ST What Does Poor Solo Box Office Mean For Episode 9?

In some ways, Solo was a step in the right direction -- connecting the EU with Maul, for one, but also just trying to make a fun movie.

 

Solo actually reflects the lack of a plan. LFL shouldn't change a story plan but they don't have one to begin with.

Maul in Solo is a perfect example. It's not part of a master plan. Howard picked an option from multiple choices based on a whim.

 

That may be true, but I still like the end result. The Collider people also said that Jake Kasdan always envisioned Maul at the end. I don't know if this is true, and I think if it was my critique would be why not just let Maul be the main villain, but at least LFL decided to allow some strong EU connection at the end here, one that can and has confused people. Which is fine with me -- I hope people are curious enough to watch TCW or read a Wiki to learn more about Maul. To learn more about SW.

People often act like this is some kind of required homework, which I feel is a bit lazy.

 

(ignore the "stupid" part, I couldn't find a version without it. OP is not stupid, don't hurt me mods.)

 

I think the one thing that box office and media analysts have proved by completely missing certain trends like Deadpool’s success and failures like a Wrinkle in time is that they don’t really know what causes anything anymore and just what will hit and miss en masse. Films like Avatar and the Matrix did amazing things largely on WOM. Hollywood is becoming harder and harder to predict and analyze.

 

I have been trying to nail this one down like crazy for the last week. Pete and I discussed it endlessly before the livecast on Sunday and we both came to the conclusion that it had to be a bunch of things. Like some perfect storm of bad judgments and luck. Wall Street believes it was the marketing, fans say it was a movie too soon after TLJ. The angered folks from TLJ, those who didn't want to see Han replaced by anybody. Then, of course, there was the bad press, reshoots, and simply the fact that most people don't have the cash to go to the movies three times in one month.

Hell, even the weather has been so bad, for so many weeks that the Sun actually peeked out and people wanted to be outside. Or studying for finals or taking a vacation. I believe what happened to Solo, was this perfect MAW sucking in everything at one time, that just didn't the movie a chance to break-out.

 

Last year, Blade Runner 2049, which was one of the best films from last year in my opinion...made a total lifetime world wide gross of $259,239,658 after a domestic opening weekend of $32,753,122 and being made on a budget of $150 Million. This movie had Harrison Ford reprising the role of Deckard, was Directed by the man who brought us Siccario and Arrival, a great story, beautiful music and visuals....Solo has made $267,351,721 world wide so far after an opening weekend of $84,420,489 Domestic. Perhaps the take away here is that Spin off movies need tighter budget controls and more hands on guidance from upper management....because there is just no guarantee that the movie going audience is going to show up for what you think they want.

I mean...even after 'Dawn of Justice' which wasn't particularly well received among st DC fans, Wonder Woman managed to go onto great success. Perhaps if Ron Howard or some other director had been in the chair from the get go...Solo would've done better.

 

So too are tastes and trends in many other things in life becoming harder to gauge. You need 20 varieties of coffee in the store even if only 6 sell. Without the choice nobody comes because "so you are boring". Films cost too much though and that is why it is a risk these days.

 

I hope it means that Lucasfilm realizes that it's not because Solo was that bad, but it is because TLJ was and Episode 9 has to be made with the fans in mind, as opposed to TLJ. If they do nothing they are blind.

 

I don't think the Solo box office numbers will hurt Episode 9, because fans will want to see how the Skywalker saga ends. Hopefully Solo gives LFL pause and they leave the old characters in their respective movies and move on to new epic stories. Solo didn't feel epic, and I think that's what many fans expect from a SW movie - the same will happen if they go ahead with Boba Fett or Kenobi...

 

Has the KK stepping down as LFL president rumor been commented?



@PymParticles @Mungo Baobab does this deserve its own thread?

 

@Darth_Bertie It already has its own thread over here.

http://boards.theforce.net/threads/kennedy-possibly-out-in-september.50049465/

 

It's a fun movie, but it's timing was horrible for release date (within 4 weeks of both Infinity War and Dead Pool on one side, with Jurassic World 2 a month later), and the marketing sucked balls. Star Wars trailers are EVENTS. Nobody knew when the first Solo trailer was coming out until it happened to air during the Super Bowl. I really don't understand why they didn't make it a Christmas release like the previous 3, that made so much more sense. And now they've learned their lesson. Even a good Star Wars movie can fail at the box office if you don't work your butt off to get it marketed correctly and placed correctly.

Episode IX will have no impact from what Solo did. The future standalones will be the ones affected. They'll have to be slam dunk stories like Rogue One was, not just "Hey this character is popular, let's build a story around him." If there are Obi-Wan and Boba Fett movies coming, the stories have to be fantastic.

 

JJ does not need to overperforn anything, he does not have to "rectify" or "fix" anything: his only goal should be to do his own movie, his way.

 

Solo was a "good" movie but it didn't really fit in well with the SW universe. I mean-it has SW elements, don't get me wrong, but we think of SW as the battle between the Rebels de jour and Empire de jour. We also have Jedi and Force and space battles. Solo didn't have any of that. It didn't scream "oh I can't wait to watch the others movies again" because the story was SO separate and, in the long run, meaningless to the SW universe.

What it means is that the Boba Fett film will be canceled or go to streaming. The Obi-Wan film will be in question and, for IX they will have to make it ALL come to a head.

The schedule was not a big part of the problem. It could have made more money by itself but not a helluva lot of money. RO worked because it was completely tied to the saga. Solo was not.

 

I can't agree with this, one of the MAJOR complaints about TFA was it feeling too similar to the original trilogy...people wanted them to step away from that an explore other aspects of Star Wars. However Solo received 'meh' reactions from fans from day one...I see over and over again that it's the movie no one was asking for. Conversely the game Star Wars 1313 got a LOT of interest before Lucas was bought out and that had NO Saga characters or force users. I'm willing to bet if that done "Star Wars: Syndicate" with new characters set in the underbelly of the GFFA, it would've done MUCH better than the Solo film.

 

The larger effects will probably be felt in the spin off strategy moving forward. I believe they will move on with Kenobi and Boba Fett films. If those also tank we will probably see no other stand alone films. If they do on the same level RO did, I believe LFL will be willing to produce sequels on those which perform well.

 

The budget that Disney allows will be MUCH lower for those movies, especially the Fett movie. That is IF Disney greenlights it at all.

 

That’s the problem with the ST they don’t feel connected cohesive enough. If JJ does his own movie how he wants it may feel like TLJ never happened or is pointless and they would be very bad. I nosy enjoy it since I don’t like TLJ but it wouldn’t be good for the trilogy.

 

To answer the title of the thread, I think it means that Disney/LFL need to do a better job marketing IX. Which they can do, since the marketing campaigns for TFA, R1, and TLJ were all solid. They were in a weird spot with Solo where they didn't begin the marketing campaign soon enough in order to avoid stepping on TLJ's toes, so they waited until the last possible second to do so. Since Solo and IX will have 19 months between them, they won't have this problem again.

 

JJ's return and Solo's old fashioned adventure tells me they were already leaning towards a more "fan-friendly" Episode 9. So if and when Ep9 turns out to be more crowd-pleasing than TLJ, it won't be a result of Solo's box office failure.

As Darth Nave says above, I think the only change in plans due to Solo will be in the marketing. Even with JJ back, they should be more generous with teasers and trailers. Give us another Thanksgiving weekend teaser. And a SW Celebration teaser trailer that's more substantive than the previous ones. And air the full-on trailer in September rather than mid-October. That's what I would do at least.

 

JJ "retconning" aspects of TLJ could actually be fantastic for the trilogy as a whole. For example, if Rey were revealed to be Obi-Wan's granddaughter, that would be a fantastic twist after hearing that her parents were nobody. In addition, the "pointless" Canto Bight subplot would gain even more thematic importance with Broom Boy (Temiri Blagg) becoming THE representation of nobodies capable of greatness.

But no matter how you feel about the pass-the-baton approach to storytelling, we need to see Episode 9 to render a final verdict.

 

Marvel is successfully releasing 4 movies (products) per year. I highly feel "audience fatigue" is not a justifiable excuse for SOLO. It's a comfort term for the suits at Disney. It has no bearing on reality.

If 2018's anthology movie was titled, "Snoke", it would have curbed 40% of TLJ's backlash. Audiences would have overlooked Snoke's quick demise, knowing an entire film was coming in six months offering a backstory and an explanation of his character. It would have also allowed audiences a chance to gauge Kylo's power - whether or not Snoke was truly powerful or just a clever manipulator. If the 2020 film was going to be about post-ROTJ Luke to TFA; that would have curbed another 40% of TLJ's backlash. Mark would have been heavily involved and people would have actually been interested in how Luke got to the character we saw in TLJ.

We never asked for SOLO. People go to see serialized films to get answers. TFA, RO and TLJ did not open doors necessitating Han's origin story.

Anthology films that propel the current saga forward would be the safer route. An occasional past movie would be accepted; as long as it didn't heavily retcon or restructure the basic perception of a character.

 

The failure of the Solo movie and things people hated about WON'T make a difference. It SHOULD, but at this point it will be another SJW-ruin-everything-they-touch destroying the franchise seen to it's natural conclusion. Episode 9 will get a larger showing, and people will all be going, even those who say they're boycotting - just to see how it ends, and pay their respects for the series.

If it COULD make a difference here's what would change:
* Rose will be done away with early in the film in such a way to give Finn's arc and character development a boost
* Luke will return from the dead in physical-ghostly fluid manner so we get to see him onscreen, plus new force abilities
(e.g. he can only appear for a short time in physical form)
* Lando, Wedge, Jabba, and anyone else that could have appeared from the old series will return as supporting characters
* Snoke will still be alive, but not able to manifest himself, and will have many flashback scenes to fill in the early story
* Han and Leia and Luke will reunite in the previously mentioned flashback scenes through the reuse of existing footage and CGI
* Kylo and Rey will have a Skywalker baby after finally joining forces before Kylo sacrifices himself
* Rey will begin a new order of force users and have Luke and Yoda as a guide to get things started
* The story will include the origins of the Jedi and Sith as well as fill in other blanks fans were curious about in a way that flows/fits to the overall story
* The story will conclude for the Skywalkers and be the subject of novels and no more films.
* The remaining Disney Star Wars stuff will fill in the gaps of the original 3 trilogies and tell the backstories of all the fan favourite characters
* No more forced diversity, etc.

 

I enjoyed TFA and Rogue One, but ultimately this is IMO pretty much the main issue with the films that have come out so far. There's no grand plan, and everytime a new production comes on the writers basically throw in whatever they think will sell, and not really paying any attention to what came before or what would make for compelling storytelling, other than what facts are required to maintain bare-minimum continuity. It's understandable to at least an extent on the spinoffs, but ultimately SW needs a vision-especially the saga films. GL had a vision for the OT. He had a vision for the PT. But the ST is being put together piecemeal.

I feel like that sense of "vision" is much of what has made the MCU so successful. The films all flow together pretty much, and there's been a masterplan in place that they all led to. IMO they need to stop doing the "that would be cool to throw this in there" or the "I wanna stir !@#$ up and change everthing they think they know about SW" mentalities, and create a grand Star Wars story-a journey-that we all can get behind and be united in excitement about, in terms of where the story is taking us!

Also, not scrambling to reshoot the majority of a film halfway thru production would help too I'd bet...