Okay, I won't actually be seeing The Rise of Skywalker until tomorrow night, so I can't claim anything with regards to its quality or what it does or doesn't retcon from The Last Jedi. However...

This is the part of your post I was actually addressing. Going by the inflation-adjusted box-office numbers, each entry in the three Star Wars trilogies ranks thusly in the list of all-time most successful movies:

Original Trilogy: 2nd, 13th, 17th

Prequel Trilogy: 19th, 99th, 70th (with the Clone Wars movie being splattered on the windshield of The Dark Knight)

Sequel Trilogy: 11th, 44th, probably somewhere between 30th and 50th (with Rogue One being 62nd, and Solo getting trampled underfoot by Infinity War and Deadpool 2)

Hmm... looks to me from that list that one could actually argue that it was the supposed God-Emperor of all that is Star Wars, George Lucas who oversaw the financial decline of the franchise, and that Disney helped it rebound slightly (albeit their financial mismanagement of Solo went WAY beyond anything that happened under Lucas's tenure).

Domestic only, though, which makes the original trilogy uniquely strong in this comparison since it grossed 50% - 60% there. But even adjusting for inflation makes up for a poor metric since that takes into account average ticket price, but blockbusters nowadays are so much more oriented toward full price weekends, premium screenings, 3D etc. than the average.

Either way, I think the point I made on the other thread stands - the franchise is demographically stagnant for decades and thus increasingly less relevant to pop culture worldwide as population grows and the middle-class expands on Asia and elsewhere (that's not to say, of course, interesting things like fads or popular memes can't happen with Star Wars in the future even if it continues down this path).

It's true that cinemas have more revenue-enhancing gimmicks than they did in the days of the original or prequel trilogy - but bearing in mind the numbers involved, I think the worst that Disney can be accused of is failing to reverse the damage that Lucas did with the prequels, rather than somehow causing the franchise to sink to new depths (well, aside from Solo of course).

And to be fair, demographic stagnation is a problem a lot of long-established franchises are facing nowadays. Star Wars has actually done pretty well to have held up as long as it has for the past 42 years. Of course, it's possible for a franchise to re-invent and revitalize itself, but doing that with Star Wars is probably going to be a lot harder than it was with, say, James Bond or Star Trek.

My mistake.  Thought I hit edit, but hit reply by accident.

Actually, I'll use this post to respond to you. 

The numbers back me up, not you.  TLJ dropped just 27% in its 3rd weekend, which is better than TFA's 40% fall for the same weekend.  Obviously, whoever was kept away from watching it the previous week went then.

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.

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?  Let me finish my reply by simply quoting myself:

"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."

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."

Monday estimates are in. This is where TLJ is going to be growing that gap, again.

ROS took in an estimated $15.2M. This is 44.7% lower than TLJ's 27.5M for the same Mon. ROS has now made $377.4M at the DBO. This is 4.6% lower than TLJ's $395.6M. If this continues, ROS will make $591.7M total at the DBO.

If the FBO percentage holds from this weekend, 50.1%, the FBO will finish with a total of $598.3M, 16% lower than TLJ's $712.4M. That's a WW total of $1.19B, a drop of 10.5% from TLJ's $1.33B.

And yet, the revenue for that department continued to decline, even after TLJ released.  And months later.  Which is really bad because I'm sure it was helped by some big Marvel toy sales.  And just for the record, you brought up the bargin bin, not I.  I assume as some kind of strawman.

You and @Shadow1980 are just getting hilarious at this point.  There was no real retcons or jabs taken at TLJ?  Come on.  Rey's heritage was changed.  Rose Tico was relegated to a very minor character, instead of staying a main one.  Luke says he was wrong for being like he was in TLJ, as well as catching the lightsaber when Rey tried to toss it away like he did.  Speaking of lightsabers, Luke's is fixed, even though it was left broken on Snoke's ship in TLJ.  The "Holdo maneuver" was mocked.  After a big deal was made about hating Kylo's mask in TLJ, he fixes it in ROS.  After the Resistance was completely abandoned in TLJ, suddenly a bunch of people are on their side, now. 

You also have the actors and JJ coming out and being critical of TLJ, instead of at the fans like what happened last time.  In an interview, JJ said that he praised TLJ for having surprises in it, but added "On the other hand...I don't think that people go to SW to be told, 'This doesn't matter.'" John Boyega said he was happy about Abrams return because he "wanted to see where that story was going" and that TLJ left him feeling "iffy," where he felt TFA was a solid start.  In an interview around TLJ's release, Daisy Ridley gave a noncommittal "Um, sure" when asked if she was happy with the film.  Mark Hamill's distaste for the new films has been well documented during TLJ release.  And in response to someone hoping that ROS was good, he told him he could always "wait til it comes to cable."

These are not steps taken and words said for a film that was well received and performed up to their standards.  It's time you just accept the facts on this one.  And if I go back, I'm sure both of you thought that the franchise was perfectly fine and that ROS would outperform TLJ, as is the supposed SW trend for the last in the trilogy.  Doesn't seem like that's going to happen, now.

Thanks for the info. 

They definitely did do swipes at TLJ...

Retconned "your parents are nothing" which was the whole point of TLJ. Rian was still defending his position all the way up to RoS launch. It was the whole overlaying theme of TLJ.

"I said they were nothing.... AND THEY WERE.... BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO BE!"

What a cop out.

"We need Holdo maneuvers!"

"That was a one in a million shot... we're never going to be a le to do that again"

What a fucking cop out.