Let’s Stop Worrying About the Box Office and Start Talking About the Movies Again; Why fanboy bean counting is making movie discourse worse than ever.

>The Force Awakens’ monumental box office impact has had a negative net effect on the industry because it set unrealistic expectations for how future Star Wars films were supposed to perform

I’m sorry, but this is just sour grapes from a “Last Jedi” fanboy.

“The Last Jedi” was released in a climate where the general audience was on a high dose ” of “Star Wars” mania … anything connected to the “Star Wars” brand was riding high.

A mania that was destroyed when people actually started seeing Johnson’s film.

Not only did Rian Johnson’s film have horrific legs, but it simultaneously prompt lower Google engagement AND more vitriolic discourse.

Quite the achievement.

And the film absolutely hurt the franchise’s ability to appeal to the Average Joe with the “Star Wars” brand alone.

Now you actually have to convince general audiences to watch new “Star Wars” content…by baiting them with marketing gimmicks and selling points.

Usually, these selling points are nostalgia.

Audiences will NEVER give “Star Wars” a blank check to do whatever it wants after Johnson’s film, which was supposed to bring Star Wars to new horizons and stories.

Before “The Last Jedi” … an Old Republic movie would have made more than a billion on a bad day.

After “The Last Jedi” …an Old Republic, the movie would be a horrendous flop on a GOOD DAY.