“The Last Jedi” is out and fans are not happy.
Critics fawned over the film, so the media portrayed the fan disapproval as fake outrage manufactured by bots.
But these latest figures prove that the fan backlash was real and Disney should be terrified.
“The Last Jedi” has already lost its top spot at the box office to “Jumanji,” which only opened five days later.
From Showbiz411:
It seems like New Years Day was an unhappy one for “The Last Jedi.”
On its 18th day of release, the latest “Star Wars” movie was supplanted at number 1 on the box office chart by the reboot of “Jumanji.”
“Jedi” took in $15.7 million. “Jumanji” scored over $16.1 million. “Jumanji” is in its 13th day of release.
For “Jedi,” losing number 1 less than three weeks after release is a little surprising. But as I’ve told you right along, the new “Star Wars” movie hasn’t been keeping pace with its predecessor, “The Force Awakens.”
The older movie was at $750 million by its 18th day. “Jedi” is at $533,089,000.
If “Jumanji” had been a hot new release, the fall might’ve been understandable. But the film had already been out for two weeks.
The repeat business for “The Last Jedi” simply isn’t there, as evidenced by the film being $217 million behind the pace of “The Force Awakens.”
Rotten Tomatoes, the critic and fan review aggregator, pushed back on the narrative that the numbers on their site had been manipulated. The box office totals appear to prove that was false.
From Forbes:
Some critics and social media commenters have questioned the gap between the Rotten Tomatoes score and the ratings on other services, highlighting it as proof that there is something amiss with the Rotten Tomatoes numbers. Though Quartz and other outlets have explored how the score may be rigged, the simpler and far more credible explanation is simply that a lot of people don’t like the movie.
One widely circulated story about an anonymous individual who runs the Facebook page “Down With Disney’s Treatment of Franchises and its Fanboys” claims that this person created bots to manipulate the Rotten Tomatoes score. But [Rotten Tomatoes Spokesperson Dana] Benson and other company reps I spoke to dismissed such claims as nonsense. Although anyone can post whatever they want on the site in the effort to drive ratings either up or down, Rotten Tomatoes has nearly two decades experience at identifying and controlling for such efforts to push the scores in one direction or another.
[…]
Benson noted that Rotten Tomatoes isn’t the only social media platform with such mixed reactions to The Last Jedi, and added, “We’ve been working around the clock to ensure the numbers are right. Authenticity is very important to us. We have security teams, network teams, database teams who work so hard, it’s a little disheartening for them to see people make such [accusatory] claims without knowing the facts.
With all of the data available, Occam’s Razor appears to apply; fans simply don’t like the movie all that much.
Fans weren’t alone. Mark Hamill, the star of the franchise, voiced his displeasure with the film as well. He was then forced to backtrack with a sham apology:
@HamillHimself on Twitter
I regret voicing my doubts & insecurities in public.Creative differences are a common element of any project but usually remain private. All I wanted was to make good movie. I got more than that- @rianjohnson made an all-time GREAT one! #HumbledHamill https://t.co/8ujJfBuEdV
Disney appears to have lost the trust of their core fan base, which could spell doom for Episode IX, as well as the spinoff trilogy Disney awarded to “The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson.
It would be a shame if Disney tarnished one of the strongest brands in cinematic history.