I've said this before, but while there obviously was a reduced box office for Solo, and obviously part of that was because of people who'd sworn off the franchise in anger, there were also people like me and several of my friends who love TLJ and didn't give a shit about Solo for basically the reasons outlined by wox2d. I'm sure I'll see it at some point, especially if I do cave and get Disney+ (I assume it'll be on there), but eh.

 

Actually, this sounds a lot like what they did with Palpatine in the EU. Now, if only they thought to include Mara Jade. Sigh.

To add my two cents:
TFA: There was an interview with Mark Hamill, where he explained his reaction to the TFA script. He thought it would be Luke catching the lightsaber at the end. Thought to himself: "Great introduction to Luke." Then read the next sentence. It was Rey.

^^This pretty much sums up my thoughts on TFA. So many missed opportunities.

TLJ: Since Luke is my favourite Character and this movie butchered him, I don't like it. I'm still debating wether I'll watch ROS.

 

Is... What? Are you seriously arguing that "people didn't go twice this time" means there wasn't a reduction in audience interest and, more importantly, expenditure?

Like, the movies pretty consistently got increasingly larger opening weekends, until the sequel trilogy abruptly reversed course and instead of seeing the ~30% growth of the prequel trilogy, we instead see a bit over a 10% loss. How is that anything other than the fans finally disengaging?

Edit:

Absolutely. Solo was a sidestory, it was almost certainly never going to be a run-away megasuccess or anything. It's one of the reasons I haven't really been using it as a metric for audience interest; it's too hard to tell how much of the drop-off is from audience antipathy vs it not being a 'main' series entry. Rogue-1's success points toward the former, but there's simply too many variables to be even vaguely certain of it.

 

TFA was unique in that it was the first installment after a very, very long time. Many people went out and saw it twice, or more. TLJ was a return to the norm. "The fans" still went out and saw the film, so no, I don't think that's disengagement. TFA was an outlier, not a trend data point, imo. The audience interest and revenues were still massively more than they were for the increasing trend set by the prequels.

 

I know personal anecdotes aren't the greatest for scientific purposes, but my family and I went to go see Force Awakens. Then I went to see Rogue One on my own opening weekend at like a 12am showing because I worked late that night, I think. Then I went and saw it with a friend of mine. Then I went and saw it with my younger brother. Then I went and saw it with my mom. Because that was a movie. Then Last Jedi came out. I went to see it in theaters, was highly dissatisfied, and I didn't rent it when it came out to see again, nor have I watched it on Netflix. I didn't go see Solo, and waited until it popped up on Netflix to watch, and it was "meh."

So yeah, I'd agree with everybody in this thread saying "Last Jedi definitely turned away some long-standing fans of the franchise." Will Rise of Skywalker rectify the bad taste that Rian Johnson left in fans' mouths? I dunno, we'll see. Will it have stunning visuals and top-tier technical production? Of course it will, it's a modern Disney film and a Star Wars film. Will I go see it in theaters? Big fuckin' negatory, Ghostrider.

 

Are you accounting for both inflation and the increased scale of Hollywood productions now vs in the early 2000s? Because the industry has massively more revenue as a standard baseline now, in no small part thanks to China's box office, than back when the prequels were airing. The increase from Return of the Sith to Force Awakens is actually fairly in line with previous stuff when you compare it to the industry baseline at the time of release (excluding Star Wars movies, 2005 saw the top 5 opening weekends being $56m-102m, while 2015 saw $115m-208m). Which means that on average, movies made a bit over double in 2015 vs what they did in 2005.

Revenge of the Sith made $108m to Force Awakens $247m, which is about a 120% increase. Adjusting for the general increase of movie revenue puts it right in line with the increase from Clone Wars -> Revenge of the Sith.

 

Last trailer.

 

"look at all this nostalgia"
"It's definitely not a shitty attempt to unfuck the Last Jedi"
"here's some horses in a Star Destroyer!"

It's going to be a spectacle, certainly, but it's not gonna be a good Star Wars movie.

 

Anyone read the novelization of the Last Jedi? In it Luke tells the local caretakers that Rey is his niece. I don’t think I’ve seen that anywhere else- or did I really miss something in that movie?

 

They got rid of the EU for exactly that fucking reason. And here they are, making the same mistakes.

 

Fuck y'all and your debbie downerism, I'm always excited for Star Wars.

 

Oh wow. Would you look at what Disney finally discovered exists.

 

I find my lack of hype for it kind of depressing, considering how much of a huge Star Wars fan I was back when I was a kid. Hopefully this movie can bring that joy back.

 

I loved the EU. Was it basically fanfiction (with all the varying levels of quality)? Most definitely. But that doesn't take away my love for it. Luke was a badass. The Solo kids were awesome. Ben was great.

The lore and worldbuilding really breathed life into the series. I fully recognized there was some really screwed up stuff and poor quality, but it was star wars in all it's blemishes and flaws.

The new movies just....lack all that.

 

Fuck all y'all. That was a good trailer. I'm going to overanalyze the shit out of it.

Rewatch: That Ralph McQuarrie throne is making me lose my shit. Kinda getting the impression they're trying to do a "this giant spaceberg was palpy's force stronghold all along" sort of thing.

 

I do agree this was a good trailer and makes me what to watch the movie. Definitely some interesting stuff.

Still find the only interesting character is Kylo.

 

At this point, I'm not holding on to any hope that Poe or Finn will have any real character development. The writers just don't seem to care about them very much other than to use as plot vehicles. TLJ did a little to flesh out Rey from her bland TFA audience-placeholder persona, but I don't see much growth for her happening in the third film given how much they have to tie up.

Hoping more depth will be added to all three through the extended media, much like what happened with Luke and Leia.

 

Hot Take: The Skywalker in the title refers to Kylo.

 

Probably true. I was thinking about that the other day. They love their #plottwist bs.

 

Rey sacrifices herself to save Kylo. Kylo destorys Palpatine and founds a new order of force users.

Honestly, you could rewrite these three movies with that plot as a series of books and it wouldn't be half bad with a decent author.