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thismeintiel on 31 December 2019
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NightlyPoe said:
thismeintiel said:

You can speak of a bunch of hypotheticals that can never be proven, but they still don't answer why the box office dropped along with merch sales.  Or was the merch not released on a convenient day?

Math isn't a hypothetical.  You said the numbers proved you right.  I demonstrated how a very conservative change would to make an outsized difference that could not be made up in a later weekend.  Are you retracting your contention, or will you just admit that I'm correct?

Additionally, merchandise sales figures have never been released, much less what their projected sales to use as a comparison.  Put simply, you have no idea how the merchandise sold.  However, it honestly wouldn't even matter all that much.  Merchandise sales for The Last Jedi would have come disproportionately before Christmas.  In other words, toy sales would have largely predated the movie's release.

And before you mention the bargain bin, I got plenty of cheap The Force Awakens and Rogue One toys for my niece for 75-80% off.  Merchandising toys of all varieties quite frequently wind up discounted.

We do know that thanks to reporting from Panjiva, who track shipments into the US, merch shipments were down 47% when compared to the same time period for RO.  And 56% when compared to TFA.  Hasbro said they saw lower sales for SW merch, too.  They tried to say it was because they put it out too early, even though it has been when they always have been putting out SW merch, ~3 months before the film comes out.  And yes, all toys get discounted.  However, not many have it happen that soon, unless it isn't selling.

Now, how about this time you actually address the elephant in the room, instead of ignoring it:

"Of course, you can point out whatever numbers you want. Make up any excuses you want. In the end, I have the largest piece of damning evidence on my side as to TLJ being a disappointment. Disney's reaction to the performance of that film, and its affect on the franchise. Just two years later they made a film that retcons TLJ and pokes fun at it. This would not have happened if the film performed well enough in their eyes. Obviously, it didn't. It also hurt merch sales.

So, there is no reason to continue with the excuses. Disney has spoken."