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This guy is being entrusted with $12 billion dollars of revenue for Lucasfilm and Disney.
You read that right. $12 billion. At least. That doesn’t even include The Last Jedi, which is still more than a month away from theaters.
When you think about that last fact – that The Last Jedi isn’t even in theaters, and they still gave Rian a $12 billion job – well, that has to tell you something about what Lucasfilm and Disney think of The Last Jedi, doesn’t it?
And the $12 billion is a complete lowball figure. The Force Awakens did $2 billion at the box office, and Rogue One did $1 billion. So, Rian Johsnon’s new trilogy, if even just decent, should make at least $3 billion at the box office.
Meanwhile, analysts estimated licensing and merchandising revenue of $3 billion in 2015, and $5 billion in 2016. Going with the low end number, and assuming they’ll still only do one movie per year, and that you can attribute all the licensing and merchandising revenue to one movie (you can’t, but you might as well for our purposes), that’s another $9 billion in Rian Johnson’s hands.
So, we’re talking eleven figures. $12,000,000,000. At the least.
Based on the strength of a movie only company insiders have seen.
Made by a guy with only three previous theatrical releases to his credit.
This guy.
I don’t know how anyone could temper their expectations now. 🙂