OFFICIAL NEWS A Lasting Record Of TLJ's Financial Performance.

Out of two movies. /clap. It also shed $100 million from the first film(Star Wars made $307 million, TESB $209 million, -32%), some of which was gotten back with the more family-friendly turn in RoTJ.

TESB had a negative response, not just negative reviews. On the whole, if you think kids of the time were super crazy for it, you didn't live it. Once again, this beloved darling it became didn't happen until a good 15 years after original release. No kid was like.. you know what the best of the trilogy was... THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

Ya... but nobody listened to those critics. We used to joke about how the dude with the local newspaper gave Star Wars two stars and how embarrassed he must be, because that's what he became known for.

'scores of reviews'? LOL. You didn't live then. You had your local newspaper, Siskel & Ebert, maybe a trade mag, maybe a blurb on the local news. That was the extent of 'reviews'. Your best reviewer were your pals and usually after the film was watched. We didn't invest our ego in a RT score or often care what the local floot snoot had to say. Like I said, we often made fun of That Guy.​

If they were actually of the time, nobody read or cared about that.

Ya.. but TESB not so much.​

For kids of the time, TESB was weird and dull.
​

Hubris goes before the fall. At the end of the day, if you don't make movies that please the audience, they will not continue to pay to keep seeing them. Hasn't changed in 100 years, won't change in 100 more.

Your great fear should be that I and millions of others just might. Its nice to puff your chest and think they can spew anything and have it sell.

Personally, I don't think RJ has a chance in 10 of finishing all 3 movies, and likely may end up with one. Even then they might strip the IP from it and have him make an original film with a Go Away budget(say $100 mil?) to see if it takes off. Its clear they already have a backup plan with what the GoT guys are doing.

Either way, I wouldn't bank on it until it actually happens... and i'll save my money for their Marvel division rather than spend it on that guy again.

As per Solo, i've been up front as saying I may see that once, just because its Ron Howard directing.

Here is the sad part, prior to TLJ, I was pre-sold and usually aversive to direct spoilers. As far as i'm concerned, 'Star Wars' as a brand means squat to me now and its just another set of run-of-the-mill Space Movies from Hollywood Hacks that they'll need to actually sell me on a movie to get me in the door.

 

K. Bye then. See ya. If It means squat to you yet here you are TALKING ABOUT IT. Don't you have another fandom to go to? Instead of constantly hating this one that you are in?

 

That's a very bold statement. Is there legit source that tells you that half of the fandom didn't like TLJ other than Rotten Tomatoes? If I recall, It's a 70% rating on IMDB and the bluray sells for TLJ was very strong.

 

There's zero real evidence to support that claim. This forum is great, but these kind of trolls continue to bomb the threads with nonsense claims. Then they have the audacity to say they don't care about Star Wars any more. Fine, then leave.

The fact is the Star Wars brand is as strong as ever. People are really excited about Solo. This "backlash" against Star Wars is a fantasy.

 

Well, there is backlash, but from a very specific corner of fandom I like to call "fanbros," but they have had problem with Star Wars since TFA and their main issue seems to be "forced diversity/feminism," so they don't really count.

 

True, but we live in an outage culture. There's seemingly a backlash against everything. These kind of super minorities get too much attention.

 

Your grading scale continues to be an impressively warped view of reality there.
It was the second highest earning film to its date, and there was no one forcing folks to go to the film on repeat.

I remember being one of the few kids who didn't like ESB.
Most everyone had tons of Hoth toys, and almost everyone I knew had the Bespin metal dicast Vader vs. Luke set, and everyone absolutely loved Yoda.

I can't speak for your town, but where I grew up I was not among the common population with my views on ESB.
Hell, anytime our local theater, or the one on the base, put it back on, ALL the kids went to it just as much as they did any Star Wars film.

So you've experienced our position.

I did live then. I also have this tool called the internet, and before that I had a tool called a microfilm scanner at the local library, and it's amazing what you can find when you look beyond your local bubble by bothering to look.

Also, I think it's a bit ironic that you used to not care about reviews, and yet now you're here effectively trying to convince everyone in like-fashion of reviews; claiming what a terrible film something is, and that it won't go far, and pointing to article after article to attempt to support that position.

Yeah, shame that pile of money it made.

Let me guess, this is where we whip out the crystal ball and talk about what it could have made?
​

Maybe. I don't know. I wasn't surveying kids everywhere. I can only speak anecdotally, and say that kids I knew seemed to like it just fine. Everyone loved the hell out of Yoda, and Luke and Vader's fight. The only thing I remember anyone poking fun at was the love scene parts because that's what a lot of young boys do.
​

Cool. By that logic, we're good.
Audiences paid, the film made money back. It made records. It was the top film of the year. Merchandise was the top of the holiday. Yep; look at all that not buying that happened.

Crystal ball "should've made" time again?

Look, I don't personally give two rat's arses whether anyone likes or doesn't like Star Wars.
I could be the only guy on the planet, and that wouldn't matter to me.

I also don't really care if there's anymore Star Wars or not.
At some point I won't like a Star Wars film, and I won't be watching much of what's coming out. That happens.
Hell, it already did for me. I didn't much like the prequels, and I didn't bother watching much of the content that's come out since the prequels in the subsequent years.
I didn't even bother watching ROTS until it was on VOD.

I appreciate what Lucas was doing, but those aren't my taste of a good film, and I don't need to find creative ways to show how the box office supports my position that they were bad films...the box office was fine. Lucas made his money back. I didn't like them; woopty doo. I moved on.

Sheesh, there were FAR MORE piles of people screaming and hating Star Wars during the prequels than anything going on now; that's for certain.
Whole documentaries were being made, and not just on on-line videos...no; real published documentaries were being made covering the fan hate over the prequels.
It caused Lucas to say, "Screw it", and walk away.

I'm not afraid of millions of fans hating Star Wars. They already did that, and I thought it was pathetic and sad the way they acted about it.
I didn't like the films, but I never thought they needed to be hyperbolically thrashed upon...how petty and silly.
It's a damn FILM...a FILM. It's not a legal precedent, political office, or religious order...it's a FILM....people need to get some damn scope.

If you don't like a FILM, and it just PISSES you off...here's a novel idea. Don't watch it, and don't talk about it.

So no...my great fear won't ever be anything to do with a FILM...jesus christ.
My great fear is someone doing something, or something happening, to my wife or children. That's my great fear. Not whether a bunch of people I don't even know like some form of expensive pretend time.

I think it's incredibly strange to think that way, and I equally find it odd to try to bend monetary sales to feel valid in not liking a film...it's a pretty imperical measuring system. If it's financially successful, then it did fine. Hey, look at that. It's fine.
This stupid garbage about what is "should" have made and all of that is just relative privation on steroids.

I could say that about nearly anything.
The Apollo campaign was a success, but it wasn't as good as it should have been - it underperformed what it could have accomplished.

The Force Awakens was a success, but it wasn't as good as Star Wars can be, compared to the Original Series, it underperformed what is could have accomplished.

None of that garbage matters in terms of a films' success.
What matters is whether it made money back to the company that needs that money back. Yep. It did, and they're happy with it.

There's that crystal ball arguing from the unknowable again. Amazing!


It doesn't really matter what the future holds.
The point stands quite obviously that Disney liked RJ's work on TLJ enough to CURRENTLY give him three more films.
You don't do that if you think the film performed poorly.

Give the guy a round of applause!
Yes, DO THAT!
Please for the love of god, do that.

I find it pretty interesting...you came to this site, literally, only after TLJ, and the only thing you're posts have by and large been focused on is trash talking TLJ, RJ, and Disney's division for Star Wars.
It's weird to me that you haven't ever really taken the time to go around anywhere in this forum to have discussions with people about things you do like.

There's a section for every film and trilogy here (and even material beyond that), and yet if you look at your posting history, it's almost entirely this thread, and what there is outside of this thread is still bent on just posting hatred and scolding of TLJ, RJ, et. al.

How about doing something constructive for once and go talk in another section about what you DO LIKE...



Cheers,
Jayson[/quote]

 

Box office:


All of the Marvel Studios sequels have increased except A:AoU (2015), which fell -26% domestically, -6% foreign, and -7% globally.

Burn rate:


User ratings:

 

Not to mention there isnt "forced divesity/feminism" the world has passed these people by. Just need to be careful of these people because are becoming "Incel" members.

 

You started off strong, and then descended into unrelated animated gif land... and then I stopped reading.

I did see this snippet since it was at the very end though...

Look harder. And just.. in general.. people usually don't go to those places on this site in general. Either way, if I want to talk about those things, i'll typically go to a forum with people that want to discuss those things.

Surely you can't be serious! Everybody knows that the 2nd movie drops like Luke down a shaft by like 40-50%. This is LucasFilm law here.​

 

OK, no problem.
Here's your non-gif version if you're gif averse. (gifs are useful because you can't see my face, and expression is a form of communication, but hey...whatever works for you...)

Your grading scale continues to be an impressively warped view of reality there.
It was the second highest earning film to its date, and there was no one forcing folks to go to the film on repeat.

I remember being one of the few kids who didn't like ESB.
Most everyone had tons of Hoth toys, and almost everyone I knew had the Bespin metal dicast Vader vs. Luke set, and everyone absolutely loved Yoda.

I can't speak for your town, but where I grew up I was not among the common population with my views on ESB.
Hell, anytime our local theater, or the one on the base, put it back on, ALL the kids went to it just as much as they did any Star Wars film.

So you've experienced our position.

I did live then. I also have this tool called the internet, and before that I had a tool called a microfilm scanner at the local library, and it's amazing what you can find when you look beyond your local bubble by bothering to look.

Also, I think it's a bit ironic that you used to not care about reviews, and yet now you're here effectively trying to convince everyone in like-fashion of reviews; claiming what a terrible film something is, and that it won't go far, and pointing to article after article to attempt to support that position.

Sure, if you say so.
On the other hand, a huge amount of folks hated that film when I grew up.
Ewoks was a major contributor to the hatred of that film; the fact that another Death Star was another.
Lots of people hated Lando flying the Falcon because Han should be the only one flying it.
"It's a trap" wasn't something folks quoted because it was funny in a positive way; they quoted it because they thought that scene was ridiculously stupid.
Everyone did like the saber battle and throne room, though, and of course everyone liked Leia's outfit with Jabba.
The only thing I recall anyone liking about Endor was the speeder bike scene; the rest wasn't thought well of by anyone I knew...except my wife. She liked the Ewoks; she thought they were cute, but she also noted that none of her cousins (all boys) thought highly of the film for much the same reasons.

So, OK, you can just wave a hand and dismiss those reviews all you want, but they were earnestly there and that's really not uncommon for Star Wars.
Everyone made the same complaints about Jar Jar, as if it was new, and I just sat there wondering what they missed in ROTJ that indicated that silly things like that weren't a part of Star Wars.

Heck, before it was the Ewoks, it was 3PO who was scolded for being a campy and childish comic relief that didn't belong.

Yeah, shame that pile of money it made.

Let me guess, this is where we whip out the crystal ball and talk about what it could have made?

Maybe. I don't know. I wasn't surveying kids everywhere. I can only speak anecdotally, and say that kids I knew seemed to like it just fine. Everyone loved the hell out of Yoda, and Luke and Vader's fight. The only thing I remember anyone poking fun at was the love scene parts because that's what a lot of young boys do.

Cool. By that logic, we're good.
Audiences paid, the film made money back. It made records. It was the top film of the year. Merchandise was the top of the holiday. Yep; look at all that not buying that happened.

Crystal ball "should've made" time again?

Look, I don't personally give two rat's arses whether anyone likes or doesn't like Star Wars.
I could be the only guy on the planet, and that wouldn't matter to me.

I also don't really care if there's anymore Star Wars or not.
At some point I won't like a Star Wars film, and I won't be watching much of what's coming out. That happens.
Hell, it already did for me. I didn't much like the prequels, and I didn't bother watching much of the content that's come out since the prequels in the subsequent years.
I didn't even bother watching ROTS until it was on VOD.

I appreciate what Lucas was doing, but those aren't my taste of a good film, and I don't need to find creative ways to show how the box office supports my position that they were bad films...the box office was fine. Lucas made his money back. I didn't like them; woopty doo. I moved on.

Sheesh, there were FAR MORE piles of people screaming and hating Star Wars during the prequels than anything going on now; that's for certain.
Whole documentaries were being made, and not just on on-line videos...no; real published documentaries were being made covering the fan hate over the prequels.
It caused Lucas to say, "Screw it", and walk away.

I'm not afraid of millions of fans hating Star Wars. They already did that, and I thought it was pathetic and sad the way they acted about it.
I didn't like the films, but I never thought they needed to be hyperbolically thrashed upon...how petty and silly.
It's a damn FILM...a FILM. It's not a legal precedent, political office, or religious order...it's a FILM....people need to get some damn scope.

If you don't like a FILM, and it just PISSES you off...here's a novel idea. Don't watch it, and don't talk about it.

So no...my great fear won't ever be anything to do with a FILM...jesus christ.
My great fear is someone doing something, or something happening, to my wife or children. That's my great fear. Not whether a bunch of people I don't even know like some form of expensive pretend time.

I think it's incredibly strange to think that way, and I equally find it odd to try to bend monetary sales to feel valid in not liking a film...it's a pretty imperical measuring system. If it's financially successful, then it did fine. Hey, look at that. It's fine.
This stupid garbage about what is "should" have made and all of that is just relative privation on steroids.

I could say that about nearly anything.
The Apollo campaign was a success, but it wasn't as good as it should have been - it underperformed what it could have accomplished.

The Force Awakens was a success, but it wasn't as good as Star Wars can be, compared to the Original Series, it underperformed what is could have accomplished.

None of that garbage matters in terms of a films' success.
What matters is whether it made money back to the company that needs that money back. Yep. It did, and they're happy with it.

There's that crystal ball arguing from the unknowable again.

It doesn't really matter what the future holds.
The point stands quite obviously that Disney liked RJ's work on TLJ enough to CURRENTLY give him three more films.
You don't do that if you think the film performed poorly.

Yes, DO THAT!
Please for the love of god, do that.



And since you replied to the last comment:

This IS the forum where with people that want to discuss those things.

It's not like this is a forum where only a hate spill of TLJ exists. This is an all things Star Wars discussion forum; you can actually find a rather large amount to discuss about what you like regarding just about anything to do with Star Wars here. I assure you that it's great fun to partake in, and I'd be FAR more interested in seeing what you LIKE than what you've attempted to prove regarding TLJ failing financially.

Cheers,
Jayson

--- Double Post Merged, May 7, 2018, Original Post Date: May 7, 2018 ---

No, but it's a fairly common trend in history; though not 40 to 50% as an average.

The recent franchise method is newer and breaking the molds in many ways; chiefly that we now have more than 3 films for an IP where before it was rare to go past that number unless it was a horror film or low budget film series (and/or both).

Film companies, historically, don't tend to make sequels on the assumption that it will beat the predecessor- that hasn't happened a lot, though that may change over the next decade or two...maybe not, maybe so...we'll have to wait and see.
Historically, they made sequels because a sequel made more money than choosing to making a non-sequel once a hit IP was known from the predecessor.
There's reams of studies done on this; it's not an unknown effect over the industry's history.

Here's the graphs...again.

Keep in mind that "original" means not related to a prior or subsequent IP. It doesn't mean the predecessor to the sequel in this use.







And as to the dip in the second of a trilogy...historically, it does exist.


We've gone over all of this already....

Cheers,
Jayson

 

Ummm, Im not so sure about that. I lived it. I Loved ESB when it came out as did my friends. We were all talking about how vader was luke's father and if it was the truth or a Vader lie. It was my favorite then as it is now. Im sure toy sales did fine for ESB also. I don't think it was weird or dull for the majority, at least it wasn't in my neck of the woods.

 

You're right, the majority didn't think that. Just like the majority don't think The Last Jedi was dull or weird. The difference now is finding people who yell or scream or stomp is a click away. The internet inflates minority opinions. This is good for some things and bad for others. Star Wars is a massive franchise. So when a few thousand people rig a poll like rotten tomatoes, sure the media's going to write about it because it's clicks galore. Suddenly a tiny minority is legitimized even though they represent a super tiny percentage of the general audience.

 

Great post. Wish I could give it a rating, but cant yet.

 

Totally agree. I am sure there were plenty back in OT time that didn't like the movie but there wasn't the internet to stand on and scream it from to be heard, everyone just moved on to the next thing. I truthfully really do not get it. If you don't like something, it is fine. It is fine to share your opinion. I just don't get the constant griping. It's not going to change anything. The minds of those who like it isn't going to change. The studio isn't going to retcon it in the next movie or throw it out just because some don't like it. Each movie is an individual artist's work. It's going to stand as is, like it or not. Accept it or move on. The movie literally take place 30 years later, they have to pick up somewhere and start. You are not going to get every minute detail of every character from over the past 30 years, new or old. Enjoy (what you can) from the new movies, Enjoy we have more Star Wars farther than the eye can see, and have fun. Bottom line is, what comes out of Lucasfilm is Star Wars, not what we come up with or wanted.

 

Growing up in the 90s watching ESB on VHS (pre-special editions), I can tell you that I absolutely hated ESB. I would literally just watch Battle of Hoth scene and I would fast forward through Luke and Yoda moments. I didn't care about that stuff as a kid. Now when I grew older, I appreciated ESB and I pretty much like everything about the movie, although I still cringe when Yoda was "acting" like a fool with Luke. To deny that ESB didn't receive mixed emotions, is pretty ignorant even if you and your circle of people thought it was amazing. When Metallica sued Napster in 2000, they felt the backlash from the fans and Lars still talks about it to this day. I'm not denying that there isn't a backlash from TLJ, but it's not as big as you make it out to be until you have give me verifiable source. News stations actually showed Metallica fans burning merchandise and cds when they sued Napster. When the Chargers moved back to LA, peopled in San Diego burned their jerseys and gear. We got no empirical evidence of the backlash except for RT, trolls on YouTube and click bait articles and videos. I'm willing to bet my yearly salary that it is way less than 50%. This so called backlash isn't the Metallica suing Napster or The Chargers movie to LA type of backlash no matter how you view it. RT isn't hard science with verified reviews like yous see on Amazon.com (it can be gamed but Amazon tries to remove those reviews) or Newegg.com. Maybe it's too early to 100% tell but as of right now, I don't see it.

 

Oh I totally agree. Just like now there were people who didn't like it. But there was no internet at the time to voice opinions. All you had was your friends. There were no televised protests from young kids. For me, to make a blanket statement that kids of that time thought it was weird and or dull is incorrect. Other than personal opinions, their is no way to confirm what all kids back in 1980 thought about the film. Especially couldn't tell by the boxoffice or toy sales.

 

That is true. Only thing we got to go on is critic reviews and they range from US to Europe and a lot of them show mixed reactions. My post was more geared towards @ScumAndVillainy, not at you. Just wanted to make it clear that I wasn't attacking you.

 

Oh I totally understand! I didn't take it was u were. To be honest, Im not sure if I have ever read a critic review of the OT. lol.. I didn't read worry about many of them at age 10 unless it was Ebert and Roeper on Tv lol.