I reckon it will make around £1billion. Its still using recognisable star wars things. AT-ATs (or AT-ACTs), X-wings, stormies, Darth, a Death Star (that won't get blown up). And there's a lot of star wars fans who will go and watch it. All the other Star Wars films have technically been aimed at kids with goofy side kicks - jarjar, Finn, BB8, R2 and 3p0, etc This is a film aimed at the fan boy, the gamer.
I don't think there's that much expectation of being an earth shattering financial zeppelin because TFA set the bar and was an easy repeat view. Very few movies will take over £2billion. I mean Avatar, Titanic and TFA... Sensible to down play the cash, because if it doesn't make more than TFA people will say its a failure - which is ridiculous expectation. So far I haven't seen a great deal that looks anything other than cool. I just hope we get that Vader going ape scene.
I'm excited for it as its Star Wars. Always will be and I'll go into the cinema to enjoy Star Warsy things. If I want a challenging social commentary, I will go and watch Nil by Mouth. It appears that a lot of people go into the cinema with many pre conceptions of films these days so they can come out stating how little they enjoy it.
What I'm looking forward to..
Felicity Jones - shes gorgeous.. so an easy watch
K-25SO (or whatever) - I reckon he's going to steal the show
The Death Star - we are going to see it survive and probably see a lot more of the inside.
Lots of war
Krennic... Ben Mendelsohn... nuff said.
Seeing a lot of star wars saga easter eggs - will we see the droids, cameos, ships, references, etc
I am not worried about it being edited, pulled apart, etc etc. Just means they are trying to make a really good film for the fans and to make a **** load of cash to justify it all so we get MORE!!!!!