I remember the Special Editions well, still have an Entertainment Weekly from Star Wars' re-release in '97, and yeah that is a good point, ANH massively outgrossed ESB.

"The Mary Sue is bad for box office" stuff doesn't even make sense ... Rey is a bigger Mary Sue in the The Force Awakens and people went to see that again ... and again ... and again ... and again.

$936 million domestic is unbelievable actually, that's more than Avatar and right with Titanic's initial run which was *monsterous* in the US and the very definition of box office legs.

So basically people want JJ Abrams and more Rey Mary Sue if we are to conclude the formula differences from TFA to TLJ.

Of course that doesn't really fit the narrative of the "damnit, give me more cock in my Star Wars, Disney!" crowd, lol.

Sorry, but the fans have spoken: Empire couldn't bring in half of Hope's dollars under an even playing field!
LOL!

TLJ continues to outperform Empire.  What a disappointment Empire must have been!

`Would you cut this shit out? No one has said anything like that so stop trying to make it sound anyone who doesn't like Rey is sexist. Plenty of people who don't like the film explained it so a child could understand their reasoning. You're intentionally trying to misrepresent people's opinions on this by smearing them as sexists. 

I liked the last jedi more than the last 2. I thought Rogue One was boring and Force Awakens was okay.

There is no more a reason to share a negative than a positive opinion, so I don't see the problem in that. Of course this movie will get a lot more attention in general because it's a blockbuster in a blockbuster franchise with an enormous number of fans. So opinions will differ, and they'll be discussed.

If you dislike it, just don't watch it and let those who do have their opinions.

See, it goes both ways. It's equally meaningful/meaningless regardless of if your opinion is negative or positive.

Just had a quick skim over the last couple of pages and there's so much annoying, childish, antagonistic bullshit being spouted from both sides of the argument in this thread.

Knock it off already. You're adults. If it carries on I'll lock it up and get the mod team to go through and hit a bunch of you with moderations. If you can't discuss a movie or franchise without trying to piss off the other side of the argument, then simply don't discuss it.

Thanks.

Why do people do this kind of thing? Gosh...

Interesting that I am being accused of goalpost moving when it is clear who is moving goalposts. I have stayed firm, this movie is a big disappointment. The fan backlash led to much of its huge decline over TFA. I have continued to give further data supporting my claims.

Those for the movie, however, have gone from thinking it would clearly be over $1.5B. Actually saying that a 68% fall, which NO ONE predicted (even industry insiders, with BOM stating it was "steeper than expected"), was totally predictable. Then, compared it to the OG trilogy, completely taking ESB's drop out of context for the sake of their argument, and also acting like a WW 26% drop is the same as a 30%+ one (it could end up at 35%+.) Next, compared it to other movies outside the SW franchise, as well as a spinoff, just to make this one seem like its doing good and performing exactly to expectations. And, now, are actually grasping at straws, comparing it to the SE re-releases. Just, wow.

And I'll leave this very interesting article by the Hollywood Reporter (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/star-wars-last-jedi-dips-at-christmas-box-office-1070314.) In it the pundits prediction AFTER the huge drop is that it would go on to do $750M-$800M domestic and ~$1.6B WW. Why? Because they thought that even though the drop was bigger than expected, it was all because of the holidays, so afterwards it would almost fully recover. Well, looks like it could fall $100M-$150M short at the domestic box office, and $250M-$350M short WW, after the new predictions. Seems like something else was keeping it down. Hmm.

It also seems China isn't going to be much help. Midnight screenings brought in just $560K, which is down 78% from TFA's midnight screenings take of $2.5M. In its first weekend in China, TFA did $53M. For its first day, TLJ looks like it will only do ~$9M-10M, including those early screening from Fri. It's weekend is looking more like ~$20M, less than half that of TFA. And even lower than the $30.6M Rogue One made in its first weekend. It's also losing to a romantic-comedy that is in its 2nd week and has fewer screens. I guess the obvious pandering to the Chinese market didn't exactly work this time.

Was TLJ a disappointment or a success at the box office? I won't say due to the heated debate in this thread.