But most (I think) have an issue with the nowhere plots that surround these characters more then the characters themselves.. Give them good plot, better fleshed out roles, and perhaps better casting and we are probably not having this discussion..
All would be left if how much people hate how Luke was treated.
Without question it seems that Disney had an agenda.. But Agendas are not necessarily always a bad things.. Bad ideas and Bad scripts are always bad things
I do think that people are giving TFA a bit of a free pass though. They had it a bit easier. TFA just had to set up new-Luke/Girluke (naive, untrained orphan with massive untapped powers who possibly has ancestral/family connection to the bigger galactic story) a new black-clad villain and overlord (who ticks the Vader/Emperor box) and make clear that we are in OT-land of galactic superweapons and Empire/Rebels rivalry. And have a supporting role for Han that was essentially the same old Han, just older. Oh, and simply have the story make sense to purge the PT.
TLJ had to actually develop, clarify and bring these threads together - while also trying to relegate OT main character/icon Luke (around which the whole OT revolved) to mentor, which was always going to be way trickier than bringing back Han or Leia as supporting players.
What they did is simply invert or subvert almost every expectation - which is clever enough on the surface because it appears "fresh" (i.e. not going down the familiar road of training of Jedis, or villains who are 100% evil and Jedis who are pure/positive as Luke was suposed to be,) and appealing to Disney which wants to clear the sense that "real" SW is ONLY about the OT - but it also destroyed any story/character momentum heading toward IX, and also a lot of fan fervor for the overall ST as well.
That is the thing that should concern Disney as a very real sense of franchise fatigue sets in - for both the box office going forward, and for SW merchandising.
Disney probably gets 50% or so the domestic box office, less overseas.
The production costs of films in general is very opaque and obscured by what is referred to as "Hollywood Accounting." The cost estimates for TLJ range from $200-300 million.
They're definitely making money, but net income from the film alone will might only be in the range of $200-300 million. Of course Star Wars has other revenue streams. Still, recouping their $4 billioninvestment is harder than you might expect and I doubt they have done so yet.
The glaring failure to match TFA's box office and the sharp decline in merchandising sales is going to be debated behind the scenes even if Disney plays identity politics in public. Investors don't like losing money.
TLJ will land around $590m domestic and $1.2 -1.3B worldwide. This represents about a half billion in profit for Disney (they upped their take to an unheard-of 65% - exhibitors must hate them but Disney are fast becoming the only game in town) but is also toward the lowest end of what is even possible for a SW film in today's market - it's super-tough for a film with this much pent-up franchise demand, visibility and push to make less than $500m/$1B.
Disney are losing out on $300m+ in pure profit versus what they expected TLJ to make ($1.5B-$1.7B)... and at a time when Disney's stock price is under pressure. Because of them doing their own streaming service (versus licensing it to Netflix etc,) they will lose many billions in revenue every year, so box office profit counts big-time right now.
Han Solo: "It's all true... all of it...
(special edition): ...but it doesn't matter. It's of no consequence. Nothing learned matters. Nothing saved matters. Be who you are, when you want, how you want, without restrictions."
