This isn’t really saying anything contrary - it’s saying the critics loved it (they did), and that people are —going to see it— a lot, apparently. It will still be the #1 movie according to the projections this week. That’s pretty strong. Based on the reactions I wonder if even some of the haters are going again?

We just went to see it last night - 4:15 matinee show. Theater was FULL. Sold out. Seems a good indicator that it's still performing ok. Movie was ok, I understood some of the criticism but my main issue is the movie was just too damn long! 3 hours in a Theater is way too much.

I liked Rose quite a bit - i thought it was really interesting how they emasculated Finn, he became a secondary character. I thought she was a good addition as the "average joe" person's perspective, sort of "one person can make a difference". despite this I did feel like they could have cut the WHOLE middle hour. And so much of the time with Luke was wasted. The "next generation must take the reins" was WAY too heavy handed for me. Luke better be in ep 9.

That all said, I thought the ending came back very strong, and I loved how Luke stuck to his convictions (such as they were) but still came through. The new people who they are HANDING THE SERIES TO came off way too lame, IMO. Kylo Ren is a moody teenager, not scary, not a credible leader, empire is a total mess. And it felt like the rebellion solved all their problems in the last scene. So where to next?

I can't tell if I disliked what happened in the movie, or the movie itself. And I think ... ugh, both.

Just to clarify a misconception we’ve repeated a couple times here - theatres and studios do NOT take a 50/50 split. In many theatre chains it is more like 70/30, which is why popcorn costs so astronomically much. When a movie is a big hit the second week is when the theaters really start to see good returns. Plus the theaters “rent” the movie prints from the studios (yes they still do this even though it’s digital) which can cost $60,000 per week per screen.

So that’s a lot of tickets and popcorn you need to sell. The box office grosses are purely from ticket sales, not all the back end additional accounting schemes that get taken into account.

Also, the giant marketing cost that gets thrown around as the same as the cost of the film is totally made up. The studios own most of the departments that do the marketing, but are incorporated as different companies than the department actually making the film. So the marketing “cost” is paying people to do the work that already work for the studio, and leasing assets already owned by the studio to be used by itself. It’s like paying yourself for putting up your own eBay ad, then writing off that amount as an “expense”. Why the studios can get away wit this but I can’t on my taxes is beyond me.

Anyway my point is, those marketing costs are inflated as a way to justify huge writeoffs so a movie never actually makes any money. Then the studio doesn’t have to pay the big name actors and director points on the back end, taxes are low because there never any “profit” yet the studios never go out of business.

Bingo. Although those numbers are about 10 years old. It’s gotten worse depending on whether or not something Is a blockbuster

1) I figured she was hit by the explosion

2) why not? I thought I would HATE this but found myself surprised at how delicately they did this. .. then they smooched and I thought “ok one bridge too far...”

3) I got nothing. But to be fair - not that important to the plot. It’s inportant that Finn get her back, not exactly HOW. They were all transfixed by Luke, OBVIOUSLY! Lol

I’m glad I read about this scene before I saw the movie - it was not Nearly as bad as I expected. I think it sets up things nicely for Leia’s Kid to come back in the next movie, and with full force powers. As to who that is...

I was really torn on TLJ when i saw it, although I thought the strong ending they gave Luke was very good - but that’s kinda it. I liked the little boy at the end staring hopefully into the sky after force-grabbing his broom, but ... literally just that shot.

The post about TLJ reversing everything set up in TFA was spot on. Reverse some stuff, ok ... but no payoff at all of any of the set ups?? Now there is no mystery at all. It’s like EP1 all over again! Bring back the midichlorians!

Anyway, I think nostalgia was keeping me from acknowledging how much I actually hated TLJ. I didn’t realize how much until the Solo trailer came out. I could not possibly care less at this point. And my kid, who is 8, who is THE TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC (at least for merchandising) does not care either. Colossal fail.

Lawrence Kasdan(?!?). He’s a legend. Not recently But I believe it 100%. He also wrote Empire, so you know... there’s that

Yep something seems “off”. They should have made a Lando prequel. Now THAT I will see, you know that would be funny

That would have been awesome, but it would have made the rest of the movie hurt worse...

It’s him AND his kid Jon, so .. hard to know what to expect. Hopefully a little tough love got into the script so it’s not Larry selling a POS

It’s probably a good idea at this point - with all the bad vibes from the (pretty lamely named) TLJ, any name now will get eviscerated. They probably want footage to go along with it and
Lessen the sting of Star Wars: The Alliance Rises, or whatever it is

Man, they might as well. Even as much as I dislike the Prequels, they didn’t make me HATE SW. I really enjoyed TFA too, but TLJ made me hate SW. amazing job they did, in only 1 movie!

Well thank god for that. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.

Actual footage of Disney execs’ final meeting with Rian Johnson:

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Yep, it’s even on the original link too. My guess is they’ll throw good money after bad for a while even if Ep IX tanks - they’ve got a lot invested and they paid what, 4B for Lucasfilm so they’ve got to get that back eventually. Terrible way to go about it though...

Help me understand this mentality. The Last Jedi and Solo -sucked-! ... but it wasn’t because there happen to be a few female characters in it. ALL of the characters were horrible, because that movie pissed all over every other Star Wars theme, history and character.

Rogue One was a great movie with a female lead. So what? I don’t get what that has to do with anything. If the stories are good, people are into it. If they’re not, they bail. There’s lots of other things to spend your money on that IS good.

I think I read that Captain marvel is projected to open at 100 million first weekend based on early sales. And that’s Disney too right? Also, WTF is SJW?

Apparently I’m going to have to look that up.

I don't know about all the political stuff you're talking about.. it's only a movie.. but a $100M opening weekend is BIG. That's how big Wonder Woman opened, and Aquaman , which was a
major release, opened at "only" $70M. 100M in ONE weekend is massive

Clearly you have never worked in Hollywood . Nothing is mightier than the dollar