Solo Solo box-office discussion

I feel Solo is suffering not because of Solo but because of the damage inflicted on the franchise by Rogue One and The Last Jedi.

It's a controversial view on this board but I do think Rogue One was a bad movie that failed to excite the audience beyond the Darth Vader cameos so the anthology movies are on rocky ground now same as the main movies.

 

Just like there are people in this thread who say why boycott Solo? did you see it? I would hope that before commenting on Grace's video you tuned in for 5 minutes, her analysis is balanced she actually likes TLJ and BVS unlike some hardcore fans of both franchises.

At issue, Source material + OG fans v. Upper Management/ New Direction can lead to fan backlash boostered by social media versus the impeccable way Feige who is an OG fan of source material is also the upper management and in charge of direction of the franchise leads to happy fans + $$$$$$$$$

Grace's recommendation is for KK to partner with Filoni

Grace also does a solid job of showing how Memorial day weekend is cursed and where franchises go to die, so it could be just a historically bad weekend for movies + some fan discontent + Solo is not the movie anyone was asking for = the current box office results.

 

So, with all of this talk about the "alt right" , why are they apparently attacking only SW? Or are they the ones responsible for the downfall of DC too? (no-probably not otherwise WW would not have gotten so much praise).

And why aren't they going after other Disney films? I think that the alt-right thing is bogus.

People just didn't have a heart in this Solo thing. Those who have always loved Han Solo want to see it. But newer fans or those who were "meh" about Han would have no interest whatsoever. I really don't see it having been influenced by any feelings on TLJ. I think that's nonsense. And as I said, I don't think it has squat to do with this 'alt-right". I also don't think that 99.999% of people even know or care about the change of directors. Only the true die-hard insiders like us who follow these things care and know and we don't care. It's all about whether people really care about seeing a movie about a young Han Solo.

And I for one think that it's VERY healthy for there to be a SW movie that does underperform. Keeps those in charge in check.

 

Let's not forget there is an international audience here as well. Some of these issues are geopolitical.

 

Whatever you want to call them - "alt right," whatever - the ones I've seen are definitely attacking other movies and no less than Star Wars. There is a box office tracking page (actually Box Office Mojo copying page) where a guy who also trolls the Box Office Mojo Facebook page complains about the "PC liberal diversity casting agenda" accusations and complaints about everything. He complained about Tessa Thompson's casting in the Thor movie. He accused "Alien Covenant" of it, and I'm not sure why. He especially complained about "Beauty and the Beast." He ranted about black people going to see "Black Panther" or being fake fans because of not knowing who Black Panther was before this movie, and kept praising "the white man who created Black Panther for everyone." (Mark Zuckerberg clearly has no clue about how his site works.) This isn't just one person but a lot of people express the same stuff, and of course, get influenced by it.

 

@Jedha As i wrote. Rather have your opinon on it. And no, its not the same as «boycott Solo» Seriously.

 

Well if Grace a youtuber with 500 000 subs says that, i guess KK who produced 4 SW, 1 JP, ET, Benjamin button should listen to her

 

Yet that only has successful effect on domestic box office when those that are attacked have lower box office but not then they have high box office.

So therefore it didn't work on TLJ since it made 620M and BP is at 700M.

 

I don't think rogue one hurt Star Wars. It was ok for me and most people seemed to enjoy it for what it was. And it didn't offend and divide the fanbase as opposed to the last Jedi. That part I do agree with. I think people do need to start accepting that the last Jedi left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths.

Look at marvel for example. I'm in no way a big fan of all their movies but they have built a strong reputation building their universe and pleasing the fans and general audiences that after 10 years it's still going strong. We are now on movie 4 with Solo and fans are divided and fatigue has set in.

 

@Organafan Well if the effects of the "alt right" are real, they sure haven't had any effect on BP or BatB in 2017. It will be interesting to see what they think of Aladdin with the "issues" of actually having white dancers with painted faces (about 20% of the dancers) and daring to have one of Jasmine's suitors being a Norwegian prince. Not to mention Jasmine being played by a half British/half Indian girl (Naomi Scott from Power Rangers). It is already generating the opposite effect.

Oh and btw, as someone who ADDICTIVELY followed music charts in the 80's and 90's, it shows how out of touch I am. I did not know that Donald Glover had the #1 song on Billboard Hot 100 (which I stopped following once they went to soundscan in the early 90's). Seems nobody else knows that either.

 

Yes, all this doesn't seem to have an effect on the box office, not anymore than any other complaints. It's just annoying though, especially when people use it as an excuse for why everyone criticizes a movie or why it doesn't do well. (An example would be people claiming Jennifer Lawrence's movies have flopped because of her exaggerated Trump comments.)
I know Glover is a rapper and calls himself Childish Gambino, but I too pay no attention to the music industry to know what the heck is going on. I never hear new music. New music to me would be songs from Mr. Mister's "Welcome to the Real World" album that I didn't hear on the radio.

Anyway... I went to a 6:00 PM, 2D, non-IMAX showing Friday and it had a big crowd.
I want to see it again just to see it again and know it better, and sit a little further back. I don't expect to make the trip to the IMAX out of town for it anymore though.

 

Dave Filoni is the way to go... he is the genuine article, the real heir apparent to George Lucas.

 

What qualifies Filoni to run a major subsidiary of Disney?

 

Filoni never directed a live action movie and you want him to do a 200 million budget blockbuster ??
I like Clone wars and rebels, but while some episode are great, half of them are useless and boring.

 

His hat? That's all I got.

 

Explained already - because SW was "theirs" and it's been taken away from them.

DC is not being as progressive and WW could never be taken from them, nor could BP, nor could BatB. This is about what they see as ownership of the SW franchise. And they don't like that someone like KK - who they see as a pandering feminazi is calling the shots and - in their eyes - ruining their saga with her agenda driven meddling.

Go and read through the boycott Solo comments on twitter or in the RT score. It's plain as day.

I do agree that desire for Solo was low - so I'm not saying that the Soylo stuff is the key factor - just that it is a contributing factor - and to what degree I'm not sure. But when they can tank the RT score to 55% that may have an effect on people who might be on the fence and are put off with that low score without realising why it's so low.

Go and see for yourself if you think it's bogus - 99% of the comments are from guys, 90% of the comments feature the words "agenda" "SJW" "pansexual" "soy" and talk with pretty unvarnished venom about KK, there's a lot of anti-TLJ stuff which is driven by the same anger, and you'll see a trend - that they "the core fanbase" have been driven away and are now taking their SW back.

I would really appreciate it if all the people downplaying this would actually do a bit of digging and see for themselves what is going on here.

 

@Satipo Yeah I see what you are saying now. Kind of makes us feel embarrassed of some of the SW fans out there. Kind of glad that our family trip to Disney World in March made me open to following and "rooting" for other films than just SW so that if SW is not #1 it's okay. Don't get me wrong, SW is still my #1 but, well, not all films are going to be sitting on the highest perch.

But that said, anyway you look at it if Solo ends up making less than $100 million for the 3-day weekend and around $110 for the 4-day it is safe to say it was a failed venture in comparison to many other big budget films especially in the upper tier of franchises. BUT luckily SW is NOT a franchise tied to one linear story like, say, Transformers or Terminator.

I dare say that if Captain Marvel was not directly tied to Avengers 4, it may have suffered a similar fate no MATTER how it turns out. But it's too early for that. I assume that within 2 months there will be discussion on these boards (probably the IX thread) about that movie among others. Personally, I've been excited for the 2019 box office discussions before 2018 even began.

 

Let’s play a hypothetical: let’s say Solo does okay for a normal film, but disappoints by Star Wars standards. Flash forward to December 2019. Let’s say hype for Episode IX is very high and that the film performs to the high expectations placed on it. I’d say the lesson Disney learns from this is to space out releases. This isn’t like Marvel where every film feels like it’s own thing; every Star Wars film is going to feel like a Star Wars film to the general audience, and it’s something I’ve been arguing for a couple of years. So I think this pretty much guarantees that we don’t see more than one film a year, and that we see each spaced out at least a year aprt.

 

Which apparently didn't happen with TFA or R1. Yet the main story heroes of those movies were two women and two non-white men. While the key central figure of TLJ is Ren.

What did happen in TLJ is that Luke is made a coward and quitter who fails at ever passing on what he learned. I really think that is a key issue that they overlooked. If at the very least Luke actually faces Ren and Rey actually learns from Luke and is trained then I'd say whatever else happens in TLJ (even Snoke) is completely undercut.

Again though did this destroy the box office? No. So it's about shaping the story afterwards and I find it hard to believe they didn't see this coming. Again MH told them a long time ago. Why anyone there thought this would go over great is a total mystery.

Basically none:

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/r...ont-impact-box-office-study-finds-1202554546/

Yet Avengers movies are clearly on a different level than all the others (save BP's phenomenal performance). R1 did amazing but was still way behind even TLJ. What they don't know is the actual normal levels that non-saga movies can be expected to have. There aren't enough movies yet and R1 had the afterglow of TFA and newness to it.

Solo is the first real test of non-saga movies at the box office and without the kind of push that saga movies get.

 

Yeah, I agree. I think SW can absorb this - and I think it can still lead to something and obviously there are a lot of factors involved so it's definitely not a clear cut issue at all. And I also think it was inevitable that SW would hit this kind of event at some point. I think we have to get used to the idea that not every SW film is going to be a huge blockbuster smash any more than every Marvel film is - or maybe even something like a Bond. Especially when globally, SW is dead in China.

 

I know when I smell a franchise in trouble, it's when the narrative turns to shaming people into buying the products. Like that's ever going to work, lol. The box office results we're seeing now are just a trailing indicator.

 

Perfect argument for an Ewok/Gungan crossover film with vibrant, cheery visuals!

 

Honestly, they need to stop relying on the OT nostalgia era and just move the hell on. Just have the Obi-wan movie with Ewan that people actually do want, then move on. Boba Fett ain't gonna move the needle at all, I'm telling ya.

 

Oh I have opinions lot's of them. I try not to give my "opinions" too much because then you have to defend said opinions and that is how these threads go on and on endlessly. I like reading about the box office results and solid analysis on why any given movie has said results.

My personal opinion is that Solo was always going to have problems at the box office and has nothing to do with TLJ backlash. It is well known that Solo is a quid pro quo for Kasdan & Son for the senior Kasdan to write TFA. and had nothing to do with fan interest in the first place. Solo should have never been green lit or seen the light of day. However, considering the place TFA was in after Arndt was let go maybe it had to be done. In addition the casting of AE as Han Solo is befuddling to me and is as bad as the casting of Shia L. to play the son of Indiana Jones. Fan's the ones who pay attention and push social media on all of it's platforms where complaining about all of these problems long before ALT right and TLJ.

Nepotism is bad for movie making.

 

I wonder how Bob Iger is going to handle this. He’s not used to losing.