If you leave totals unadjusted. If you actually adjust them for ticket price inflation, then it's below the OG trilogy and probably Ep 1 (haven't done the math, yet.) Of course, none of those films benefited from the huge expansion to both the domestic and foreign markets we have seen in the last decade or so, both in population and availability. 

Either way, it's looking to finish ~$740M+ and ~36%+ down from TFA. That is a horrible result. Especially when even after the drop they were expecting to be ~$400M and ~23% down. 

35% down is fairly reasonable. Same as Empire and Attack of the Bad Writing. 

$936 domestic for TFA is ridiculous. It's a solid movie but it didn't deserve that number. That's just pent up nostalgia and demand because a lot of Star Wars fans felt like the prequels weren't "real" Star Wars on top of a 10 year build up. The hype of it being a "return" to the original Star Wars style sent ticket sales through the roof. 

936 won't be beaten for a long time. Don't see Avengers Infinity War doing it nor Avatar 2. 

That's not reasonable. That's awful. And ESB was 26% down WW, with other things working against it. It still did $1.5B adjusted. Something this won't reach, even with expanded markets. 

Out of curiosity, what is the adjusted box office gross for The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones?

TPM - DBO=$757. 5M  FBO=$971.2M  WW=$1.73B

AOTC - DBO=$461.2M  FBO=$520.6M  WW=$981.8M

That's an awful 43% drop WW.  If TLJ continues to outperform RO by as little as it has been, TLJ is going to start edging towards that number. Currently, with the 8.6% higher performance, it will be ~36% behind TFA. It could climb to ~38% behind. Just shows how both movies weren't very well received. 

Dang. Thanks for the info.

Just checked the box office returns for TLJ. The fans have spoken to the tune of $1.2B! That's 6 times the production costs of making the movie and people are pretending Disney is upset? These people just cite a bunch of box office predictions as well as their own arbitrary predictions and act like these predictions are bases for what "should be". Too funny!

$1.2B is $1.2B no matter how you want to spin it. The only response most people have here is, "Oh your forgetting the big drop from TFA". TFA this, TFA that! No one is ignoring or forgetting these facts, they just aren't allowing those arbitrary figures of what "should be" to negate the reality of the actual figures.

You could point to this being bad if you simply compare this $1.2B movie to movies that have grossed more than it, and that it didn't meet their arbitrary expectations, but that is their opinion. The fact is it is down almost 38% from TFA and Star Wars fans still supported it by bringing in 6X its budget....and that's a bad thing?

If TLJ is as bad as people say it is (it isn't) and still makes as much as it did on a $200M budget then Disney is laughing their way to the bank and will continue to do so with this trilogy and the next. Stick around, you'll see.

Empire is one of the greatest if not the greatest fantasy-adventure film ever made, beyond that though your excuse about the VCR market still doesn't make any sense. VCR adoption in 1980 was not high and it wasn't even available on VHS until 1984. 

Yeah, it's like complaining that your second lottery win is only $5 million while your first lottery win was $10 million. ;)

You forgot to count the marketing budget, which wasn't reported (on all likehood as massive as the movie budget itself, if not bigger) and the fact Disney likely sees about half of the revenue the movie is reported to make, with the remainder going to theaters, foreign distributors etc.

A production like TLJ takes over 800 million to turn a profit. It is well known even movies from new franchies with lesser budgets and greater risks etc. often take over 500 million to break even. So, around 1.5x investment return, not 6x, which should place it on the lower end of Disney movies on profit alongside, say, a modern Pirates of the Caribbean or the Marvel movies of lesser characters.

I sincerely doubt Disney expected it to be smaller than an Avengers movie. A lot of people try to save face mentioning that "well, SW movies always drop on the second act" but a mere two is such a ludicrous sample to base it from (given it isn't exactly normal behaviour for movie trilogies) that it is more likely a coincidence than a pattern. Specially given the reasons of ANH being so massive have been extensively discussed here and elsewhere.