Star Wars: The Last Jedi Is Currently The Best Selling Blu-ray Of 2018 (USA)

[The_Liquid_Laser]

thismeintiel said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

Star Wars: Episode IV grossed $461 million (unadjusted) domestic
The Empire Strikes back grossed $290 million (unadjusted) domestic

 

That is a massive 37% drop!  The Empire Strikes back was such a disappointing movie!  Fans are outraged at this total pile of shit!  I thought I was watching a cool outer space battle and they totally threw in some family soap opera shit in there!  Just watch, The Empire Strikes back will go down in history as the worst Star Wars ever!  Mark my words!















(btw, I hope you can all tell this was a tongue-in-cheek post.)

Oh man, you got us.  Oh, wait, no you didn't.  When ESB came out the industry was going through a major shift.  ANH was from the cinema world of old.  Where films started slow (ANH only made $8.5M, adjusted, its opening weekend, which would be a flop today), but stayed in theaters for a long ass time (ANH was in theaters for 1 1/2 years its initial run), and then see umpteen rereleases.  In the late 70s/early 80s, this model was dying out and changing to what we have, now.  A model where movies open much larger and only stay in theaters for a few months, making way for further blockbusters.  ESB was released right in the middle of this, so while it benefited from a larger opening than ANH, though still not great by today's standards ($25M, adjusted), it didn't receive an extra 6+ months to pad out its final take.  By the time ROTJ released, the industry was pretty much done with the shift, seeing that it opened with $99.1M (adjusted), a number any lower/mid budgeted blockbuster would still be grateful to hit.

Of course, even with the industry shift, and the fact that the foreign market was much smaller, ESB still made $1.5B+ WW, adjusted.  With no industry shift, and a massively expanded market, what's TLJ's excuse?

This is nonsense.  A bigger opening does not cause a smaller total.

The reason why Episode IV did so well is because no one had ever seen anything like it before.  People went over and over again, because it was a unique experience.  That is why it played for so long.  It's true that movie showings, and all of Hollywood, was going through a shift.  Do you know what movie caused that shift?  Star Wars.  When you adjust for inflation no movie since has done as well domestically.  It was a game changer. 

Empire is truly a great film, but by the time it came out, some of the novelty factor had worn off.  In fact when fans today look at the whole trilogy many see that Empire is the best film.  A New Hope had a bigger take simply because it was first.

A similar thing happened with The Force Awakens.  People had waited over 30 years to see Han, Leia, and Chewy in a film again.  People went to see it over and over, because it all seemed new again.  By the time The Last Jedi came out, some of the novelty had worn off.  It is like A New Hope and Empire all over again.