These could follow a similar suit to the prequels where in terms of box office the first does really well, the 2nd is a 'disappointment' and the third is somewhere in between. But, I think there's a difference between these and the prequels in that we all knew what the prequels were going to culminate with and it was worth getting excited about. Yeah, Phantom Menace and Clones were kind of shit, but despite that, there was excitement over how it all came together. Basically, we knew there was going to be a payoff and it was worth spending money to see that payoff.
With these, what are they aiming towards? We sort of had an idea with TFA but TLJ fucked all that out the window. What is there worth getting excited about? Over the new 2 years I'm sure promotional material will come out to answer some of that, but as it stands now, ehhhhhh
Will that have any effect on the numbers when 9 comes out? I think that's the ultimate gauge in determining if the drop in numbers from TLJ mean anything or not.
Odds are the numbers will be extreme and it will be massively profitable, but God, it's hard to not look at TLJ as a movie and not think of it as anything but a fucking catastrophe