'Solo' Disappoints in Box Office Debut; Are Viewers Getting Tired of 'Star Wars'?
"Solo: A Star Wars Story" wasn't exactly an inexpensive film to make, so when the box office tally for its first weekend collected $83.3 million in the U.S., there's some concern here. "Star Wars" is a franchise that's used to hauling in ticket sales in the nine digits, leaving observers wondering — what happened?
For any other movie, $83.3 million in US ticket sales is already a pretty respectable number, even for franchise films, as the New York Times pointed out. When it's "Star Wars," however, raking in less than a hundred million is a worrying prospect, especially given that it's the Memorial Day weekend, too.
It's not just in the U.S. and North America, as well. "Solo" also did not gain much traction overseas, as initial ticket sales figures were only for around $65 million. As a "Star Wars" spin-off, that's not saying much, especially when stacked up against "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" that took in $155 million in its opening weekend two years ago.
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There are many theories now floating about on why this came out to be. There's the possibility that viewers simply had their fill at the movie theaters — between "Avengers: Infinity War" now in its fifth week and "Deadpool 2" going strong, there's still a lot of competition to go through for the new "Star Wars" movie.
There's also the reviews factor, which was split between those of the older "Star Wars" fans who have become attached to the Millennium Falcon crew of old, against those who thought that Ehrenreich and company are a breath of fresh air for the franchise.
What certainly hurt the chances of "Solo" to make it big in the box office was the way it came out just months after the latest "Star Wars" trilogy film, according to Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore.
"It's the compressed timeframe between the two 'Star Wars' films and the highly competitive nature of this marketplace. It is summer, after all," he explained, as quoted by Time Magazine.
"The good news is that the next film isn't until December 2019. That's plenty of breathing space. I think part of the allure of the 'Star Wars' brand in the past has been the long wait," Dergarabedian added.
Meanwhile, it will take a bit of time for Disney and Lucasfilm to break even with "Solo." The movie cost them $400 million both to make and market worldwide, and according to projections, it will scrape up $101 million in North America sales during this Memorial Day weekend.
That's a figure way less than what Disney has been hoping for, with their optimistic estimate putting the "Solo" movie to collect $140 million in its first weekend.
"Solo: A Star Wars Story" came out to theaters on May 25.
