Solo Solo box-office discussion

a) these alt-right 'critics' don't just account for 20% of the down vote.

b) people being 'angry' at critics (which i'm not really sure should qualify something to be taken seriously) would mean they are exaggerations.

 

I would say I anecdotally represent the reason for Solo seemingly low performance so far. I both had very little interest in Solo conceptually and also despise TLJ so I feel compelled to not spend any money on SW.

 

Have you seen Solo yet?

 

Can I just point something else out? I can go back in this thread a few weeks, back to when the (apparently misleading) positive tracking data, high presales etc. were published and I can find plenty of examples of what I can only call gloating by fans of TLJ about how Solo's success was going to make the naysayers eat humble pie.

And yet... here we are. I think a simple acknowledgement that it's looking like those who predicted hard times at the box-office for this film were, in fact, on the money might be a little more dignified than weeping and gnashing of teeth and donning of tinfoil. Then, perhaps, we can move on to discussing future prospects. Can good word of mouth (if it gets that) turn things around for this film after its weak opening? Or not?

 

Nope. When I can see it for free I probably will.

 

a) It's fairly early in the game. The Last Jedi took weeks for the score to settle (downwards).

b) And does that have to do with alt-right trolling? Really, there are a lot of things that can motivate people to being more harsh than simply the "alt-right agenda." Such as critics praising the film and not going over the plot problems that others have noticed. Or maybe a Plinkett's review-esque deconstruction that made people more aware of the film's issues.

 

I think the first reason counts much more. The hate toward TLJ is mostly a fan issue, whereas the problem of Solo is that it simply does not stimulate enough non-fans to go to the cinema.

 

I agree mostly with that. I do believe though fans ultimately get some non-fans to go to see a given movie that otherwise wouldn’t. Example my brother got my parents to see TFA because he liked it but since everyone disliked TLJ nobody took my parents so they didn’t see it in theaters.

 

I agree re: TLJ, it really seems to be a love-it or hate-it movie, so the 1/10 and 2/10 ratings from trolls were bolstered by genuine low ratings from fans. With Solo, the early reactions seem to be more muted, so I'm guessing most of the genuine ratings will be in the 5/10-8/10 range. Fewer perfect ratings to completely counter the trolls but also fewer people trashing the film.

The main issue for Solo so far seems to be that the total number of ratings is much lower than what we usually see for SW films at the same point in time. This makes the audience rating more vulnerable to trolling but, more importantly, indicates a general lack of pre-release audience interest, which is supported by the soft opening numbers at the box office. We'll see if positive WOM helps it recover as the weekend goes on.

 

I'm talking about all reviews that we should take as not reasonable criticism. This extents to both alt-right critics and those who supposedly only gave a negative review because they didn't think it was worth the 90% critics score...

 

If you want reasonable criticisms, you should read the reviews themselves and make the call. Numbers on a rating scale can only tell you so much. And for those who don't think it's worth 90% of the critics score, they tend to have much more elaborate reasonings than simply I hate it. Same thing for people who that the film was good. More elaborate reasonings than I like it.

 

Which is why I'd say that the scores on iMDb are far more accurate to the audience reaction to both films.

 

I would just try and recommend some of the most negative posters in here to go and watch Solo - just because you really despise TLJ - islolated Solo has no connection to TLJ and totally feels like its standing on its own feet. There is something there, characters, scenes, mood, action...there is something there for everyone. Especially for people who has invested a lof of their time to Star Wars. You should be incredible bored and even cynical to not find anything in the movie that does not give you a romantic call back to the universe you once loved. Or always loved.

If the relationship still do not work. Well, some people go to the point where «divorce» is the only solution.
Yes, Star Wars is that girl/ boy you once did fall in love with.

Back to the box office: Just to try put some stuff into context here - while Solo is doing less than stellar numbers and underperforming - Deadpool 2 is also totally collapsing in its second weekend. Gonna be a 60 - 70% drop for a movie that got gloving reviews and having good WOM, While being a bit frontloaded and delivering a good OW, the audience is more or less rejecting the thought on building this characters universe to a organic growing thing. And there is a hundred thousand other things to do in in real life, rather than spending 2 hours watching a Formula One upgrade on the same jokes from the first movie.

 

The TLJ score was being tanked from very early on.

It didn't take weeks to settle. It took a long time to get as low as it is now.

Anyway, I agree that anticipation for Solo was low anyway.

I think my point here would be - how much do the hard core fanbase decide SW box office either way?

So far fans seem to be embracing Solo in a a greater way than TLJ and it seems to be making zero difference at all.

I agree with this. Give it a shout - if you still have an open-mind or finances stretch. It's totally separate from TLJ, and if you like it, you may just feel that SW is dead to you. If SW is already dead to you, what the hell are you doing posting here every day? If you don't like Solo either, it's hardly as if you're in a worse of place than you are now - silver cloud - you get even more ammo to lob at Disney/ KK.

 

What's your evidence that fans are embracing Solo? If you're referring to the poll here then sure, of the fans here that saw it, they rated it fairly higher than TLJ. Shame there isn't a "I'm not planning on seeing it anytime soon" option, since that's where I and I think a fair amount of others fit.

 

What would people have thought and how would they have reacted if someone DARED suggest that Solo would make less than $100 million for a 3-day OW a year, months, or even weeks ago? They'd be laughed out of the forum as a troll.

We were coming off of IW's $258 million OW thinking that both DP2 and Solo could potentially make $150 million in their OW's.

 

A post with some sense.

I understand people not liking a film in a series and then thinking they won’t go to see the next one. But why talk about it in here constantly if you’ve got no intention of going? We’re all free to choose, but to have to trawl through anti-TLJ, anti-KK, anti-Disney posts on a constant basis is like wading through treacle.

All this talk about alt right and using political references sounds absolutely ridiculous and it’s become like an excuse for people to put their agendas to the fore. It’s trolling in a constant basis for some. This is a film set in space where people shoot lasers at each other FFS and dress up in big rubber suits. Get a grip about what it is we’re talking about. It’s meant to be fun and this film is a lot of fun.

Back on the real world, anyone know when figures are released.

 

Whats you take on it? We have evidence of the audience being somewhat less interested in watching a Star Wars spinn off movie called Solo - with the box office numbers being more conservative than normal or much weaker in geneal for what was expected by a Star Wars movie. Embracing it? It got a A- Cinemascore, people here on the forum seems to like it very much in general...what evidence are you looking for?

If not. See the movie. Be a rebel or an activist and go lecture the social media world about it afterwords. If you care.
People might want to listen to you if you did care. If you dont care..then rather not talk so much.

 

It does sound crazy, but sadly, it's true, Andy. I don't recommend reading their comments or that of the boycott solo hashtag - but a lot of the loudest noise (not all of the noise) is rooted in that. Maybe they're not affecting things that much and we're looking at a general lack of interest from general audiences. But when they can tank the RT score - and depending nohow many general audience types decide what to watch based on factors like an RT audience score - then it's probably not helping.

I do think SW as a franchise as quite a specific problem here and I'm not sure what the answer is.

 

When will there be some actual BO numbers again?

 

It's currently 5am on the West Coast. Preliminary totals should start rolling in this morning and actuals are usually posted by noon.

 

@gracerandolph excellent analysis comparing DCEU/Justice League & Solo/Disney

 

I'm sorry Grace Randolph was the same person who developed the conspiracy theory that DC films were being purposefully bombed by Disney-paid critics. I can't believe people take her seriously.

 

yeah Justice league vs SOLO....
Batman, superman, wonder woman vs solo (without HF), what about a better comp like thor3 vs Solo

 

I am sorry @Jedha, but that lady ( ehem) is totally off. I rather pay you to hear your opinion on it than listening to her-

Note: Remember that Youtubers or people having Youtube channels actually get paid for ads these days. Some people make a living on this. Creating controversy = money.

 

Yes and why haven't they flooded TFA and R1 in turn and drive those down as well? Surely they could drive them down 10% at least?

Who weren't clued into knowing that all those less than 1 star reviews don't count to the average. If all those 0's and .5's were 1's then you'd really see a ludicrous drop.

For whatever it's worth TLJ dropped 68% on it's second weekend, R1 59% and TFA 39%. All got A from Cinemascore, Solo has got an A-.

I think that it's really about the GA at the start and WOM. The story is then shaped by the larger fan section but I really don't think this massive effect on the actual box office take is there.

As I said if fans are that important to pre-buzz then Solo was way behind from the get-go and Lucasfilm hardly stoked the fire with the behind the scenes shenanigans and production troubles IF that really is SO important. Personally I'd had HF do a bookend role ala Indiana Jones TV series segment "Mystery of the Blues"

From a purely business perspective they need to take the emotion out of it and acknowledge that yes a large portion of fans legitimately didn't like TLJ. Identify why that was compared to TFA (ask Mark Hamill) and R1 and that a Solo movie was never going to exactly set a house on fire. Has anyone been asking for years for a Solo movie? No. Obi-Wan? Yes. Boba Fett? Seems so.

So they went with the weakest option of those three.