Posted in: Movies, News With Benefits, Satire | Tagged: disney, HRL, justice league, Release the Snyder Cut!, star wars, star wars: the last jedi, Warner Bros, zack snyder

With No Snyder Cut, Star Wars: The Last Jedi to End Up with Disappointing $1.3 Billion Box Office

Published Sat, 20 Jan 2018 13:15:09 -0600

by Jude Terror

Last updated Sat, 02 Nov 2019 08:39:28 -0500

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi was the most successful movie at the box office in 2017, the second-highest grossing Star Wars movie ever, and will likely end up as the 9th highest-grossing movie of all time at the worldwide box office. And when the dust settles, it could be considered an absolute failure.

A new report from Forbes estimates that Star Wars: The Last Jedi will end its theatrical run with just $1.3 billion at the global box office, down $300 million from early projections of $1.6 billion, and below Forbes reporter Mark Hughes's own $1.4 billion projection. Largely, The Last Jedi's box office failure can be attributed to its bombing in China, where the movie failed to take the top spot in its opening weekend against the second week of The Ex-File 3: Return of the Exes, and where over 90% of theaters dropped the movie in its second weekend. The Last Jedi's international appeal was so damaged that it even cause faith in U.S. leadership to dip around the globe.

Without a strong China total, Star Wars: The Last Jedi underperformed at the international box office. And though it was successful domestically, it might have been more so if the movie didn't prove controversial with fans, becoming a battlefield in the war between critics and disgruntled fans illustrated by the huge disparity between the critics and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes. In a way, backlash against The Last Jedi was revenge for critical panning of Justice League a month prior. Though The Last Jedi easily surpassed Justice League's box office take, tensions between critics and DCEU fans likely did boil over into The Last Jedi's reception.

With The Last Jedi winding down its theatrical run, there isn't much that can be done to boost its total. Except for one thing: Disney could release the Zack Snyder cut of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, reinvigorating its box office run and propelling it to another billion dollars in revenue or more.

Hear us out.

Yes, Zack Snyder had nothing to do with Star Wars: The Last Jedi, so there's no footage directed by Zack Snyder to use in a Snyder cut. However, the lack of existing footage that could be used in a Snyder Cut has had no bearing on the demand for a Snyder Cut of Justice League. If Warner Bros. wanted to release a Snyder Cut of that film, millions of dollars would need to be spent adding special effects to discarded footage. Would it be that much more unreasonable to suggest that Zack Snyder could team up with Disney and the cast of The Last Jedi to reshoot most of the movie making a Snyder Cut possible?

We would argue that, in the grand scheme of things, a Zack Snyder cut of Star Wars: The Last Jedi is equally as realistic as a Snyder Cut of Justice League. Furthermore, if Disney were to release the Last Jedi Snyder Cut, it would mark a huge coup over rival Warner Bros., siphoning not only more dollars from disgruntled Star Wars fans, but from disgruntled DCEU fans as well. Finally, releasing the Zack Snyder cut of Star Wars: The Last Jedi could heal the rift between fans and critics, bring peace to the moviegoing community.

You're probably thinking that this article is completely ridiculous, but if you think about it, the Snyder Cut isn't really a collection of movie footage directed by Zack Snyder anyone. The Zack Snyder cut is a state of mind, and what franchise would be better than one which focuses on using one's mind to harness a mysterious Force present in all things? All those years ago, when Obi-Wan Kenobi told Luke Skywalker, "use the force, Luke," he was essentially saying, "Luke, release the Snyder Cut."

What's at stake here isn't just the box office status of the eighth installment of a blockbuster franchise. What's at stake the heart and souls of all movies and their audiences. And so, we invite all of you to join with us in demanding: release the Snyder Cut, Disney — you're our only hope.