Star Wars: The Last Jedi suffers box office drop, but is it a bad thing?

Star Wars: The Last Jedi suffered a steep drop in its second weekend? How problematic is this?

The numbers are out now. Star Wars: The Last Jedi had a near 69 percent drop this weekend, making $68.4 million. In the film’s opening weekend, it managed to rake in over $220 million at the domestic box office. This weekend, the film fails to even break five-digit figures. However, when you ring in Christmas Monday as part of a four-day holiday weekend, the drop is less harsh. Instead, The Last Jedi makes over $100.6 million this weekend, with only a 54 percent drop. This looks poor compared to the film’s predecessor.

Pick your poison from the many outlets online, as some already claimed failure and downright Armageddon for the film and the franchise. If we go by just the three-day weekend drop of 69 percent, yes, proclaim it abysmal. It’s even the worst second-weekend drop for any film in the Star Wars franchise. Yes, not even the prequels had second weekend drops this large.

However, it all depends how you want to look at it. Yes, The Last Jedi had a huge second weekend drop, but it still brought in more revenue than all of the prequels and Rogue One. These films all have an opening date, with a four day holiday weekend in the following weekend. Hence, even their second weekend with a smaller drop, still makes less revenue than The Last Jedi.

More from Movies

The film already out-grosses the entire domestic run of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. It will potentially do the same for Revenge of The Sith and Rogue One, as the film already out-paced them both.

It is true. Yes, this second weekend drop is big, but the film fails to make the top 100 list. In fact, many of films have a big second weekend drop. Many of them are also very successful films. A few installments in the Twilight franchise had it worse than The Last Jedi. Say what you will of these films, they all made good money in the end, out-grossing the original film. Another prime example is Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2. Yes, this film has a 72 percent drop for its second weekend. Yet, the film made over $1 billion worldwide, hence Armageddon must be canceled I would argue.

A second weekend does not make or break a film’s total box office. I dare say it is possible the film will be up and over $400 million by the end of next weekend. It will close in on $500 million after the New Year.

I am sure many are scratching their heads in awe, asking themselves how or why could this happen to Star Wars. The first reason is evident, as it remains divisive amongst the fans. The critics laud it, but the audiences loathe it. With bad word of mouth, plenty may have decided not to attend. In addition, the loathing fans decided against a repeat viewing.

What about the end of the event?. Today, many tentpole films are like a spectacle, where if you do not attend first, “you’re the worst.” People come in huge droves for the opening weekend. They can be the talk of the town and join all the spoiler talk on social media instantly. Piggybacking off this event threshold is the event is somewhat novel already. The Force Awakens had a huge turnout given it was the first Star Wars film in over ten years. Now, with that and Rogue-One, we are receiving a Star Wars film every December now.

I believe the second weekend falling upon Christmas time was an issue. People are leaving town, wrapping, setting up parties and doing last minute Christmas shopping. They cannot afford to take out over two hours of their time for something that can wait until next weekend.

Movies barely stay in theaters as long anymore. The prequels were all in theaters for roughly five months, so were the last two films. On average, most blockbusters do roughly three months.

Now, movies come to Blu-Ray almost three months after its box office debut. Now some are coming out first digitally in almost less than three months. The last two films got a home release roughly four months after their opening. I remember waiting for almost a year for movies to come to home video. Now if people are unsure and did not go, they can just wait a few months. Heck, they may even wait for the film to show up on Netflix, where they do not have to pay for the movie at all.

Next: 50 greatest super heroes in comic book history

Despite all of this, at the end of its run, it is safe to say Star Wars: The Last Jedi will still be a $1 billion worldwide box office film.

Home/Movies