Solo Solo box-office discussion

I think the only things that were firmly shelved were any potential sequels to Solo, given the disappointing box office. I suspect that Lucasfilm was initially planning on announcing those sequels this summer, but the poor box office halted the development of those films.

 

Marvel, Pixar and Disney main have already announced their multi-year slates going forward. Only studio under Disney that hasn't is Lucasfilm. So I only sense a backlash when the movies fail (like DC universe, or Universal failing with monster movie reboot).

They definitely are moving cautiously on new movies. So many have called for a Obi-Wan movie but Ewan just said he hasn't been approached.

Logical that they shelved everything with Solo flopping but summer almost over and no sense of any Lucasfilm announcements coming. Maybe next year at Celebration but everything else seems to be on ice.

 

To be fair, most Lucasfilm announcements for features come completely out of the blue. They could announce something major today and I wouldn't be surprised.

 

The only new films Marvel have announced beyond their long ago stated five-year plan have been Guardians 3 (a virtual guarantee after the reception to the first one) and Spidey 2, which is actually a Sony production. We haven't heard any new movie announcements from them in literally years, barring changes to the already announced schedule.

So, yeah, they've very much been keeping things under wraps for some time now. We don't know what the MCU is post-Avengers 4. They've even been coy about stating where the two announced sequels sit in the timeline, inferring they could occur chronologically before Infinity War. They're pulling out all stops to market Avengers 4 as an ending, even tho we know more is coming.

The backlash I referred to was against the announcement of the films, not their eventual box office success or failure. A number of folks in my circle of friends are specifically anti-superhero. General fatigue of the genre has had some calling for its death for a few years now, despite the fact it seems to keep getting stronger.

 

BP2 and Black Widow are already official. And that's already before they set their big finale. So - things are much further along there for a Disney property.

As far as backlash on announcements or on the super-hero genre as a whole - to each their own. But those studios aren't going to pay attention to that when they are making money like they are now.

If Solo was a hit (and imo if TLJ wasn't so controversial in reception) - there is no doubt there would be more talk about future Star Wars films. Instead - mums the word.

 

BP2 is rumored and (rightly, I think) assumed. Feige is committed to BW. I would draw the distinction that neither film has been officially announced or scheduled.

Agreed otherwise. I hope Disney are able to see that the response and proximity to TLJ played a role along with numerous other factors in Solo's disappointing numbers.

 

Judging by the math as of today, this movie is a huge financial loss.

The Global box office gross stands as $392 million and Disney gets roughly 55% of that which is $215 million.

The cost of the film is $275 million production + $137 million marketing (50% of production budget). Who knows what the Reshoot budget is. Another $150 million?

Not counting reshoots, that means Disney is $197 million in the red on this film and that is a low estimate.

Even with DVD & Blu-Ray sales, it is impossible for Disney to make a profit on Solo. Rogue One made $83.6 million in home sales and that is a much more popular film as indicated by its theatrical gross.

https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Rogue-One-A-Star-Wars-Story#tab=video-sales

At the end of the day Kathleen Kennedy is head of Lucasfilm and is ultimately responsible for overseeing the budget for the films. The poor merchandise sales, talent mismanagement, lack of direction, poor brand messaging, poor marketing and the expensive reshoots should cost her, her job. It doesn't help when LFL employees are making political statements on Twitter. They need to stay on message and not alienate a significant percentage of their consumers. I just don't think she understands the average Star Wars consumer and it's quite shocking that George Lucas decided to position a very inexperienced individual with no executive background to head his former studio. This by no means is a statement on her politics or the quality of the films. It's purely from a business perspective. I'm not sure everyone understands that this box office bomb is highly damaging to the Star Wars brand and not only does it make stakeholders weary but will also put in danger future Star Wars development. If Episodes 9 doesn't manage to reach the black, the future of Star Wars on the big screen is in major trouble. None of us know how that film will turn out.

 

Why would they acknowledge something for which there is no evidence? Thus far, the evidence points to Solo having a poor OW because of a far too short 3-month marketing window. There's nothing indicating that TLJ's alleged divisiveness had anything at all to do with audience attitudes towards Solo. Literally zero evidence. What will it take to stop this nonsense being repeated over and over again, without any factual foundation? And I say this as someone who didn't even enjoy TLJ that much.

I'm going to go ahead and assume that you did not call for Kevin Feige to lose his job after the Incredible Hulk bombed, grossing less than $135 million domestically against a $150 million budget.

I'm also going to assume that you've forgotten that Kathleen Kennedy is responsible for the third-highest grossing film of all time (and highest-grossing film of all time domestically). And that her next two SW films after that were #8 and #11 highest-grossing of all time, domestically.

But yeah. Fire her. Maybe even lock her up?

 

Citation?

 

Uhh, what? No, the production budget for Solo was NOT $275 million PLUS reshoots haha where are you getting that idea?! People have reported -- without any facts whatsoever -- that the total production budget was $250-300M, which includes obviously the reshoots. You actually think that for some reason Solo would have been given a near-$300M production budget, far more than any of the main saga films, and THEN on top of that $150M for reshoots? No, I'm sorry, that's hilariously wrong.

You also are making assumptions that aren't fully justified about Solo's potential on home video. If you look over the charts for the past 20 years, you'll see a lot of movies were actually BIGGER hits on home video than films that made more in theaters, exactly because not many people saw them in theaters but they were certainly good enough to check out eventually. Look how many "fans" on this forum have said they were waiting for home video for Solo. Everyone already saw Rogue One in theaters, which means some subset of the people actually didn't like it, or didn't like it enough to buy it or rent it, anyway. With Solo, you're going to have a lot of people checking it out because they missed it and they've heard it was at least a fun movie, with a 71% RT score, they just didn't rush to theaters to see it. I'm not saying it's going to beat Rogue One's numbers, but I am saying it's not going to be drastically short of that, either. You can't say, for instance, it made 40% as much at the box office so it'll make 40% as much on home video. For all we know, it'll make 120% as much on home video, it's hard to say.

I do agree that of course Solo will be a money loser for Disney, that much seems pretty certain, but hopefully they'll recover a lot of money in ancillary markets like toys, merchandise, home video, streaming, etc. It won't be as bad as it seems, I'm sure of that.

To say that Kathleen should lose her job is completely ridiculous. She has overseen 4 great Star Wars movies, and kept the brand in the public eye, with 3 #1 rankings in a row at the yearly box office, a feat never before accomplished in the history of cinema. In fact no other franchise had ever charted more than TWO yearly wins ever. Only if you grouped Spider-Man -- a Sony property -- with the MCU (which it wasn't at the time, and is still a separate franchise even now) would you be able to have three movies from the same general "thing," which would be Marvel, and if Black Panther wins the year (a foregone conclusion), four. Still nowhere near the 8 wins for Star Wars alone, with virtually every movie having won its year besides AOTC and Solo. It's also nonsense that Kathleen doesn't understand Star Wars fans. I'm the biggest Star Wars fan around, I've seen these movies more than 250 times in theaters, I've written books on the franchise, I've flown to 6 states specifically for Star Wars events, and spent more than $50,000 on collecting, I have loved every Disney Star Wars movie. She's the perfect person to run the studio because she does get exactly the quality that is expected of the brand and is willing to plow money into reshoots to protect the integrity of Star Wars, which she did by making sure Solo was another great movie. How many people who chose to buy a ticket is irrelevant to the movie's quality. Most people don't save for retirement, either, does that mean saving for retirement is dumb? No, of course not. It means most people are idiots and their decision making is completely horrible.

I laughed hard at your "If Episode IX doesn't reach the black" comment. Episode IX is going to be HUGE. You should know that. It's the final chapter in the trilogy and maybe the episodic saga, for all we know, especially if Disney decides to branch out with more different stories and the episodes are meant to be the Skywalker story, which comes to an end here (in some ways, it already has, but Leia is still alive basically in Episode IX as we now know). Have fun with your next 15 months of trying to call doom and gloom, because when IX breaks a bunch of box office records and murders at the box office, I'll be here to tell you I told you so. So will every other fan.

 

Not specifically. Are you saying I am mistaken in my understanding that IX is being positioned currently as the final film in the Skywalker saga?

Oh sorry. I thought we were having a serious discussion. That's not a debatable point in my universe. To each his own.

 

SequelS? If they would have announced at least one sequel to SOLO this summer, to release it next summer or the winter after that, Disney would at least give the new film a wider marketing-window to prepare the fans. So they learnt a lesson finally

I really wish Disney uses the fear of fans to see no anthology films anymore, to fuel the eagerness of the GA to go to the cinema for it more than into SOLO.

 

Wut? LOL!




The amount of mental gymnastics needed to act like there isn't a Lucasfilm/Star Wars problem is most impressive.

I'm not saying Kennedy should be removed and I think the political aspect is overblown. Make better films, have a better story line - and all that comes from having a plan better than "More Star Wars!" is what's needed.

 

Your universe? I was under the impression that we inhabited the same universe. But if you're referring to the false universe created by your like-minded peers, wherein TLJ was a total disaster despised by more than half of the people who saw it, and wherein Solo's Box Office woes were primarily due to fan discontent with TLJ, then that kinda proves my point. You're living in a universe where assertions don't need to be substantiated with facts. And I don't want to live there. I'd rather live in Des Moines.

 

From the official release on the Episode IX cast:

"Returning and new cast members will join together for the final installment of the Skywalker saga."

".....J.J. Abrams returns to direct the final installment of the Skywalker saga."

"......“We desperately loved Carrie Fisher,” says Abrams. “Finding a truly satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker saga without her eluded us....."

That makes pretty clear that Lucasfilm is going to firmly position Episode IX as the "final film in the Skywalker saga". Whether Disney/Lucasfilm will change their mind at some point in the future is unknown.

 

Thanks for posting the quotes. I was going to point out that @jedi-soon specifically said "The Last Star Wars Movie" instead of "The Last Movie in the Skywalker Saga", but he changed that after I asked for sources.

 

Proof that things have been shelved after Solo.

https://www.cinemablend.com/news/24...atooine-was-part-of-an-upcoming-spin-off-film

 

Its already confirmed that a Mos Eisley spinoff was yanked. And indeed, that news did come out after Solo bowed.

 

Look.

You can't say that a movie in "Development" doesn't count but a movie that was in "Development" does.

But it doesn't matter what I say anyways. Because you and others in this thread will keep looking for things to pick at so you can feel justified in your belief that a movie you didn't like somehow shattered a multi-billion dollar franchise.

I'm done with this thread. Have fun wallowing in it.

 

I must admit I didn’t even realize Solo was still playing until I saw this thread still going. I assume it’s now at the $1 movie houses?

 

OR proof that a film featuring Mos Eisley has been put on hold, and that the status of the Obi-wan film is uncertain.

But I suppose in a post-truth world, that means "ALL NON-EPISODE IX PROJECTS HAVE BEEN SHELVED."

Someone, help us.