zhamlau

Just saw it last night. Beyond impressed! What i always loved about the first film was how real it felt. It was an expansive universe that just felt like it was a camera walking through a nightmare version of "80s fear" defined Los Angeles. This movie hit that mark beautifully. I don't know much about Denis Villenueve but wow the man had a vision he wanted to achieve and he did so going away. It did the hardest trick in the world when it comes to movies, it made the universe physically expansive and massive but made the personal space and interactions intimate and borderline claustrophobic. Space is at a premium in this world unless you are willing to live in the dying sick parts of the world, or you are rich like the Leto Character. Even going outside the characters were shoulder deep and jammed into every corner. The world allowed for what seemingly was millions of corners and cubbyholes where "the ragged people go", miles of small secret places that felt real and dirty at the same time. It was just perfect. I also think something has to be said about Ryan Goslings performance. Yeah he strikes similar chords in many movies, but its really hard to act and convey a character with fewer spoken words and very sparse movements. This was the film of the year to me. Honestly not to bring it back to Star Wars, but this is the universe I wanted to see in these new movies. ANH and ESB gave us glimpses into other worlds and ways of life that I think felt alien and distant. BR2049 does that as well, I would like to see that sort of darker at times dirty broken world show up in the final of the series (the way Rogue One did it). Anyway, great movie. Id love to see this to become a trilogy.

Week 4 totals are in. Its looking like TLJ is going to slide in around 300 million (roughly 33%) under what TFA did, and potentially lose 700 million total compared to TFA. I really hope JJ can salvage something borderline good out of the chaos caused by this movie, and that he moves away from horrible idea's like hyperdrive warheads (which basically would win any battle ever). WEEKEND NUMBER Rogue One Star Wars: The Force Awakens Star Wars: The Last Jedi 1 $155,081,681 12-18-16 / 1 4,157 / $37,306 - $155,081,681 $247,966,675 12-20-15 / 1 4,134 / $59,982 - $247,966,675 $220,009,584 12-17-17 / 1 4,232 / $51,987 - $220,009,584 2 $64,033,768 12-25-16 / 1 4,157 / $15,404 -58.7% $286,033,442 $149,202,860 12-27-15 / 1 4,134 / $36,092 -39.8% $540,058,914 $71,565,498 12-24-17 / 1 4,232 / $16,911 -67.5% $368,167,854 3 $49,609,002 1-1-17 / 1 4,157 / $11,934 -22.5% $424,987,707 $90,241,673 1-3-16 / 1 4,134 / $21,829 -39.5% $742,208,942 $52,520,140 12-31-17 / 1 4,232 / $12,410 -26.6% $517,218,368 ADVERTISEMENT (scroll to continue with chart) 4 $22,063,570 1-8-17 / 2 4,157 / $5,308 -55.5% $477,364,924 $42,353,785 1-10-16 / 1 4,134 / $10,245 -53.1% $812,734,828 $23,728,944 1-7-18 / 3 4,232 / $5,607 -54.8% $572,691,546 5 $13,468,189 1-15-17 / 5 3,162 / $4,259 -39% $498,559,923 $26,342,117 1-17-16 / 3 3,822 / $6,892 -37.8% $852,274,958 $11,854,481 1-14-18 / 6 3,090 / $3,836 -50% $592,129,065

Yeah...i debated even bothering throwing stupid money at it just to accelerate the eventual bidding war between 2 folks...but really why bother on that one, im not gonna be willing to cover the 55k that will sell for.

Ouch that’s brutal. That’s exactly what Disney could not do if they wanted to grow this movie franchise in China.

LOL, i decided to keep reading the list after seeing the Hotel in question. Spot 3 on the bed bugs list is Fort Rapids in Columbus where I live. There's actually a local comic book show that was held there for years where I used to set up. Im glad to know this now so i can steer folks clear of it.

Tom Fish, guy who owns "blowout cards". He collects high end comic art.

oh my god, wow someone really went to work on that cover with the sharpie....wow...

I think Fish actually paid 660k for the IH 180 page, but it was a record for an interior panel page no doubt. Cant imagine that being passed any time soon.

I liked it, but it wasn't as good as the First. Lot of potential not realized. Im good if they want to do a statesmen/kingsmen theme next time though.

Week 3 went as expected. TJL keeps falling off substantially from TFA money wise. It sounds like China doesn't love this movie as much as the loved TFA either but i cant find firm comparable numbers for that so it could just be speculation. Percentage wise, this film is doing much closer to Rogue one then TFA. TJL is now over 220,000,000 behind TFA at this same point. I think when it is all said and done this film losses 300-350 million from TFA's numbers. I really believe that 300 million was lost by Johnson and his choices.

I have the previous model, and as you can see by my gallery its scans rather nicely. I highly recommend it.

So much of that art was given away or just lost in the warehouse. Something tells me however that Marie donated the pages because someone else grabbed the cover. I just think even from day one, that cover was known for its importance. I wouldnt be surprised to see it pop out in the next 5-10 years.

See, i hopes its just pure Boba. And he also was cool in the Cartoon's (Holiday special and Droids) if i remember correctly. Plus he just floated off with the garbage and tracked down solo and almost broke the rebellion. Id love to see That, you can probably have temura play him still or maybe even Daniel Logan (im sure he would appreciate the work). Throw in some cameo's from Jeremy Bulloch, Austin, Beers, and all the other living Boba's and it would be just perfect.

Yeah, but thats like season 4 x-files creepy. Honestly that character looks like he belongs in an Rob Zombie movie. On a side note, its pretty clear core story-line star wars is broken beyond repair/care...but how cool would it be to do a really dark R rated SW movie away from the Rian Johnson mess? Like a boba-fett movie set sometime before ESB with him just brutalizing his way through a contract?! Like Punisher style but in SW canon from the good trilogy era.

Yeah, thats not nightmare inducing or anything. That really how he was supposed to look? Although I get it, why put the most disturbing scary character in SW history in the most kid friendly SW movie ever?

Haha, i completely forgot about that. So Padme died of the weepies and her grandson Luke died of the Sleepies. 1. Obi-wan = dies by lightsabre 2. Qui-gon= dies by lightsabre 3. Darth Maul = Dies by Lightsabre 4. Vader = Dies by lightsabre and force lightning 5. Han = Dies by lightsabre 6. Mace Windu = Dies by Lightsabre 7. Luke = Dies cause he got super tired from a hard day sitting on his rock. So...historically in SW bad@$$es die by lightsabre. Man that really puts into perspective what a job Rian did with Luke. He just did everything he could to make him pathetic and disposable....sigh...

300k with BP i would imagine. Its just so iconic.

The issue with them really is the "alternate" covers. They love to buy a piece of art similar to a printed cover for a fraction of the price, put some stats on it and call it an "alternate" or "first take" cover. They then proceed to charge as if it was the actual published cover. Thats really my biggest concern with them.

Due respect, but this isn't true. As I posted a page or so back, The Last Jedi is performing exactly in line with Empire Strikes Back and Attack of the Clones at ~70% of the business of Star Wars and Episode 1, respectively. The first chapter of all three of these trilogies is literally a once-in-a-generation event. Even more so with The Force Awakens, which was not only the first new Star Wars movie in 12 years but also brought back the main original cast for the first time in more than 30 years. And again -- The Last Jedi's current rank of # 6 on the all-time domestic chart doesn't matter -- it's a false metric. What matters is its inflation-adjusted ranking of (currently) # 58 -- ahead of West Side Story, Superman, The Two Towers, Dark Knight Rises, Back to the Future, and Attack of the Clones. By week's end it will have passed Rogue One, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith in real terms, as well as Batman, Blazing Saddles and even Bambi. And if you truly think that Disney is so dissatisfied with this film's performance that Rian Johnson will be fired from his next trilogy (you know, like Disney fired Josh Trank and Lord & Miller from Solo and then Gareth Edwards from Episode 9), I'll bet you $100 that he stays. Fair enough, but it isnt true. Keeping it simple not comparing unlike to unlike. ANH Stayed in the theater for 52 weeks straight, ESB was only in the theaters for 12 weeks. It was a different strategy that lead to the huge overall number in ANH. ESB they wanted to curtail it to a normal 3 month window. When you compare each at the 12 week part, ESB vastly outperforms ANH. ANH has 109 million over its first 12 weeks. ESB had 141 over its first 12 weeks. That ANH was allowed to keep running and running is why it out-peforms long term. If they cut it off at the same date it would have done well under ESB. Im a fan of "like for like" arguing. I want to see a good example and a bad example of the same era films and compare them. Since we have only had 2 weeks of TJL I like to compare that. That money counts, Disney left it on the table. Its weekly drop off from week 1 to week 2 for TLJ was something like 33% more. Thats word of mouth, thats fans telling other fans "this film sucks". Infinitely better domestic economy, strong lead in and teaser at end of TFA to pique fan interests, and the return of Luke Skywalker!!!!....and with all that, the movie is doing almost 200 million less in the first 2 weeks alone. I mean, think about this. Do you think Disney wants to have its movies supporters make arguments and justify why the film did poorly compared to its lead in? That they want to see an actual rotten fan review much worse than even AOTC the previous worst film in the saga? Disney basically bought the Patriots, and then proceeded to fire Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. We can spin it how we want, but the film no where near capitalized on its potential earning and i feel will hurt future sales.

Again, not a shock. They could have strung together old episodes of "Lexx" and slapped that star wars title on it, and the film would have done a billion dollars. People are buying in the most part the name. The problem comes when you compare it to TFA. In a weaker economy on fewer screens and more fan fear of failure, it did substantially better over its first 2 weeks (nearly 200 million dollars) versus TLJ. Comparing it to Rogue One is unfair because RO is a tangential story, not part of main line star wars and people were unsure it doesnt carry the full "star wars" cache. The fact that the movie is more comparable to RO than TFA is a HUGE PROBLEM for Disney. Long and short, Disney isn't caring about the fact it broke a billion, it had no chance NOT to with the 500 million they spent (advertising and production estimates) making it. What Disney will see is that Rian Johnson managed to make a movie so flawed from a basic storytelling perspective to the fact that 1/2 of the fans literally felt cheated and insulted, that they managed to LOSE 200 million versus what TFA did. He had everything going for him, great lead in (TFA) and a professional reviewers in pocket knowing they had to be kind to this movie for multiple reasons. They had one of the strongest domestic economies in our countries history with more disposable income then ever before, and Strong word of mouth support and intrigue from fans before it debuted....and Johnson so blew it this film is potentially going to earn 400 million dollars less than TFA and there is no earthly reason why except how badly he messed up and how it killed repeat viewing and word of mouth endorsements bringing in casual fans.

With an unsure/skeptical post jar-jar audience, hopeful but nervous, TFA does 650 million domestic by this time..... With a more stable and accepting/hopeful audience, on more screens, TLJ does 450 million domestic over the same time... Rian Johnson is like the Washington Redskins of Star Wars. He had every advantage going into this with every bit of support possible and the biggest budget in movie history at his disposal. He had a strong lead in from JJ with plot lines the fans were excited to see and character they were starting to embrace....Yet he somehow cr---ed the bed on this so badly it would almost be funny if it wasn't so soul-crushing to 1/2 of the fans. Any footage with this title and seasonal placement would have done AT LEAST these numbers. That he has managed to come in so low against the previous mark AND ALSO managed to turn loyal fans against him and give us a rather boring line up of options for Episode 9 is sorta mindblowing.

We must remember the nostalgic factor with Force Awakens played a part with the bigger box office. People wanted to know what the original characters were up to after 30 years. Also the last Lucas Trilogy left such a bad taste in the audience's mouth that Force Awakens looked like an Oscar winner which led to people falling in love with Star Wars again to go to repeated viewings. I think if anything, TLJ should have had a strong tailwind behind it because of the borderline competency shown in TFA. It set up a story-line and characters that by all accounts people seem to be saying they like and wanted to continue. I think the teaser of Luke getting handed the light-sabre should have been more of a draw and "nostalgia factor" then just seeing Han rumble around the falcon saying "were home". . TLJ had more screens and more advertising hype with a stronger previous act DIRECTLY leading up to it...and its falling well short of the mark doing less with more. That's squarely on inferior product and fan negative reaction. That hurts future sales.

I think people are missing the point on this one. Its easy to look at raw numbers and think "wow this is doing GREAT!"....However once Disney slapped the "star wars sequel" tag on the movie, it could have just replaced all the footage with a few strung together episodes of "Cleopatra 2525" and it would still do half a billion dollars box office. The name alone is bringing people in for a majority of the folks. That its selling tickets isn't that shocking, with the nearly 500 million they spent making this film and marketing it I would expect it would make money. The problem is however how is it performing against past marks. Where you tell the story of how this film is doing is in it's comparison to "The Force Awakens". Same dynamics rolling into it, same studio, and roughly same production era (cost of production, advertising, ticket cost , etc). When you compare TLJ to TFA, the numbers are actually pretty horrible. Force Awakens after 2 weeks (with Christmas included) was at about 650,000,000 domestic with a nearly identical budget. The Last Jedi after 2 weeks (with Christmas included) is at about 450,000,000 domestic with a nearly identical budget. You can look at that and say "Look at that 450 million, how can you not be thrilled!"...but I promise you Disney is looking beyond the raw numbers and is saying "Look at that 200 million we lost from TFA in just 2 weeks, and that trend looks to continue". This movie keeps falling off ticket sales faster then TFA, which means it just can never catch up earning wise. It's death by 1000 cuts. The fan reaction is cutting a lot of repeat viewership and its turning off the casual fan from going. The way this film is looking now, its fully possible this film does 300-400 million less over its box office lifetime than TFA does all while costing more money and also salting its fan base. Simply put, thats not hot. And if this lowers the trajectory on the next film as im suspecting it will, look for Rian Johnson's days to be numbered.

What really surprises me is how many people in this thread buy comic art. I always think of us as this small little group of like 100 or so folks but it seems like many of the long time collectors pick up a page or two a year.

Always fun topic. My top 3 pick ups for the year are 1. AF15 5.5 OW/W 2. Thor 140 page 12 Jack Kirby 1/2 splash (signed, yay) 3. Defenders 89 Cover (Nasser/Rubinstein). I picked up a lot of nice stuff like Starlin Thanos pages from the 70s and what not but they werent for me so i dont count them.