Not releasing it at Christmas. All of the new Starwars films are crap, and rely purely on nostalgia for the original trilogy for their success. People who don't like the films get dragged along by their relatives during the holiday season.

I think the Last Jedi also severed this series from ties to the original trilogy, by killing off/ruining all of the characters anyone cared about. And slapping the Starwars logo on a film is only going to work for so long.

People keep asking "How come Marvel is so successful but Starwars is floundering?"

It's like asking "how come people are buying ice cream, but not buying that frozen piss that we put in a slushy packaging?". Marvel make great films consistently. Starwars films are consistently crap. You really have to work hard to not know the obvious answer to this question. Sooner or later people are going to notice that the taste in their mouth doesn't match what it says on the packaging.

I think all of your points contribute to the end result we're seeing, to greater or lesser degree. However, #1 was my absolute first thought when they announced it, "Why? Just why? We don't need that film." No matter what movie they announce, there'll be at least a few people eager to see it; but the community at large was never clamoring for a Han Solo film. Of course, for some reason folks are asking for an Obi-Wan film, and I can't understand why anybody would be interested in that - it would be just as unnecessary and bloated as this one. And for that matter, so would a Maul film, considering we know how he dies.

They've announced a Boba Fett film, I understand, and I can appreciate that lots of fans would be curious as to what happens with that character. However, the problem with that is the fact that a large portion of the fan base is now rather distrustful of Kathleen Kennedy and/or Disney-Lucasfilm at large. I would personally be interested in a Boba Fett film, but I certainly wouldn't see it in the cinema. Why not watch it for free on Kodi a day or two after it hits theatres?

At any rate, I think Solo will likely turn a profit by the end of the year, once most of the home video sales are done, but its theatre run is an embarrassment, and your bullet points do seem to be relevant to why that is.

I think those are all good points. But the real reason why it failed is a simple one, the fans. SW films usually bring in sooooo much money for one reason and that is the hardcore fans. They go and see a film 5 or 7 times before it gets taken out of cinema. And some even way more than that. But with TLJ being a slap in the face of the majority of fans...well this is the out come. Not to mention all the identity politics they tried to insert into the franchise. And when fans spoke up against it they were labeled as basement dwelling female hating creatures.

The creators didnt respect the source material or the fans that have been loyal for decades. They doubled down on the new SW and the new fans and took for granted the old school fans. Basically saying 'yeah we know you dont like the direction we are going with SW, but we know you are going to go see whatever we put out.' Well I guess thats not true. This isnt franchise fatigue, this isnt a bad release date, this isnt to much competition from other films, this is a backlash, pure and simple a backlash. The only way Disney would listen and thats when you hurt their bottom line.

And the fact they announced a Boba Fett film days before Solo was released shows that they knew what was about to happen. Trying to throw up a smoke screen to try and bring back some positive feelings from fans. But the damage was already done. Its sad that directors and actors and crew have to get caught up in all this bs. They are just trying to do the best they can with what they were given. The one good thing that can come out of this train wreck is that Kennedy can get sidelined and maybe Disney will bring in a new SW lead to take over.

it made 103 million in 4 days, which is not on par with TFA but its a no brainer that a. it was not a star wars return movie like TFA b. its considered more of a canon movie than an essential one to the star wars franchise c. and finally yes frustated fans certainly did not help. if you compare it to rouge one, rouge one made $155 million. and Solo made $103. first weekend.

1 and 3 for me. I'm very happy that its's a massive flop. Hope Kennedy gets fired!

I didn't go see it as a statement to my unhappiness the direction the franchise has taken. Thought TFA was meh and TLJ was crap. R1 was OK but unnecessary. They really shit on the source material and characters and that was really disappointing. I am not in the camp that says we do not need a Solo film. I think with the right script and crew it could be something really fun but I am so disillusioned with SW right now that there is no way I am going to give them a "yes, I love what you are doing with the franchise vote" by boosting their BO #s. No. Fucking. Way.

@A to Z said:

People who don't like the films get dragged along by their relatives during the holiday season.

I think the combination of this with what @oddrob said "They go and see a film 5 or 7 times before it gets taken out of cinema" will make it very interesting to see what happens at the next xmas release, i.e. Episode IX.

Will an xmas release result in numbers from the general cinema going population being enough at that time of year or will the loss of those hardcore fans not going to see it multiple times AND not dragging less interested family / friends along kill that film as well?

I haven't seen this movie, and actually I haven't seen anything beyond the original trilogy and the disappointing reboot Phantom Menace. But I think the problem is, in general, you can't have a successful spinoff until you've convinced the original fans that the story needs to continue.

Like OddRob said above, you can't dump the hardcore fans and just assume the hype will carry on into a new generation of fans. An example of how to do it RIGHT would be the Star Trek franchise which took great pains to entice Original fans into the Next Generation. They did this with frequent references, continuing storylines, cameos of old characters and even a major motion picture "Generations" whose sole purpose was for Kirk to proclaim his endorsement of the new guy Picard. (Personally I never bought it, but I can appreciate all the effort that went into it.)

In contrast, the whole Star Wars franchise seemed to steamroll the fans into continuing their fandom even though the original was trampled. That's sorta in line with Lucas's whole attitude in life. "If you re-build it, they will come." But there's only so far that goes. When the original fans are too old to take their kids to the movies, that's when it runs outta gas.

@rooprect said:

An example of how to do it RIGHT would be the Star Trek franchise which took great pains to entice Original fans into the Next Generation. They did this with frequent references, continuing storylines, cameos of old characters and even a major motion picture "Generations" whose sole purpose was for Kirk to proclaim his endorsement of the new guy Picard.

I'm not sure if TOS fans were particularly enamoured with Generations and the treatment of it's legacy character, i.e. Kirk.

What is funny though is that I've just realised that both that film and TFA both gave their returning heroes the same underwhelming death - falling off a bridge after a wee bit of a scuffle 😁

@The Midi-chlorian Count said:

@rooprect said:

An example of how to do it RIGHT would be the Star Trek franchise which took great pains to entice Original fans into the Next Generation. They did this with frequent references, continuing storylines, cameos of old characters and even a major motion picture "Generations" whose sole purpose was for Kirk to proclaim his endorsement of the new guy Picard.

I'm not sure if TOS fans were particularly enamoured with Generations and the treatment of it's legacy character, i.e. Kirk.

What is funny though is that I've just realised that both that film and TFA both gave their returning heroes the same underwhelming death - falling off a bridge after a wee bit of a scuffle 😁

lol I didn't want to torpedo my own argument but. Yeah, Generations SUCKED and I would do anything to erase that stupid random Kirk death (as well as his overall "leave me alone I'm happy cooking eggs" attitude hahaha). So... right. What was I saying 😬

@rooprect said:

@The Midi-chlorian Count said:

@rooprect said:

An example of how to do it RIGHT would be the Star Trek franchise which took great pains to entice Original fans into the Next Generation. They did this with frequent references, continuing storylines, cameos of old characters and even a major motion picture "Generations" whose sole purpose was for Kirk to proclaim his endorsement of the new guy Picard.

I'm not sure if TOS fans were particularly enamoured with Generations and the treatment of it's legacy character, i.e. Kirk.

What is funny though is that I've just realised that both that film and TFA both gave their returning heroes the same underwhelming death - falling off a bridge after a wee bit of a scuffle 😁

lol I didn't want to torpedo my own argument but. Yeah, Generations SUCKED and I would do anything to erase that stupid random Kirk death (as well as his overall "leave me alone I'm happy cooking eggs" attitude hahaha). So... right. What was I saying 😬

I honestly hated anytime they made a big production when TOS crew interacted with TNG. I thought it was hokey. There was an episode where they ran into Scotty on TNG and that was OK but most of the time it just made my eyes roll.

@movie_nazi said:

@rooprect said:

@The Midi-chlorian Count said:

@rooprect said:

An example of how to do it RIGHT would be the Star Trek franchise which took great pains to entice Original fans into the Next Generation. They did this with frequent references, continuing storylines, cameos of old characters and even a major motion picture "Generations" whose sole purpose was for Kirk to proclaim his endorsement of the new guy Picard.

I'm not sure if TOS fans were particularly enamoured with Generations and the treatment of it's legacy character, i.e. Kirk.

What is funny though is that I've just realised that both that film and TFA both gave their returning heroes the same underwhelming death - falling off a bridge after a wee bit of a scuffle 😁

lol I didn't want to torpedo my own argument but. Yeah, Generations SUCKED and I would do anything to erase that stupid random Kirk death (as well as his overall "leave me alone I'm happy cooking eggs" attitude hahaha). So... right. What was I saying 😬

I honestly hated anytime they made a big production when TOS crew interacted with TNG. I thought it was hokey. There was an episode where they ran into Scotty on TNG and that was OK but most of the time it just made my eyes roll.

They sure worked it hard didn't they? lol at least they tried. They were desperate to avoid alienating the TOS fans so I guess they had the right idea... but it came across sorta like that scene in Better Off Dead when the mom cooks a horrible green sludge and tells the kid "It has raisins. You LIKE raisins!"

@The Midi-chlorian Count said:

1. Mistake in the first place to produce an unnecessary "it's not Harrison Ford" Solo movie.

2. Not letting the original film makers complete their movie and landing up with an uninspired composite piece.

3. The Last Jedi being seen as a terrible final insult.

4. Strange lack of marketing until very late in the day, e.g. the trailer.

5. Proximity of release too close to The Last Jedi irrespective of thoughts on whether it was any good. Maybe an Xmas release would have saved it?

Or something else?

What do you think the main reason has been?

two words Katlheen Kenedy, i hope she gets fired soon

@xbxoxy said:

two words Katlheen Kenedy, i hope she gets fired soon

I hope that will happen too but even that wouldn't be enough - TFA left the "episodic" series story broken and (as far as I'm concerned) beyond repair.

Kennedy out the door with an apology and an announcement that Episode VIII is to be remade!

... also re legacy film heroes dying by bridges, didn't Jeff BRIDGES also suffer his demise battling the main villain on a bridge in Tron Legacy?!

@rooprect said:

@movie_nazi said:

@rooprect said:

@The Midi-chlorian Count said:

@rooprect said:

An example of how to do it RIGHT would be the Star Trek franchise which took great pains to entice Original fans into the Next Generation. They did this with frequent references, continuing storylines, cameos of old characters and even a major motion picture "Generations" whose sole purpose was for Kirk to proclaim his endorsement of the new guy Picard.

I'm not sure if TOS fans were particularly enamoured with Generations and the treatment of it's legacy character, i.e. Kirk.

What is funny though is that I've just realised that both that film and TFA both gave their returning heroes the same underwhelming death - falling off a bridge after a wee bit of a scuffle 😁

lol I didn't want to torpedo my own argument but. Yeah, Generations SUCKED and I would do anything to erase that stupid random Kirk death (as well as his overall "leave me alone I'm happy cooking eggs" attitude hahaha). So... right. What was I saying 😬

I honestly hated anytime they made a big production when TOS crew interacted with TNG. I thought it was hokey. There was an episode where they ran into Scotty on TNG and that was OK but most of the time it just made my eyes roll.

They sure worked it hard didn't they? lol at least they tried. They were desperate to avoid alienating the TOS fans so I guess they had the right idea... but it came across sorta like that scene in Better Off Dead when the mom cooks a horrible green sludge and tells the kid "It has raisins. You LIKE raisins!"

LMAO! I am showing my age by laughing so hard at that joke. I used to love that film growing up.