Is there a reason some of you keep repeating this SW trend in the box office BS? When it comes to the OG trilogy, there were reasons why ANH did so much better. A big part of it was because ANH was in theaters for 18 months, or ~78 weeks. No movie since has gone longer than 52 weeks. People just weren't interested in going to a movie that had been out for that long continously. And more importantly, theaters weren't interested in tying up their screens for older movies that were slowly bringing in revenue, when they could make way for newer films that would bring in more revenue, at least initially. The beginning of increase in home video has a little to do with it, though the former point is the main reason. The movie industry, as well as society, was just changing. We didn't get to blockbuster opening weekends overnight.
Another important point is ESB did BETTER than ROTJ. Yes, ROTJ did $43.2M, only $4.2M if take into account ticket inflation for 1983, more at the domestic box office, but ESB did $82.1M more than it at the foreign box office. As for the Clone Wars, it was a poorly received movie that followed a poorly received movie. There's no shock there that it would be down. The 3rd one is considered the "best one" of the prequels, as well as being the lead up to ANH and the birth of Vader, of course it was going to do better than Ep 2.
There is no SW trend. TLJ is just doing poorly compared to what it could have done if it was a good film.
