Solo: A Star Wars Story stumbles at box office, Disney caution against 'fatigue' suggestions

Solo: A Star Wars Story was seen as a sure-fire hit by box-office analysts: no Disney-produced Star Wars film had opened to less than $155 million (Rogue One) in the United States – why would a movie about the beloved rogue Han Solo be any different?

Despite original estimates of between $130 million and $150 million, some as high as $170 million towards the beginning of the year, the spin-off managed just $103 million over the memorial weekend. Worse, Solo crashed at the international box office, taking just $68.2 million.

Considering the movie has an estimated budget of around $250 million (some estimate more around the $300 million mark) thanks to a switching out of directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller for Ron Howard midway through filming, Solo has a long way to go until Disney make any profit.

Speaking to Deadline, the company’s head of worldwide distribution, Dave Hollis, acknowledged their disappointment, saying they will “spend a lot of time digging into every question in every market to get the answer” as to why the movie struggled.

“We came into the beginning of the year with this one of the most anticipated films,” he added. “We gotta spend some time looking at the exits and get a better handle on all the questions.”

Those from other studios have put down the failure to Star Wars fatigue, a previous Star Wars film having been in cinemas only five months ago, and some leftover bad taste from The Last Jedi, which received a mixed reaction from fans. “I think Disney got caught milking the Star Wars franchise a little too much,” one insider told the publication. “Everyone acknowledged the risk of releasing another movie five months after Jedi. They really should have pushed Solo to Christmas.”

Unlike the other recent Star Wars movies, Solo was released in May rather than December. This meant increased competition from summer blockbusters, having been proceeded by Deadpool 2 and Avengers Infinity War.

Another insider added: “It feels like general moviegoers are making a conscious choice to wait, probably until Jurassic World 2, to see their next movie.”

​Hollis cautioned against concluding cinemagoers have Star Wars fatigue just yet, citing the four billion dollars grossed by the three previous movies. He also brought up the Marvel Cinematic Universe – also Disney owned – a series of movies that have gone from success to success.

“We’re in a world where we’re in the same conference rooms planning Marvel movies,” Hollis added. “We have a Thor and a Black Panther and an Infinity War coming out in November and February and May and each are massively successful. They each do well and people are not asking these questions.”

One key difference between Star Wars and Marvel, though, is the latter follows disparate stories of separate heroes, whereas Star Wars has focussed on already established characters and events. Prequels are also a harder sell as the fate of Han Solo is well known by anyone who has already seen the newest Star Wars movies.

Whatever Disney is planning behind closed curtains, they have some time to move their pieces into place. Following next year’s Episode IX, the next Star Wars movie remains unannounced – although plans for Obi-Wan Kenobi and Boba Fett spin-offs have been reported. Whatever the case, we should likely expect any anthology movies to get a December release rather than May.