C64_Critic wrote: Based on the numbers, I strongly suspect I'm not the only one for whom "Star Wars Fatigue" was indeed a thing this time around.
Now that is misleading. Based on the numbers, the movies are doing poorly. Positing a theory on your own feelings, then extrapolating that to everyone just because the movies failed is not good theory building. According to that theory building, Rosanne was cancelled because people dislike her laugh because I dislike her laugh, and look, the show is cancelled.
Again, regardless if you would have seen it in six months time, how do you explain the huge numbers Marvel is still doing, with far more movies in the same few years. If you fall back on "well they are Marvel" you then have to explain how "they are Marvel" could ever have come to dominate over "well they are Star Wars." Star Wars was THE biggest movie name ever. Other studios used to have to plan their releases years in advance to NOT be out around Star Wars. Now, in just a few short years, Fox says "yeah, our R rated sequel to a lesser known Marvel character can easily crush it around Star Wars, even with another Marvel movie still in the theatre." And they're right!
As for a lot of those movies being in that same time, again, why does that not impact Marvel? Why does it not impact Fast and the Furious?
One could come up with tons of theories to explain everything about why all Star Wars is failing. The toys are no longer selling because of the economy and general toy sales (but other toys still sell for some reason). The Blu Ray and download releases are not selling because of Blu-Ray markets drying up and people waiting on streaming (but the sales are worse than either trend would predict). The box office for the Last Jedi is down because fans are misogynist suddenly (the less said the better). Solo is failing because for some reason Fox X-Men movie spin-offs have now supplanted them in the minds of the movie going public. And on and on.
OR: The movies are bad.
One of those theories is simple and explains everything in one concise package. People don't pay to see bad movies, they don't bring their kids to see bad movies so the kids don't ask for the toys, and they then down't pay to own bad movies at home.
The other set of theories begs more questions than it answers. Why are their toys specifically doing worse than other movie toys? Why do other over exposed franchises still do better on home release? Why would a B level Star Wars movie not beat a B studio Marvel movie? How did this only happen to one of the top 2 or 3 brands in all of entertainment and not other properties with much less fan allegiance going in?
Again, bad movies = bad sales. Easy.