Just Plain Fun (Last Jedi Spoilers)

We went to see this as part of the early screening for Amazon Prime members. I always worry that all the funniest parts of a movie are spoiled in the trailer leaving nothing left in the film. That isn't the case. I was either smiling or laughing the entire movie, as was the rest of the theater. Is it Citizen Kane? No. Was I going to the theater wanting to watch a drama that delved deep into the characters' lives? No, again.
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Huh?

Which movie are you talking about?

FWIW, "The Last Jedi" blew chunks, as in "I got so drunk last night I blew Chunks. Chunks is my dog."

Banned. Multiple accounts. Previous account movie spam.

You guys can't see them, but the posts of these bots are intended to have a crap ton of links with them. I'm only not Nuking the thread because there was a response.

BTW: I thought TLJ wasn't rock solid, but was at least pretty good.

Quote: Mission146

BTW: I thought TLJ wasn't rock solid, but was at least pretty good.

Is that why it's 120 mil behind in BO
revenues of the last SW pic?

I have not seen TLJ. I'm sure I will either in the theater or on DVD (Yes, I still watch DVD's.) but I can only assume that with the sheer amount of marketing I've seen, it couldn't be that good. I really liked Rogue One*, so I was a tad optimistic with the direction of the franchise, but with their "scorched earth" approach this time, with all the advertising and cross-promotion, I lost that optimism. If the movie was good, it would sell itself.

I would not be surprised if it did blow chunks. (In the figurative sense, anyway. I would be mildly surprised if it actually gratified Mr. V's dog.)

Quote: EvenBob

Is that why it's 120 mil behind in BO
revenues of the last SW pic?

I don't know anything about that, but here's what I do know:

http://deadline.com/2017/12/star-wars-the-last-jedi-second-week-overseas-results-international-box-office-1202232602/

1.) The film is No. 2 in North American revenue, having just passed Wonder Woman, for the year 2017.

2.)

Quote:

Jedi is now running 34% behind The Force Awakens at the same stage of play internationally, and 38% ahead of Rogue One.

So, you're partially right there, but I don't think that makes it a bad movie.

3.) It's currently 28th in All-Time domestic.***

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Anyway, it's doing worse (and will likely finish worse) than TFA, which happens to be the #1 domestic grossing movie of all-time...hardly a death sentence.

***The most recent (as of yesterday) figures have it at 424M domestic, if correct, it has taken the 17th all-time spot with some theatrical release time left on the clock.

Quote: Mission146

So, you're partially right there, but I don't think that makes it a bad movie.

They're all bad to me. The last one I
saw had a cartoon dog named Jar Jar.
I walked out in disgust and will never
see another one.

Quote: EvenBob

They're all bad to me. The last one I
saw had a cartoon dog named Jar Jar.
I walked out in disgust and will never
see another one.

He wasn't a dog, but both he, and that movie, sucked. They've turned the X-Wing back around and are navigating the Kessel Run in the right direction.

Quote: Mission146

He wasn't a dog,

Even more reason to walk out. The
acting was so obviously done in front
of a green screen. you almost had the
actors checking their watches as to when
the scene would end. Pathetic.

Quote: EvenBob

Even more reason to walk out. The
acting was so obviously done in front
of a green screen. you almost had the
actors checking their watches as to when
the scene would end. Pathetic.

I agree with you completely regarding both The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, which I take it you've never seen. In my opinion, and there are those who disagree, there are only a few positives that can be pulled out of either movie:

The Phantom Menace:

-The pod race was cool.
-Darth Maul looked cool.
-The Qui-Gon Jinn character was okay.
-The last battle, except Maul going down like a punk, was at least okay.

Attack of the Clones

-Um...I liked Christopher Lee as Count Dooku/Darth Tyrannus

-------That's all I have for that one.

In my opinion, The Revenge of the Sith was a bit of a rebound with solid acting by Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan, he really had Alec Guinness' mannerisms down pat and was extremely believable as a younger version of the legendary character. Samuel L. Jackson, obviously, was awesome as Mace Windu. There were no fewer than four really visually entertaining battles in the movie. The final scene with Obi-Wan and Anakin was very believable, no thanks to Hayden Christensen, of course.

Anyway, lots of positives to take away from that one. I'd probably put it at fourth or fifth of all the SW franchise movies. The two previously discussed are the bottom two by a mile, the only real argument to be had is which was worse. I'll say Phantom Menace was worse, it had more positives, but AotC at least had less Jar-Jar.

There should've never been more than the original 3 movies.

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

There should've never been more than the original 3 movies.

Disagree on the grounds of entertainment value alone. Say what you want and have any opinion about the actual movies you want, but they've brought a ton of entertainment to literal millions of people. It's hard to go wrong with that.

Quote: Mission146

Disagree on the grounds of entertainment value alone. Say what you want and have any opinion about the actual movies you want, but they've brought a ton of entertainment to literal millions of people. It's hard to go wrong with that.

Tell the truth Mission how many star wars action figures do you own? :)

Quote: rainman

Tell the truth Mission how many star wars action figures do you own? :)

Red Forman calls them "dolls" 😅

I've never seen any of the Star Wars movies, when a certain book mentioned Jedi Mind trick I had to Google it to see what it was.

I never played with action figures. I think I may have had a stuffed Ewok that I was given when I was two years old that I had until I was maybe nine or ten? I grew up, mainly, in the console gaming generation...so as far as toys went, I only ever cared about video games (for rainy days) and sports equipment.

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

There should've never been more than the original 3 movies.

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

There should've never been more than the original 3 movies.

WORD

I read a lot of sci-fi and seek out good sci-fi movies.

For some reason I've never been a Star Wars fan; while I've nothing against a space opera per se, I draw the line when the plot is silly, which it most ceratainly is in TLJ.

Stupid, really; not just silly.

I'd gladly cite examples but I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet.

Something only a true fan would love; sort of like how a mom loves her ugly child.

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

There should've never been more than the original 3 movies.

That was never George Lucas's intent. The first three films were always intended to be the middle arc of a nine film story.

Quote: MrV

I read a lot of sci-fi and seek out good sci-fi movies.For some reason I've never been a Star Wars fan;

The problem is, I could never give a rats
ass about any of the characters. They
are blase cardboard cutouts. If they
all croaked in one movie, I could care
less. I can't even name them, except
for Hans Solo.

Quote: MrV

I read a lot of sci-fi and seek out good sci-fi movies.

For some reason I've never been a Star Wars fan; while I've nothing against a space opera per se, I draw the line when the plot is silly, which it most ceratainly is in TLJ.

Stupid, really; not just silly.

I'd gladly cite examples but I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet.

Something only a true fan would love; sort of like how a mom loves her ugly child.

We can discuss it, I just put in the Thread title that there are TLJ spoilers. The OP is a Nuked spambot who I’m sure won’t mind the addendum.

Quote: MrV

and seek out good sci-fi movies.

I thought the re-boot of the STAR TREK series with Chris Pine was very, very good.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796366/?ref_=nv_sr_7

Quote: Mission146

Banned. Multiple accounts. Previous account movie spam.

You guys can't see them, but the posts of these bots are intended to have a crap ton of links with them. I'm only not Nuking the thread because there was a response.

BTW: I thought TLJ wasn't rock solid, but was at least pretty good.

I was wondering why Mayambe was already banned after only one post that seemed normal. Your explanation actually makes a lot of sense. :)

Quote: EvenBob

Is that why it's 120 mil behind in BO
revenues of the last SW pic?

This is wrong. The Last Jedi is ahead of Rogue One, the last SW pic.

The Last Jedi is behind The Force Awakens, which was a once-in-a-generation event. No one expected TLJ to make as much as TFA (the highest grossing domestic movie EVER).

Quote: ams288

This is wrong. The Last Jedi is ahead of Rogue One, the last SW pic.

The Last Jedi is behind The Force Awakens, which was a once-in-a-generation event. No one expected TLJ to make as much as TFA (the highest grossing domestic movie EVER).

Yes, and according to this:

http://deadline.com/2017/12/star-wars-the-last-jedi-highest-grossing-film-2017-jumanji-makes-100-million-1202233172/

It made another 20+M yesterday, which brings the total to 444.9M domestic. If that is correct, it is now 13th on the all-time domestic box office and it is also expected to eclipse the 504M made this year by Beauty and the Beast to make TLJ the number one domestic box office grossing film this year. That would also put it in eighth place all-time with certainly a few more weeks of theatrical release on the clock.

In eighth place at 504+M, Rogue One, the seventh place all-time domestic box office movie (532.2M) would be easily in its sights and it would be all but a lock to end up passing Rogue One.

I'm not sure it would end up overtaking The Avengers (2012: 623.4M) for the fifth spot all-time domestic box office, but it could.

Adjusting for ticket price inflation, TLJ has yet to crack the Top 100, but it most certainly will, and Rogue One currently occupies the 57th spot. TFA is 11th after the inflation adjustment and is the second highest-grossing domestic Star Wars franchise movie with only Star Wars A New Hope besting it as it is currently second all-time after the inflation adjustment only to Gone With The Wind.

Most importantly, this is hardly an unusual occurrence. Looking at the all-time adjusted for inflation box office domestic results, let's take a look at some other trilogies and sequels:

Star Wars: A New Hope---1.804B (2nd)
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back---876.8M (13th)
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi---840M (16th)

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace---806.5M (18th)
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones---477.5M (94th)
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith---529.8M (64th)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens---965.5M (11th)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi---444.9M (105th)********And Counting

Star Wars: Rogue One---539.7M (57th)

Star Wars

Just in terms of Star Wars movies, the curious thing is that the original trilogy is widely regarded as the best (and, in my opinion, it is) but it also had the most precipitous drop from the original movie to the sequel. In fact, it didn't even keep 50% of its audience. Obviously, at 13th and 16th all time adjusted, the numbers for the others were still terrific.

In terms of pure revenue, and it comes as no surprise, episodes II and III failed spectacularly by Star Wars standards, but were still highly successful movies. Episode III did better than Episode II, I presume, not only because it wasn't a complete pile of utter trash, but also because it got some repeat watchers as well as some positive word of mouth...due to it not being a complete pile of trash.

Episode II made 59.2% of the revenue enjoyed by Episode I. Episode VIII currently sits at 46.1% of the revenue made by Episode VII, but it's still running. At 571.58M, it will have retained the same 59.2% of the audience that Episode II did as compared to Episode I, and it is expected to at least get close to that number. Besides that, Episode VII outperformed Episode I by 160M adjusted dollars, so that's tough to keep up with.

One should also consider that an argument can be made for market oversaturation (with exception to the hardest core fans) with the release of Rogue One, which The Last Jedi is expected to slightly outperform. Where the original trilogy held 48.6% of its audience from the first release to the second and the prequels held 59.2%, they weren't running the risk of oversaturating themselves with another franchise movie released in the interim.

Let's take a look at a few other trilogies and/or sequels:

Other Trilogies and/or Sequels

Jurassic Park 820.9M (17th)
The Lost World Jurassic Park: 445.7M (105th) (54.3% Retention)
Jurassic Park III: 285.8M (278th)

The Lion King: 796.1M (19th)
The Lion King II Simba's Pride: Straight to video. (0% Retention)

Raiders of the Lost Ark: 790.5M (21st)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 478M (92nd) (60.47% Retention)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: 441.3M (106th)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 394.4M (141st)

The Godfather: 704.8M (25th)
The Godfather Part II: 47.5-57.3M (Before Adjustment) (290.3M---Best Case Scenario---After Adjustment) (Not Listed) (Best Case Retention 41.19%)
The Godfather Part III: Haha!!!

The Avengers: 686.5M (29th)
The Avengers Age of Ultron: 478M (93rd) (69.63% Retention)-----That actually seems to be really good!!!

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I'm sure there are examples to the contrary, (Shrek is a HUGE one) but generally speaking, movies that follow an original release drop off significantly and are hoping only to hang onto some percentage of their audience. The fact is that many people are going to go see the movie and either:

A.) Not like it.
B.) Not like it well enough to see it in theaters.

Therefore, no conclusions about a sequel can really be made by box office performance alone as the only retained fans are those dedicated to the franchise (i.e. fans of the specific franchise). In the case of TLJ, it will certainly retain more viewers as compared to the first two movies of the original trilogy, and there is an outside chance it retains more viewers as compared to the prequels...it'll be close. Even if it fails to do that, it won't be by a lot.

We also see that, as compared to other franchises, the retention rates for TLJ as compared to TFA fall easily within the range of expectation...and might even be good if we were to increase the sample size. Rocky II had a retention of 61.7%, Home Alone II 61.8%, Ghostbusters II was laughable compared to the original, (46.5%, unadjusted, which is an advantage to the sequel). Jaws II came in at 31.5%.

Anyway, calling it a bad movie is perfectly reasonable if one doesn't like it and based on the merits of the movie. However, when it comes to Box Office performance...as compared to similarly situated sequels, it's pretty much performing as expected.

Quote: Mission146

Adjusting for ticket price inflation, TLJ has yet to crack the Top 100, but it most certainly will, and Rogue One currently occupies the 57th spot. TFA is 11th after the inflation adjustment and is the second highest-grossing domestic Star Wars franchise movie with only Star Wars A New Hope besting it as it is currently second all-time after the inflation adjustment only to Gone With The Wind.

These are the only relevant numbers when discussing all time box office. The only reason the other numbers are used is to create more hype for movies in current release and to give lazy and dumb jounros something to vomit onto the page/screen about.

Quote: JohnnyQ

I thought the re-boot of the STAR TREK series with Chris Pine was very, very good.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796366/?ref_=nv_sr_7

I saw the first one. As a stand alone piece of disposable space entertainment, I thought it held it's own. I had fun watching it. But it wasn't really Star Trek.

This is what I actually believe:

Onion News: Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

https://entertainment.theonion.com/trekkies-bash-new-star-trek-film-as-fun-watchable-1819594814