Solo Solo box-office discussion

No, it wasn't on hold. Actually indications are that it was initially Solo that could have been first then Boba Fett then Rogue One but they liked Rogue One so much that came first then Boba Fett was put ahead of Solo.

So really their own internal faith in Solo was to push it back to 2020 at one point. Then when Boba Fett fell through they went to Solo because it seems they had nothing else at that point that was really ready to go to reach that May 2018 slot they were so hot for.

They were hell bent on May no matter what and clearly it didn't work out anywhere near where they thought it would.

"This wasn't the film anyone was looking for." is the tag line.

 

Yeah. I think that's the simplest reason TBH (whilst not denying that other factors have contributed).

 

Exhibit A)

Even before R1, the idea of a Han Solo movie was not being well received by a lot of people: https://www.gamesradar.com/why-young-han-solo-movie-bad-idea/

"I'll prefigure this by stating the obvious. I have no idea what's going to be in the solo Solo flick. And I'm still hoping for the best. The Force Awakens was fabulous and I have high hopes that Rogue One will make these new 'Star Wars Stories' as essential as the main episodes. I'll certainly be lining up on the opening night and hoping for the best. But from where we're standing right now, in space year 2016, the young Solo movie sounds like a potential disaster waiting to happen."

This is from January/2016, 12 months before R1 and while TFA was still destroying all Box Office records.

It is a shame because I loved this movie so much. But seems apathy towards this movie has took its toll.

Notice that this was even before R1 and ages before TLJ. So there is that for the cyclic arguments about TLJ in here.

Exhibit B)

Other example, April/2016: http://screenertv.com/movies/young-...ls-young-indiana-jones-young-sherlock-holmes/

"Fans should be reminded that Hollywood’s track record of “young” movies is pretty much 100 percent dreadful."

Guess what, this was right not due to lack of quality, but for lack of hype. "Young" XYZ movies do not work in general.

Exhibit C)

And, how this film came to be was 100% as a tribute to Kasdan. He loves Han Solo and wanted to write his origin story.

And the idea of a standalone Han Solo movie comes way back from Lucas before Disney: http://ew.com/article/2015/08/13/star-wars-anthology-young-han-solo/

Plans for the standalone movies, known officially as “anthology” films, began long before Lucasfilm was purchased by The Walt Disney Co. in 2012. Although he is now retired from the Star Wars storytelling business, Lucas gave his blessing to exploring individual characters in one-off films.

“It was one of the first things he sat down to talk to me about: What would those movies be?” says Kennedy, who took over as head of the company in summer of 2012, just months before the Disney sale. “That’s where we discussed not only reigniting the saga, but talking about the standalone, what has now become the anthology films.”

After that conversation, the next discussion was who should write a potential Han Solo history? Kasdan’s history with Star Wars as a writer on Empire and Jedi, as well as his history with Ford, writing the screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark, helped make him the first choice.

Actually, he had the option to do any kind of Star Wars story he liked. Kasdan said he had turned Lucas down when approached about working on the prequels, yet it was a different sort of prequel that interested him this time.

“They said, ‘Here are the things that we’d like to make movies about,’ and I said, ‘Oh, well, Han Solo. I would write a movie about Han Solo. He’s always been my favorite.’ And that’s the job that I took,” Kasdan says.

My Conclusion)

Lucasfilm made an amateur mistake here. They were pleasing themselves with the movies THEY wanted to make, instead of doing a proper market research to know which film THE AUDIENCES wanted to see.

And Disney did not question LFL and KK, because money talks and Solo was greenlit on the apex of TFA popularity. Which was a mistake by Disney as well.

It is healthy that both LFL and Disney try to find where they failed here, and believe me, I only posted 3 articles but there are hundreds of reports made even before R1 that said that Solo was an awful idea.

 

A good point about a big difference between R1 and Solo--While R1 had OT characters, there were no recasts. James Earl Jones can still play Vader, and Tarkin & Leia were CGI that, while sometimes a bit odd, were not the main focus of the film and were passable. Hell, even Red & Gold leader weren't recast.

Solo required a MAJOR recast of an OT character. A lot of people may have just decided they had no interest in seeing that and just never gave the movie a chance.

 

Let's see what happens at next years celebration attendence and the response at the opening of star wars park at Disney land/world

 

I thought the Kessel Run scene, if marketed better, could have given off that buzz. To me it was Solo's Battle of Scarif, but you never would have guessed it from the trailers.

 

Its going to be fascinating to watch unfold. The vibe, the dynamic, the atmosphere - whether things feel like they've changed etc. Not just attendance, but things like whether KK will take the stage and audience reaction if/when she does etc.

 

When they recast another significant OT character in the PT movies, it didn't seem like many people had an issue over it. In fact, it seems a majority of people favored the younger, recast version to the older one. One of the few bright spots in the PT that many could agree upon.

Spoiler

 

I think one major error for me was that we never needed to see “How he became Han Solo!”

I think that any Han Solo anthology movies should have been treated like Indiana Jones or James Bond, where it’s an isolated fun adventure story and he’s already the character we love.

You don’t need to have Han Solo earn all of his iconic traits in one movie. You could have easily done “Han Solo and the Legend of the Kessel Run” and, while it probably wouldn’t have done Saga numbers, as long as you made a movie about HAN SOLO and not “Han Solo before he became the Han Solo we love” it would have been a better direction.

Also, it’s tough to sell Alden in the trailers, and they even strayed away from it. He did a great job in the movie, but I can see where he doesn’t translate well to the Harrison Ford version of the character and you’d think that was the draw, seeing HAN SOLO on screen again.

 

It was an awful idea and the "fans' the ones who pay attention never received the recast well. Warning sign number 1.
As far as LF making the movies that please themselves, this goes for the last outing also. The director said he should remain true to himself and proceeded to describe fans as an "abstract idea"

Because Ewan had the look, could act and mimic.... triple threat!

 

@Ricardo Funes - I feel like a balance can be struck here. If they made Solo because it was important to them and they wanted it, that's fine. But if they blindly expected it to draw in a ton of money that would be a disconnect. With as much money as I imagine Disney and LFL to have, I think they could do both: make movies THEY want to make and make movies that they know will bring more money. What I hope they don't do is use Solo to deter themselves from making stories that are meaningful to them because if that is killed there is no longer a point in making stories at all.

In other news, I'm equally as unexcited about a Bobba Fett movie as about a Han Solo movie. I feel like there was a lot of Fett in the cartoons, and I'm not overly curious about anything else about Fett. Also, I always saw Fett as kind of mysterious in the OT, and with some characters, knowing less about them is better IMO. I mean I do like what they did with Fett somewhat. That he is a stormtrooper clone basically (but without being stripped of independent thought) explains some things about why Vader seemed to like him so much (though Vader's great regard for Fett may have been all in my head). Anakin was really chummy with all the clone troopers and liked how efficient they were.

 

Looks like Solo is going to struggle to make $30m this weekend. Yikes.

 

I think she has to go up on stage. If I were in charge of PR I would make sure she was accompanied by another figure, either (a) someone beloved who can't be booed (ideally Mark Hamill) or (b) a villain like Kylo where the boos can be played off as negative towards evil (just have her come out with Palpatine; steer into the skid).

It appears that I am in the minority here, but, though I liked the film, I thought Alden was awful. Always could "feel him acting". Worse I don't think he was Han Solo at all. In fact, outside of the obvious connections of names and the Falcon, I didn't get the feeling I was watching the same characters from either Han or Lando. I suspect the trailers indicate that Disney felt the same way about Alden, and while he wasn't a wreck, I don't think the instinct to hide him or his performance was wrong.

 

I agree. But then I feel the way they killed him off has also hurt Solo.

It's incredible to think that an old Solo movie with Harrison would have probably beaten/smashed Solo at the BO with little effort. Its a pity Harrison has wanted off the SW ride for so long :-(

 

I haven't seen Solo yet, but I'm surprised anybody expected significantly more than what it made.

The spin-off concept is still largely untested. I thought it was pretty widely accepted that Rogue One over-performed expectations, no?

This film didn't have anywhere near the buzz the other Disney-LFL releases did. There's also the very real factor of franchise fatigue. I personally never thought Star Wars would hold up well under the Marvel approach.

Anecdotally? Nobody I know was excited to see this, even the hardcore SW fans. I'm seeing it with the biggest real world SW fan I know, who liked RO, and loved TFA and TLJ, and he doesn't even care about seeing it at a major theater. He literally said "I don't consider this an event film". The few people I know who saw it did absolutely love it, including another big fan who thinks it's the best of the Disney SW films, but none of them ran out to see it opening weekend. In my own limited world it's becoming a word of mouth hit, just not a MUST SEE RIGHT NOW event.

 

Solo has killed any chances of a Kenobi or Fett or any OT character. They will drop the Anthology for now and will focus on the new stuff, which are RJ and W&B trilogies.

And this is unfortunate, as 1) Solo was a great SW movie, and 2) Kenobi/Fett could have been as good or even better

But I imagine the general audiences would ignore Kenobi (who?) and Fett (who ????) as much as they did for Solo.

So unless the Anthology movies can be made for 100M total budget, then they will drop them for now.

 

I don't think that's way off at all -- I had the exact same thought when they announced it.

Edited to add: and I should say, I was one of those fans, and I was one of the few (apparently) who was excited for this. My reasoning was: 1) Kasdan, and 2) Disney/LFL knew that this was their golden goose and they could be trusted not to **** it up.

 

The box office may not reflect it, but the movie’s largest strength comes from the fact that Kasdan wanted to write it (thanks for that Exhibit C @Ricardo Funes ). When an author enjoys what they are writing, it often shows in their work and that is why I think Solo was such a fun film. Crafting a story you enjoy often yields better results than cooking something you think others will enjoy. Box Office may affect films in the immediate future but it won’t have much bearing on whether Solo will be considered a Star Wars classic/ money
-maker down the road. This wouldn’t be the first Disney film that has poor box office but has very valuable returns later on (example: Nightmare Before Christmas). I think Solo has this potential.

 

I agree wholeheartedly. As I posted in the celebration thread, for the opening ceremony...

"I'd like to welcome Kathleen Kennedy to the stage"
[Robed figure dressed in Jedi/Sith robes emerges from the left, face covered, makes way to centre of stage. Audience is stunningly silent in confusion - a few gasps - unsure whether Kathleen is poking fun at her own image - and whether to laugh, boo, or clap].
Robed figure stands stationary in middle of stage.
Pause, for a few seconds.
[Kathleen Kennedy emerges from the right of stage, makes way over to the middle. Fans still confused...]
[Robed figure removes hood, takes off robe... revealed to be - EWAN MCGREGOR.]
Audience cheers. Situation diffused, people too excited in the heat of the moment to care about anything from the last 2 years. Its Ewan freaking Mcgregor is in front of them and that can only mean one thing - etc etc


Id love to get a breakdown as to the age/demographic statistics for Solos admissions. As compared to previous films Is it skewing any younger/older (suspect the latter) - and by how much? (Basically what im getting at: Whoever is buying toys, paying for theme park visits - helping make up all that other sweet cash that doesnt come from films - is their representation trending up or down).

 

http://fangirlblog.com/2018/05/solo-a-star-wars-story-review-spoiler-free/



I think I'll try to get out to see it tonight. I've got some hugs to give.

 

I think these spin-offs would be better served on the small screen. Boba Fett, Lando...a tv series could do a lot with these characters and have the flexibility to paint their stories in a way that the movies wouldn't be able to.

 

I am not sold on Obi-wan for one second. The issue is Lucasfilm currently has a poor record with legacy characters and no hints that will change. There is a benefit with Mcgregor being the same person but that's where it stops. If it's not a better Obi-wan than in PT the public stoning of discontent doesn't stop and further increases. Also it cant come out before EP IX and if its reception is poor then its got the same negativity impacting it that hurt Solo.

If it was to happen then I think they should stay well away from OT. Make it a side mission during the clone wars or something so that the world building can be epic. Build Obi-wans legacy not tear it down and make it smaller.

 

This is strange. He called Solo an underworld movie but it never was marketed that way. Someone mentioned earlier but this series of movies should have been Star Wars Underworld. First movie could have still focused on Solo, next on Boba Fett, could have had some Jabba ties as well. That's a trilogy that would have caused some excitement and they wouldn't have had to jam Solo's life story in one movie.

The dice was still a horrible call.

 

Just se en SOLO with my two sons and 5 friends of mine. The theater was packed, kids enjoyed the movie. My mates all agree that it is a fun flick but they also have found it less atractive than TLJ. They can't wait for Episode IX but the excitent for the Anthology movies is just not there.

 

They can drop OT character anthology films without dropping anthology films as well. I would be interested in a Rae Sloane movie. No one in GA would know who she is, but none of us knew who Jyn Erso was either. In fact, that I didn't know who Jyn Erso was made RO more interesting to me. The movie is dominated by new characters, and I pretty much liked all of them. I hadn't seen Saw in the cartoons yet IIRC, and I loved his character.

I personally think Vader movies might do quite well. But I am biased.

Kenobi could be less boring to me than Solo or Fett in that it would involve the Force more. Whenever the Force is more in the story, I am 10x more intrigued. It's the epic mythological struggle between dark and light that draws me to Star Wars.

But all this said, someone previously was mentioning a lack of a hook. What is the hook for Solo? The hook was oh boy, here's young Han and how he met his buddies and got the Falcon. These are not things I care about much. I don't actually even know what the hook for Solo is even after watching it. I liked the movie. But nothing about Han Solo was the hook.