" toys
ranked among the top 10 that parents would buy for girls this
holiday shopping season.
The new movie is also stirring enthusiasm online among female fans
eager to see its women in action, said Annette Cardwell, who works
in content programming at social network Wikia, which hosts "Star
Wars" fan sites.
"Even Princess Leia, who was always pivotal and always central, she
was not Luke Skywalker," Cardwell said. "Rey feels like she is the
new focal point."
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine and Rollo Ross in Los Angeles. Editing
by Peter Henderson and John Pickering)
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