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| (Source: jkunzart.com) |
In part 1 of this series, I detailed how Disney would need to sell well over 70 Million
tickets in order for the first Chronicles of Prydain film to be financially
successful. I also broke the potential audience into three categories:
1.
Fans of the Prydain books
2.
Fans of the Disney animated movie The Black Cauldron
3.
Non-fans (people who have neither read the book
nor seen the movie or are impartial to, or dislike them)
In this post, I am going to look in depth at the first of
these three audiences, fans of the Prydain books.
First, let me state that of the three audiences, this is my
favorite. It is the one that I am a part of. It is also the one that I got to
know the best while I was making the Lloyd Alexander documentary. While it is certainly not the largest of the three
groups, and will not even come close to accounting for the 70 Million ticket
sales that Disney needs, I am going to explain why it is so crucial to the
financial success of the film that Disney satisfy this group.
In order to take a closer look at the fans of the books,
allow me to share some statistics that reflect on this group.
These statistics give an overall sense of the size and geographical
location of the fanbase. As I made the “Lloyd Alexander” documentary, I was
amazed at the positive response I received from Alexander’s fans. I was
contacted by people from all the four corners of the earth who in one way or
another had been influenced by Lloyd Alexander’s books. This graphic shows each of the countries from
which a fan of Lloyd Alexander has reached out to me via e-mail, phone, or
other social media sites.
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| (The countries in red represent the locations from which I have been contacted by Lloyd Alexander fans) |
It is also interesting to me, how many people have been
influenced by the Prydain books, and have gone on to become authors, artists,
or other people of great influence themselves. This list includes, but is not limited to:
- Neil Gaiman (Author)
- Reid Garrett Hoffman (Entrepreneur)
- Jennifer Holm (Author)
- Shannon Hale (Author)
- Justin Kunz (Artist)
- Clare Dunkle (Author)
Based on the statistics that I’ve shared, it’s obvious that
this group will not single-handedly account for the 70 Million tickets that
would need to be sold. As a matter of fact, they probably won’t even come
close. So why should Disney care about
satisfying the fans of the books? This is the group, that more than any other,
that if they are pleased with the film, will want to come back and see it
again. Many of them will see it 6 or 7 times if it meets their hopes and expectations.
This group will get their friends and families to go with them. This group
already loves these stories, and they are already passionate about them. This
group will blog about the movie, tweet about the movie, talk about the movie
and share their opinions regardless of what they think about the film. This is
an important group for Disney to satisfy.
Now that we’ve examined why Disney needs to satisfy the fans
of the books, let me give my opinion on what exactly needs to be done to do
that. My answer is a simple one: make
the stories as true to the books as possible. Now, I recognize
that there are changes that would need to be made while translating the stories
from book to the big screen. However, the feel of the world needs to remain
consistent, and the characters need to be true to the characters in the book.
If this happens the majority of these fans will be pleased with the end result.
I would also argue that the most likely way for the films to
capture the magic of the books, is for them to be made by people who are
already fans of the books. Not everyone involved needs to be a fan of the
books, however, as much as possible, finding a talented director, producer,
writer and artists who are passionate about these stories is going to be
crucial. This will help ensure the films have the same magic that has
captivated generations of readers across the world.
