Dude, it was still a minority of people using internet extensively, internet became really widespread only with smartphones and social media. Also we didn't have Gamergate inaugurating the geekdom assholes hysteria movements yet.
I really don't think availability of smartphones and social media matters much for the movie reviews. It's bloody difficult to write any reviews from mobile devices, as text editing is very cumbersome with them. Note that I happen to live in a country that was the poster child of connectivity and internet connections, so there's that.
Yeah and if you count international sales Last Jedi would be ahead of both Jedi & Empire who made less internationally than they did domestic. There has been speculation about how much money studios actually see from international sales but given how hard hollywood is catering to China or putting chinese content into damn-near every movie, they obviously make something.
The reviews honestly don't matter, all that matters is the money. The fact that Zach Snyder still has a job after poor reviews of every DC movie he's made is proof of that (and yes I know those are critical reviews not audience reviews). And those movies are less profitable than Last Jedi so- I'm sure Warner Brothers would love a DC movie that did as poorly as Last Jedi.
As for Solo, according to Box Office Mojo it's made money domestically- did it perform below expectations because of Last Jedi? Or because of the summer release? Or because of the subject matter? Who knows. There are a lot of variables but as long as it's made its money back I don't see it having that big of an impact. And Episode IX isn't coming out for a year and a half, the fact it's back to Abrams and the time is so long I'm sure a lot of those "dead to me" star wars fans will go back and spend more money. I mean they did see Episode VII even after the prequels "raped their childhood", so are they really going to stay away from Episode IX? Stay away from Billy Dee? I seriously doubt it. Given history I don't think EpIX will outperform TFA but it will do better than Last Jedi.
The numbers in the table are world wide gross, taken from IMDB. The reason Hollywood tries very hard to get to China is that the Chinese market seems very lucrative, one billion people, and a rising middle class with income to spare. They are essentially trying to buy market share there, as missing out in the Chinese markets could become very problematic in the long run. I'm personally torn between the two approaches there. I haven't talked with a lot of Chinese how they see this and the thought of buying the associated merchandise, so maybe I'll do that the next time I'm there.
How does Solo "make money domestically"? What does that mean? The production cost is split between domestic and international markets? According to IMDB, it's made 380 mils gross world wide by 12th of July. The production cost is estimated at 300 mils. That's 80 millions surplus, with the exception that the world wide gross is split about 50/50 between the studio and theaters. That means studio got about 190 millions, pushing the movie well to the negative of around -110 mils. And that's without accounting the marketing costs.
It's always possible to market Last Jedi (or more generally, any product) so that people buy it once. But if they think it's bad, it's difficult to get the same people interested in anything after it. So essentially, it's about short term vs long term strategical choice. It's pretty evident Disney intended this to be for the long run, as they wouldn't have invested in to a Star Wars theme park otherwise. What I've done is that I've given links to show that this time there might be a big difference boiling in the background, and the fans can actually mean it. Merchandise sales collapse was reported immediately after The Last Jedi in January. Solo crashed as well, and it's a first Star Wars movie to do so.
The point where Mika said anonymous online reviews on RT or Metacritic are more trustworthy than professional reviews is the point where you all should have given up. Anybody who thinks that is so utterly divorced from reality that arguing with him just tars you by association.
Well, Metacritic says
58 % rating for Return of the Jedi from 24 professional reviews 
Not only that, but the point of using audience ratings instead of professional ratings lies in the actual predictor of buying decisions, including merchandise. Professionals are simply too small group to make any predictors of buying behaviors - and not only that, their ratings can differ significantly from the audience ratings. Remind me again why anonymous online reviews exist for Amazon, hotels, and other areas of industries? Why are these ratings actually used by the companies, and what makes the difference between them and the movie industry? If you tend to agree with a professional reviewer, by all means, follow his advice on movies, he might very well be a predictor for you. I'm more interested in the average behavior of the people.
Rotten Tomatoes has gone out to public and stated there's no mistake in their ratings. There's no unusual activity with respect to the data, and over the years, they certainly have seen their share of bots.
But Mika's third-rate spin is comedy gold. Keeping him wound up until Episode IX comes out would be a service to the forum.
No chance of me replying once my vacation is over. That will happen within a few days.
My problem with all these people who cry that Star Wars being dead is not that they do so, is that they keep doing so, forever, and won't stop until everyone agrees with their whining. If Star Wars was really dead, they would have sung something at the funeral and moved on. Hey, like I did to Mass Effect. Or when I watched Die Hard 4. Heck, Dragon Ball is 100% **** nowadays. Sometimes, things just stop being good and I move on.
Not these guys though. They'll hammer their points home til the end of time, and if there are people who disagree, they must be PWNED and DEBUNKED and DESTROYED, the artists should be EXPOSED for the LIES and DESTRUCTION they have made to their beloved precious thing, and (of course) DUG UP all the IDEOLOGICAL LEFTIST UNDERPINNINGS that wrecked star wars like commies do of everything I guess. And this discussion will go to the END OF TIMES, because apparently being mad at this stuff is the neverending story of a huge chunk of some people's lives.
If Star Wars ever dies, it will be at the hands of this hatedom, not anything else, for Hollywood will always try to milk it in multiple, different ways. Just like Star Trek (oh wait, there's another hatedom in there too).
Oh, just like they moved on from Solo? Also, you forgot "cultural marxists", let us not forget the cultural marxists. I reckon that should also be part of the above.
