That's kinda what sucks. You have a trilogy. Three movies to get from point A to point B and tell a cohesive story. With this trilogy you get:
-part one: tie the old saga to the new and add some elements to be explored in later films. Plus he kills your childhood hero in a sequence that ultimately had no meaning.

-Part two: give the story to a completely different guy who scraps many of the things set up in the first movie, reduces the good guys to the size of a public school classroom, and kills another one of your childhood heroes.

-Part 3: apparently will have an almost clean slate. Characters that haven't endeared themselves in the first two chapters. Enemies that have proven to be totally beatable by the heroes multiple times already. Heroes that have no story direction at this point.

I honestly feel like Episode IX will be what Episode VII should have been. Up until this point, it's like we've just been treading water.

This is a great point, as I already had to compartmetalize SW in my mind to square up/justify TFA. I didn't get riled up the same way some hardcore fans did, because I saw TLJ as part of the new canon - not Canon canon (if that makes any sense). I've already she'd my tears for the death of the original universe.

https://screenrant.com/star-wars-last-jedi-box-office-drop/

Wow.

Record setting drop.

You know what movie had a massive drop from the previous one too in its own main market?

The Empire Strikes Back... yes, the best movie of the whole saga lol

We still have to see how things go when its all said and done, I imagine it will have good legs and is gonna be undoubtly a success regardless of the drop.

This is a worse drop. Way worse.

You sure? Episode V went from the 300m of episode IV to 200m in USA ... And TFA dropped 40% on its 2nd week, sure 69% is way more but with Xmas in the middle of the weekend... I'm not that sure, let's judge things when its all said and done.

It's 77%. The drop from 4 to 5 was less than the drop from 7 to 8 with their second weeks aligned. The Christmas argument is no excuse. Tons of people go to the movies during Christmas.

That's false, Christmas eve never helps any movie on the box office.

The only barbarity is to call the farse awakens and the last fail a Star Wars movie.

And no. The ones I saw as a child were the ones of the og trilogy.

Remember well and never forget:

PREQUELS >>>>>> Disney comedies.