Solo Solo box-office discussion

If you guys want to discuss the incoherency which I saw in TLJ I'd love to in another thread (topics such as Phasma being about to execute Finn and then teleporting halfway across the room, or Rose driving one way then coming back to ram Finn just for the sake of the plot, or DJ just walking wherever he wishes even Snoke's flagship for the sake of moving along the plot, or Luke casually almost killing family members, or multiple captains going down with ships but wait a captain with a ship can hyperspace ram a far larger fleet not half a movie later, or Rey for some reason now considering the identity of her parents a mystery and Kylo being the one to break the news to her with a 4th wall breaking discussion about her place in the story, etc).

I think it played a huge part in why people no longer trust the SW brand, given most casuals who I've spoken to have mentioned the incoherency of the franchise and characters as one of their larger complaints, over the complaints that a fan like myself had with the problems with characters and tone of the previous movie, and everything I've seen suggests this is a major reason why people aren't giving a new Star Wars movie a go and it became the only big IP movie to bomb in a packed period of movies - a Star Wars movie of all things, which was always the one which others had to only hope to not get steamrolled by. It's the same as with other franchises which have seen the same, audiences don't show up to the next movie after a bad previous movie (albeit this time the problems and box office outcome were both much more severe). You only need to watch non-fan reactions to see that the common reaction was 'wtf?' for so many of the same reasons which the harder fans are saying, and you only need to look at just about every movie franchise's box office and follow the general feelings of audiences to see that a disliked movie always causes the next one to suffer at the box office, whereas a good movie can prop another up which turns out to be disliked but gets a free inherited boost (I'd say Age of Ultron is also in that category).

 

Do we have to do this in every single thread? You say you don't want to discuss the problems of TLJ and then regale us with a paragraph of your complaints, and then tell us anecdotal evidence why everyone but a few hated TLJ. It's so tiring.

 

Multiple people responded to me jeering at an offhand comment, yet you only complain at me for responding to them back, as usual the outrage is selective and impossible to take seriously.

I'm the one who suggested moving it into another thread. You pearl clutchers with targeted outrage at those finally responding are impossible, all to suppress critical takes on why the Star Wars franchise of all things just achieved a massive box office bomb.

 

As far as I can tell those were only in response to the criticisms and fan fiction inserted into every response in this thread.

I don't care if you dislike TLJ, but I'd rather not have to discuss it in the Solo box office thread, where I'd rather discuss the box office. Your opinions on it aren't relevant to this thread. And stop suggesting that people are suppressing your opinions of TLJ - I'm not criticising your thinking it's a relevant factor. But people don't have to agree that your personal opinions on it or your anecdotal evidence is particularly convincing or relevant.

Someone posting about how much they loved TLJ constantly would similarly be annoying.

 

Are we at a point where we can talk about the opening weekends and box office performances of other movies? I am not trying to be combative, but there seems to be a lot of wheel spinning in terms of Solo which is quickly falling below $1 million. Or is that best to be discussed at the IX thread? Because the 2018 Box Office Blood Ocean thread is falling into the same gloom-and-doom-of-Star Wars discussion as well.

 

The Box Office Threads for the other three new Star Wars movies ended before I got a chance to say goodbye. It seems Solo's story at the Box Office is mostly written now. We can debate the whys and the hows, but we have the facts on how it ends.

So I bid farewell to Solo box-office discussion. This was an interesting and though provoking thread. It didn't end the way anyone predicted.

See everyone in the Episode 9 box-office discussion.

 

Solo opened at 4,381 theaters in the United States. It is now showing in only 778 (about 18% of 4,381) theaters. My local theater is one of the hold-outs, with three showings per day.

 

I was really hoping I could see it again but it looks like my theaters are in the 82%.

 

The SW Books also includes the "Art Of" and the DK books as well? As far as I'm concerned, that's a guaranteed income for them from me. Those books provide so much content, and the new Canon books have been entertaining so far. I haven't got The Last Jedi's novelization, but the "Legends of Luke Skywalker" was pretty fun.
I'm not as into comics as some people, but that's cool they're selling well?
I'm buying action figures, and the LEGO sets provide value well beyond Star Wars.
I'll wait until EA makes a real-time strategy game before I buy any more games.

That being said, Solo underperformed at the box office, but only just. I think they'll write it off and continue on with their plan of the Underworld series.

My local theatre had it only at 10:10 AM and 1:15 PM on Friday afternoon when I saw it for the third time. I mean, it can't disappear just yet, can it? There were six other people in the theatre with me, they seemed to enjoy the movie. I think it's just a shame, because Solo was a fun ride, and I want to keep riding as long as I can.

 

Pacific Rim did $290 mill ww on a budget of $150 mil - Solo doesn't look that bad when you compare to something like Pacific Rim the only problem is Solo blew it's budget a reported $275 million !!! that is crazy cost more to make Solo than The Last Jedi - the board meeting to discuss the whole Solo debacle would have been interesting

 

I think the original budget was $125 million for SOLO, before the two directors got fired well into production . Howard hard to re-film which likely doubled the budget. Solo probably should've came out before Rogue One which I think was even the case before Kasdan was pulled away to work on TFA. But back in 2016 the Han Solo character would've been more important or fresh in the minds of moviegoers since Ford's version had died and Rey's(even Finn's) background is similar to Kasdan's Solo. The movie had very awkward publicity, much of it was too little and too late. Plus they focused too much on Glover's Lando, when the movie was about Han Solo, whether they were trying to capitalize on the Black Panther's success and/or just had a lack of faith in the lead actor playing Solo(who actually did a very good job).

Fan backlash surely played a role but a good bulk of the blame has to fall on whoever thought it was a good idea to sandwich Solo between Deadpool and Avengers:Infinity War and with the Incredibles 2 and Jurassic not far behind. Do they think that cause they own much of the competition coming from Marvel , that competition does not matter and there is no adversity, just laziness and lack of care. Iger should've never had moved SOLO to a May release, Kennedy should've fought hard to make it a Christmas event movie like the others, but whatever the case, Solo is still a good movie, although a mostly mediocre Star Wars movie.

I think their standalone movies should follow tie-in method of Marvel, where they lead into and add up to something - which the end of Solo does seem to suggest they might in the future, or they wanted a possibility of a Solo 3 movie franchise.

 

I don't think it has to do with... "Hey, that movie with superheroes in Africa was popular, let's highlight that there's a black actor in this"... The guy who played Lando was the one who there seemed the most audience enthusiasm around from his previous stuff, his hiring was the one time that the audience seemed excited.

 

Ant-Man and the Wasp is tracking well. Too early to say if it'll hit $300 M domestically, but it might come close. Maybe between Solo and Deadpool 2 numbers.

 

Do you have any idea how cynical hollywood producers are, or how simple minded they think us simple folk are?

 

If that was the case, it still didn't really make Lando out to be such a hero of the movie.

 

Black and White actors, or White and Asian, or Black and Asian, or any combination, has been a staple of Hollywood movies for years. I don't think the shade of Donald Glover's skin is some newly marketable thing, versus how well fans reacted to him being cast as Lando, and glimpses of him meeting with Billy D in a restaurant I think.

 

63% drop to less than $1 million. It's over.

AntMan2 made a bit less than expected. JW2 took a bigger than expected fall and was below I2, which is now over $500 million, virtually tied with BatB.

 

So it’s pretty much at 380 WW now. Studio typically gets just over 50% of the WW gross, I believe. So Disney will pocket just a little over 190 million of that.

 

I think they knew year ago that Solo is a bad apple and they decided to burn it between Avengers and Incredibles. Its better to loose 100-150 mln$ on a film in May and cover it with 2 films that will earn lot of money then to loose 50-100 mln$ on Christmas and loose 500 mln on share prize that way.
They had no way to promote Solo. Trailers did nothing to average Joe and they couldn't show something more because there was nothing more in the film. In this time that kind of films dont earn money on cinemas no matter if they are good or bad (Blade Runner and Ex Machina were great films with VERY bad BO) That kind of film people will watch on Netflix 3 months form now, away from popcorn public in local cinema.
I think in the next 5-10 years there will be no more SW movies without lightsabers and space battles. They need something for trailers, people need to be REALLY pumped to spend their money and in case of Solo even fans were not that excided.

 

I've heard that since it's more US Domestic heavy and made almost nothing overseas, Disney will get a larger cut (something like 65% of the US Domestic), and even was able to previously negotiate for a larger cut for a Star Wars movie, which is probably not an option for them anymore after what's happened to the franchise.

Solo's release date was fixed as the typical Star Wars release date pre-TFA since its inception afaik, there was no change after they saw it.

 

Solo did not make $380 million worldwide yet. It's hovering around the $379 million marker. It will get it by Monday. Okay, yep the sting hurts. Solo, regardless of whatever numbers it gets is going to fall short. Heck the box office just keeps slowing down for the movie. It's going to lose theaters because its not selling. That simple. Still, the only positive is that Solo did better domestically than 5 of the Marvel movies and 2 Marvel movies total cume. The bad part? Well thanks to the bloated budget Solo is not making any returns and that poster that posted that Solo was bringing Disney $190 million dollars is just.....off. Probably had to many whiskey drinks to think the movie was profitable.

 

They didn't say it made $190m in profit, they said it made $190m...as in revenue.

Solo's theatrical run is an abject failure. There's no debate there. But it might be worth noting that the "Solo" brand will probably turn a profit eventually. Which is only a minor consolation when you consider the opportunity cost associated with having $300m tied up for a few years.

 

I want to agree very badly with this, but I have a feeling that GL in his notes had the story somewhere close to TLJ. I don't think he ever intended Luke to get married, and Vader was brought down a notch. In the EU, Luke was an established entity and Vader was written powerful but fell short. The last part was rectified in a way with new canon, but everything else was different. Still lets be positive, Solo is part of the Star Wars Cinematic Universe and not every Marvel movie was successful. This one wasn't but it was not all too bad.......okay maybe a little.

No matter what thread we are in for some time this is going to rear its ugly head.

I agree with you on that and it might turn a profit in the future and why couldn't it? Star Wars is not a failure at all. It had a minor hiccup and its hard watching the movie fail the way it did. The movie may not even get to $215 million in the domestic box office and the international cume just made what? $7 to 8 million already? and by next weekend it will be down to maybe $3.5 if that. This movie will linger around the $380 million marker.

 

I was that "poster". And no, I didn't say it was making 190 million in profit. Also, I hate whiskey, or any spirits for that matter. I said Disney, when all is said and done, will be bringing in about 190 million from it. Read my post again. I never once used the word profit.

 

Its odd that i kinda liked Solo but at the same time i am glad that the film is a box office failure.I think it was necessary to show Disney that not everything with the SW brand slapped on will make a billion or more.Its sad though that Ron Howard will likely get the blame and not Kathleen Kennedy and ( To a lesser extent) Rian Johnson.