Spend too much time in certain corners of the internet and you might come away with the impression that the Star Wars franchise is in more trouble than it actually is. Granted, the underwhelming box office performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story showed that this brand isn’t invincible, and The Last Jedi certainly has its vocal detractors among longtime fans of the franchise, but if this new report from Forbes is anything to go by, such factors are unlikely to play a huge role in the box office performance of next year’s Star Wars: Episode IX.
Though we’ve been hearing a fair amount of talk lately that J.J. Abrams’ upcoming release will serve as a “course correction” for a series that has strayed from the ideals of certain fans, the Forbes piece questions whether it would really be in Lucasfilm’s best interests to ‘fix’ the more divisive elements of The Last Jedi.
After all, Rian Johnson’s film was largely well-received by the average moviegoer, and while the second installment in the Sequel Trilogy did see a slip in profit from The Force Awakens, it’s argued that this slight decline is simply par for the course in Star Wars history. Check the figures and you’ll see that Empire Strikes Back and Attack of the Clones experienced similar drops in comparison to their respective predecessors, before the figures improved once more for the third entry in each trilogy.
In his piece, author Scott Mendelson also sees little worth in the theories that the backlash to The Last Jedi was what sunk Solo and will sink this next film, building on a previous assertion that one of Solo’s biggest problems was failing to sell itself as essential viewing in a season of highly anticipated films like Avengers: Infinity War. Overall, the article paints an optimistic picture for Star Wars: Episode IX, but the real test will come when the movie hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.
