The Force Was Strong With This One

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has surged past $1 Billion in the global box office in just 12 days! Making it the first movie to achieve such a feat so quickly. The previous record was set by 'Jurrasic World' June which crossed the mark in 13 days. Star Wars also broke the record for the biggest opening weekend previously held by Jurrasic World.

The film took $153.5m (£103.5m) in the US in its second weekend, bringing its total domestic haul to $544.6m (£367m).

There was huge anticipation for this movie, being the first one in the Star Wars series for a decade and it certainly did not disappoint. Its worthwhile to note that the movie hasn't even been released in China yet, where it is expected to launch next month! When Jurrasic World crossed the billion dollar milestone it had the benefit of recording sales in China as well.

In 2012 Walt Disney acquired the owners of the Star Wars franchise Lucasfilms and the staggering numbers for this release has surprised even Disney executives.

I personally though the movie was great but was honestly expecting a little but more. I found the Revenge of the Sith to be a lot better.

What did you guys think? Where does this one rank among the other movies in the franchise?

 

I am really surprised by the fandom of this franchise... To be fair, it is a great kids movie.. It might even be a fun movie to watch when you are baked but the amount of crazy fandom is beyond understandable.. My issue is that they try to position themselves (or are considered by fans) as a "serious" franchise yet it is rife with total BS, eg:

  1. Any planet these guys travel to has the perfect atmosphere for our protagonists

  2. They can get by fine wearing the same thing in a desert as well as frozen tundra

  3. There doesn't seem to be any variation in gravity on any planet. e.g. in real life we are 6 times lighter on the moon because moon has a weaker pull

  4. Apparently storm troopers are trained from birth but cannot shoot one thing right..

honestly, it is a bad franchise that somehow inexplicably still mints money..

 

Nice hot take.

1) Look at how many planets are in the universe. They travel via light speed, making it much more feasible to travel between life-supporting planets in reasonable time frames. 2) This makes it seem like you're trying to find reasons to dislike the movie. 3) Once again, look at how many planets there are. Plus, if they're able to shield a planet, i'm sure they're able to alter gravity in some aspects. 4) This goes for any villain or bad guy in any movie series ever. James Bond, Avengers, etc etc. Again, this seems like you're trying pretty hard to find reasons to dislike the movies.

 
MBA_Junkie:

I am really surprised by the fandom of this franchise...
To be fair, it is a great kids movie.. It might even be a fun movie to watch when you are baked but the amount of crazy fandom is beyond understandable..
My issue is that they try to position themselves (or are considered by fans) as a "serious" franchise yet it is rife with total BS, eg:

1. Any planet these guys travel to has the perfect atmosphere for our protagonists

2. They can get by fine wearing the same thing in a desert as well as frozen tundra

3. There doesn't seem to be any variation in gravity on any planet. e.g. in real life we are 6 times lighter on the moon because moon has a weaker pull

4. Apparently storm troopers are trained from birth but cannot shoot one thing right..

honestly, it is a bad franchise that somehow inexplicably still mints money..

You seem like a guy who's not very fun to be around in parties/general.

 

I'm not surprised at this broke the Billion Dollar mark already. The franchise has always had a very large fanbase, both hardcore and casual. I've seen the film twice already. I have friends who have seen it 3-4 times and have paid the higher prices for IMAX3D, which has helped boost revenue significantly. I think you have many fans throughout the world who have done the same thing, which contributed significantly to the bottom line. Given that there was bound to be significant repeat business (I think the Per Theater Average for TFA was roughly 60K in the first weekend), what's impressive is breaking that mark without China, and in a faster time than Jurassic World.

Disney made a very smart move buying Lucasfilm. Having that IP has paid off in spades. Even without the films, the licensing rights for the IP alone have generated hundreds of millions in revenue for Lucasfilm (and now Disney) a year. I think the expectation now is that the new films, spinoffs, merchandising, and licensing fees are expected to bring in north of $25 Billion in revenue over the next 10 or so years. That's good news for the House of Mouse.

Now, where did I think TFA ranks. First off, shut your mouth saying this was worse than Revenge of the Sith. The Prequel trilogy was awful and none of the films are even close to A New Hope in terms of quality and standard. On first watch, I came out putting TFA right below The Empire Strikes Back, which is, in my humble opinion, the best of the entire franchise. After the second viewing, I'd place it above A New Hope, but I'm not sure how to put it in respect to where I rank Return of the Jedi. There are things I loved that made it much better than Jedi, like No Ewoks, and things I thought knocked it off a few pegs, such as the limited role of characters that Disney/Lucasfilm tried to make sure we knew were played by bigger names (ex. Captain Phasma. Like seriously, I expected more than 10 minutes of her. I get that she's billed 13th down, but in the 5 or so minutes that Max von Sydow had far more of an impact than she did.).

MBA_Junkie, stop being a hater. You really haven't given any reasons that are valid because most of these tropes you cited have been used before in other Sci-Fi movies and TV Shows. Hell, some of the tropes (like the more grunts you have, the worse their aim is), have been recycled throughout a ton of movies and TV Shows.

 
Frieds:

@MBA_Junkie, stop being a hater. You really haven't given any reasons that are valid because most of these tropes you cited have been used before in other Sci-Fi movies and TV Shows. Hell, some of the tropes (like the more grunts you have, the worse their aim is), have been recycled throughout a ton of movies and TV Shows.

I dont care if they have been used before... they are the reason why I was so severely disappointed... This is the first star wars movie I watched... it was like going to drive a ferrari for the first time in my life but discovering it has a minivan's engine inside...

 
MBA_Junkie:
Frieds:
@MBA_Junkie, stop being a hater. You really haven't given any reasons that are valid because most of these tropes you cited have been used before in other Sci-Fi movies and TV Shows. Hell, some of the tropes (like the more grunts you have, the worse their aim is), have been recycled throughout a ton of movies and TV Shows.

I dont care if they have been used before... they are the reason why I was so severely disappointed... This is the first star wars movie I watched...
it was like going to drive a ferrari for the first time in my life but discovering it has a minivan's engine inside...

Watch the others. I think Disney kind of ruined the potential of this movie. Hopefully they improve upon future ones.

 
Best Response

Yeah. That clarifies it. You never grew up watching the Original Trilogy, which would definitely have changed your opinion - and made the tropes more tolerable. That's part of the reason why there is such a huge fanbase that cuts through the hardcore and casual alike. If you had seen the original trilogy, that might have shaped your view of TFA a bit differently. Yes, they had similar tropes back then (like the law of inverse proportions. The smaller the band of heroes there are, the more accurate their attacks become. Conversely, the larger the group, the more inaccurate they become), but the story is what sold the movie and seeing the original trilogy does much to at least accept some of the things that you are taking at face value as insane and disappointing. Watch the original trilogy and let it provide some perspective and then reevaluate the new one. And just avoid the prequel trilogy.

If you're disappointed by these same tropes, then how can you actually enjoy any movie. Very few movies actually create new tropes. Almost everything is a variant of a preexisting trope.

 
anonymousbro:

I thought it was a good movie, but I was sort of disappointed that it was basically a remake of 4. I was hoping they might come up with some crazy shit that really surprised people, but I guess there was no chance of that with the money at stake.

From a storyline perspective, they are just getting warmed up. Trust me, crazy shit will begin to unfold in future episodes. This episode was just introducing various characters and background information.

I'll give you a hint, without outright spoiling anything:

POSSIBLE SPOILER BELOW

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

'Supreme Leader Snoke' is someone Star Wars fans will be familiar with.

 
Cardinal:

Another death star with an obvious weakness to exploit. How many times will the empire mess that up???? The plot was very lacking for me but hopefully it gets fleshed out in the next two films.

I too, found the entire movie lacking overall. It was decent but not up to the standards of a Star Wars movie. Too much potential was lost. I think the movie would have been made much better if it had been Lucas, rather than Disney and JJ.

Anyway, it was decent and I look forward to how they unravel the outstanding plot in future movies.

 

What's with all the hate, fellas? :)

This is the first star wars movie I saw and was expecting amazing stuff.. It probably seemed amazing when it came out in the 70's or whenever.. .which is probably why glaring errors like "storm troopers are trained from birth but cant shoot for sh*t", etc, was given an pass ..

Some stuff is absolutely hilarious, e,g,

  1. the 'force' power fluctuates crazily throughout the movie...the new discount darth vader could immobilize Ray using force earlier but can't do shit when she is ripping him apart in a sword fight later... seriously?!? did he forget??

  2. WHY THE HELL DO THEY SWORD FIGHT!?!?!? someone please explain that to me ... they have guns, don't they?!?!? its not like the jedi are impervious to gunshots.. Do we still send out the marines and the navy seals with swords a their primary weapons when the enemy has guns??!?

  3. and lastly... HOW CAN THE JEDI DEFECT ENEMY LASER BEAMS WITH THEIR SWORD?!?!? that is not possible.. laser beams are light beams - the fastest things in the universe... how can a jedi move their swords faster than light to deflect enemy fire??

If you liked it... great!! ... but seriously, the fact that this story has a serious fandom is what depresses me about the human race.. it is meant for kids... Deal with it!!

 

The hate is based upon weird opinions that really have no real basis than just wanting to be a contrarian.

"Glaring errors" like the stormtroopers being unable to hit targets is a trope throughout every single action movie ever. Honest question, do you find it "absolutely hilarious" that Indiana Jones, James Bond, et al have not been killed in any of their gunfights? That's how movies work dude.

1) This is such a dumb criticism. It's like hating IV-VI because the emperor or Darth Vader could have just choked everyone to death and then ended the entire series within 10 minutes.

2) "Do we still send out the marines and the navy seals with swords a their primary weapons when the enemy has guns?" LOL The marines and navy seals don't have supernatural abilities and their swords can't deflect bullets. Soooo.... once again, the difference between a movie and real life.

3) You realize that they are not light beams, right? They shoot plasma and energy, but still have ammo. You think someone holds a "light beam" and loads it into the gun? We would not be able to even see that the "laser beams" are shooting if they were travelling the speed of light and Kylo Ren would have been killed at the beginning of the movie instead of being able to stop the shot in mid-air. Think of it this way, imagine someone shooting at someone with a big, curved, metal shield. The bullets will probably deflect off the shield, right? That's how the basically energy swords deflect the shots.

The fact that people have such vitriolic dislike of this movie over such asinine things is what depresses me about the human race's ability to understand that movies are not real life.

 

Maybe you remember. I have a faint recollection that the reason storm troopers can't shoot as well as because using blasters or any of the other weapons requires use of the force to some degree which because of their weak minds they are less able to do. Can you verify?

Also to add to 1. He couldn't kill Ray with the force because Ray's ability to use the force had been awoken. (Force Awakens who would have thunk it). #2 We would if it were the starwars universe because of the question I asked above, and this next part. #3 The blasters are made up of the same thing as the light sabers, which obviously can't be light or the lightsaber would be millions of miles long, if not infinitely long. Another reason why Jedi can use the lightsabers to stop the blasts. Further, Jedi specifically are more attuned to stopping laser blasts because of their ability to use the force, and the comment above that a bit of the force is required to use the blasters.

Also, our laser weapons today are not light beams anyways.

 

the butthurt is strong with this one :) Why the ad hominems? It looks like I may have stuck light sabres up your force-holes :) I wonder what that feels like..let me know..

wtf, guys?!?! I have said that it was fun to watch. I just expected a story line that makes sense with all the money that has been poured into the franchise and such a large nerd-base.. and the nerd-base is the reason I expected some semblance of scientific rationale - kinda like interstellar (Neil Degrass Tyson was quoted saying that Interstellar is consistent with science)

Stop being such babies! .. or as chewbaca would say, "AAUNGHA"

 

Random thoughts: Seriously though, three death stars easily blown up in the 4 movies once the Empire rises to power. Is the empire just rolling those designs forward YoY? Why would Brienne of Tarth lower the shields with one button, serious control deficiency if she can do that without approval. Harrison Ford carried this movie and I'm curious what will happen without him.

I'm just excited for ep 8 to feature an ice planet and the fights with the walkers since those scenes were awesome in 5.

 

Nope. That's not right. What kind of shit is that placing Jedi below Sith. Plus, A New Hope is way too high. The rankings should be as follows:

  1. The Empire Strikes Back (Episode V)
  2. Return of the Jedi (Episode VI)
  3. The Force Awakens (Episode VII)
  4. A New Hope (Episode IV)
  5. Revenge of the Sith (Episode III)
  6. The Clone Wars (Episode II)
  7. The Phantom Menace (Episode I)

Corrected it for ya.

Oh, and just because it's now relevant to link this...

 
Frieds:

Nope. That's not right. What kind of shit is that placing Jedi below Sith. Plus, A New Hope is way too high. The rankings should be as follows:

1. The Empire Strikes Back (Episode V)
2. Return of the Jedi (Episode VI)
3. The Force Awakens (Episode VII)
4. A New Hope (Episode IV)
5. Revenge of the Sith (Episode III)
6. The Clone Wars (Episode II)
7. The Phantom Menace (Episode I)

Corrected it for ya.

Oh, and just because it's now relevant to link this...

Edit: Anyone know how to embed Youtube Videos? I don't want to link it and would rather embed it. The HTML Embed link from Youtube isn't showing up despite being here.

I believe you are the first person in history who ranked Return of the Jedi above A New Hope. I thought the most controversial part of my ranking was putting III above VI. Not that IV was above VI. That's not controversial. That's the one that started it all.
 

I don't know much about the franchise, but I've seen all the movies so I've got a basic understanding of the series. I thought the latest movie was sub par--too much talking and all that shit and not enough light saber battles and whatnot. That's why Episode III is my favorite. That fight between Obi Wan and Anakin in the lava at the end? Unreal.

 

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