Solo: A Star Wars Story opened with $84 million over the three-day weekend, which is impressive… for any movie without “Marvel” or “Star Wars” in the title. But because the embattled film takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, that $84 million (which is lower than any of the prequels, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and even Rogue One; it’s amusingly sandwiched between Twister and Cars on the all-time list) is considered a disappointment.
So much so that according to The Hollywood Reporter, the relative failure of Solo at the box office is causing Disney and Lucasfilm to rethink their release strategy for future Star Wars titles (of which there will be many).
While the studio isn’t abandoning its plan to release one Star Wars feature per year, insiders concede Disney and Lucasfilm aren’t likely to release two Star Wars movies so close together again, regardless of whether they are anthology films, like Solo, which tells of Han Solo’s beginnings, or part of the official episodes, like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and its follow-up, The Last Jedi. (Some fans complained about Last Jedi, which could have dampened enthusiasm for Solo.) (Via)
When Episode IX comes out next year, Disney will have released only one fewer Star Wars movie between 2015 and 2019 than 20th Century Fox did from 1977 to 2005. That’s a lot of Star Wars in a short amount of time, and fatigue may have played a part in Solo‘s lower-than-expected numbers. Either that, or maybe people didn’t want to see Han and Chewie showering together.
It’s hard to tell.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)