I think it’s been touched on but… yeah it’s a perception problem. People think Star Wars movies are supposed to be HUGE…even though the whole point of the spin-offs was to be smaller less-pressured movies. I think Rogue One was was pretty big so that made people re-calibrate. Solo was supposed to be the first “Ant-Man” style Star Wars movie…It could make a lot less money and it would have been fine.
The truth is Solo is only seen as loss because they had to reshoot the vast majority of the movie which threw off its budget. It opened bigger than GOTG vol 2…but it had a much steeper mountain to climb to be even a modest success.
Just to follow up: after this past weekend, the disappointment that is SOLO did in fact pass BATMAN BEGINS (and, for that matter, MAD MAX: FURY ROAD) just like it passed CAPTAIN AMERICA — after it did spend that 42nd day in the Top Ten, for the total of six solid weeks including those two at #1.
At this rate, it may even wind up raking in more cash than the STAR TREK reboot: which (a) still ain’t enough, sure; but (b) can you even imagine?
For the record, it did just now pass STAR TREK, where another actor with big shoes to fill as a sci-fi franchise’s raygun-toting starship captain resisted what must have been a constant temptation to go all the way from ‘smirk’ to ‘impression’.
In that case, it was enough to spark special-effects-laden sequel after sequel; again, here it’s not enough here to avoid the “disappointment” label — but I sure figured it was an interesting enough point to at least deserve quick mention.
It’s not just about the total box office, Solo required extensive reshooting which massively drove up the cost to even get it to this level. It ended up being the most expensive Star Wars movie to date. And yes, Star Wars films do have higher expectations than Star Trek or a low tier Marvel movie. Nobody expected Ant Man to pull Infinity War numbers.
Yeah, I know; after all, so long as we’re talking about superhero flicks, it’s kind of hard to miss that SOLO is now getting awfully close to pulling in the $391 million grossed by SUPERMAN RETURNS; and was that movie ever a big disappointment, because “very expensive” plus “big expectations”, y’know?
…no, I’m not trying to imply that; I thought I was flatly stating the exact opposite: that, much like SOLO (and almost eerily like SOLO, as the dollar amounts get closer and closer to mirroring each other), it in fact was a big disappointment, since it was so very expensive and fell so very short of big expectations.
I agree with the latter point. But I don’t think it makes sense to factor in the sunk costs of the reshoot. That’s just lost money that ought to have no bearing on whether or not the movie counts as a success.
ETA:
FWIW, I initially took it the same way. And I think SR is vastly underrated BTW.
In light of the recent “I finally figured out what was wrong with The Last Jedi” discussion, I’ve finally figured out what was wrong with Solo (at least for me): It focuses too much on one character. I think instead of calling it “Solo,” you call it “Crimson Dawn,” and it becomes about the rise of a crime syndicate, with Han Solo and his Kessel Run playing a role in the story. Solo’s “failure” could be because people don’t want to see movies that are just about character development for the sake of character development or fan service.
I don’t want to see a movie called “Kenobi.” But I *would *like to see a movie about crime and the Hutts on Tattooine during the period between Ep. III and Ep IV, and have Obi-Wan play a role. Or maybe a movie about Mandalore, where Obi-Wan takes part in the story.
They should stick to telling stories, not fleshing out characters or featuring backstories just for the sake of fleshing out characters or fan service. Now granted, the movie Solo did set up the story of Crimson Dawn and Qira and Maul (which will hopefully continue in future movies or shows), but that story took a backseat to “Come and see young Han Solo and how he met Chewie and how he did the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs!!” Bah. I don’t care about that shit, I care about new stories.
This is also why Rogue One is a better movie by a lot. Yes, the Death Star getting blowed-up was old, but the characters and story was pretty much new.
I still think Episode VII is the best of the new bunch, but Rogue One was a lot better than I first thought. It has really grown with multiple viewings.
Of the tossed-around proposals, Kenobi is literally the only standalone I want to see. Ewan was the bright spot of the Prequels. They can wait a bit on this though, as he certainly is aging quite well (looks barely older than he did in ROTS). But yeah, I get what you mean, it shouldn’t be solely about one character.