Why Solo Flopped At The Box Office - And How It Changed Star Wars Forever
When it comes to the box office, it's difficult to imagine "Star Wars" missing the mark. The franchise, which first debuted in 1977, has consistently been one of Hollywood's biggest cash cows, raking in billions of dollars at the box office. According to The Numbers, the franchise has grossed over $10 billion at the worldwide box office, with five of its twelve theatrical entries grossing over $1 billion. In short: "Star Wars" is a good financial bet, which is exactly why Disney decided to buy Lucasfilm for $4 billion back in 2012.
Has Disney's financial gamble paid off? According to comScore (via CNBC), Disney recouped its initial investment back in 2018, thanks in part to the box office successes of "The Force Awakens," "The Last Jedi," and "Rogue One," the first theatrical "Star Wars" film to not focus on the Skywalker family's shenanigans. The House of Mouse certainly must have made a pretty chunk of change thanks to licensing and merchandise deals, as well. But 2018 wasn't just a year of celebration for Lucasfilm and Disney — it was a brutal wake-up call.
2018 saw the release of "Solo: A Star Wars Story," the first film in the franchise to emerge as a box office flop. One of the most controversial films in the sci-fi series, "Solo" was plagued with production problems. Released on May 25, 2018, the Ron Howard-directed Han Solo origin story debuted with a modest $84 million stateside. Momentum, however, came to a halt, with a final domestic total of $213 million, and a worldwide haul of $393 million. With a budget of $300 million, the film is estimated to have lost Disney around $77 million, per Deadline.
While that's not a whopping number, the disappointment of "Solo" fundamentally changed the direction of the "Star Wars" franchise.
Did The Last Jedi impact Solo's box office performance?
When it comes to digesting the financial disappointment that was "Solo: A Star Wars Story," one has to understand the general sentiment surrounding the sci-fi franchise in 2018. The Ron Howard-directed film, which features Alden Ehrenreich as a young Han Solo, debuted just months after "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," the eighth entry in the mainline Skywalker saga. While the Rian Johnson-directed film proved to be a critical success, it was criticized by some fans of the franchise, especially on social media and online forums. On the r/boxoffice subreddit, fans agreed in a poll that "The Last Jedi" and the vitriol surrounding it may have diluted the franchise's appeal, resulting in negative financial receipts for "Solo." Over 1,000 users voted in the poll meant to determine why "Solo" flopped, with over 460 fans suggesting that "The Last Jedi" was the reason why.
While "The Last Jedi" definitely had its haters, it's important to note that the general consensus around the Johnson-directed film is mostly positive, as signaled by the healthy A CinemaScore the project received. Still, the conversation surrounding "The Last Jedi" may have impacted the excitement surrounding "Solo," which was released just months after the Skywalker film. For the "Star Wars" franchise, debuting two films (pretty much) back-to-back was unheard of, with fans used to sporadic releases. Releasing two films in a matter of months may work for the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Warner Bros.' DC films, but it clearly didn't work for the galaxy far, far away.
The bitter truth is that there's no clear and concrete answer as to why "Solo" flopped, as there are a myriad of reasons to point to. What does director Ron Howard blame the picture's failure on? A lot.
Ron Howard blames trolls and Disney's release strategy
Take a look at Ron Howard's filmography and you'll see he's one of the most accomplished contemporary directors, with projects like "The Da Vinci Code," "Apollo 13," and "A Beautiful Mind" under his belt. An extremely calculated and confident filmmaker, Howard was the perfect choice to replace original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller after they were fired from the "Star Wars" production. While "Solo" could have been the start of an exciting new chapter for Howard's career, it all but closed the possibility of him emerging as a sci-fi juggernaut.
For what it's worth, "Solo" wasn't considered to be a mediocre film. Audiences gave the film an above-average A- CinemaScore — a grade on par with "The Phantom Menace" and "Revenge of the Sith." Critics were mostly fine with it as well — it has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 69%, higher than the maligned "Rise of the Skywalker." While Howard's film wasn't perfect, it also wasn't a disaster that ruined Han Solo's legacy — so why does the director think it failed? Trolls... maybe.
While speaking with the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, Howard candidly discussed the various reasons why "Solo" wasn't able to swirl up a storm at the box office. "Maybe that's the release [date], maybe it was too nostalgic, maybe pushback from the previous movie...some trolling, definitely," the director ruminated, diving deeper into the idea of the toxic fandom that has gone on to define the billion-dollar franchise. "It was pretty interesting," the director recounted. "It was especially noticeable prior to the release of the movie. Several of the algorithms, whether it was Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes, there was an inordinate push down on the 'Want to see' [score on Rotten Tomatoes] and on the fan voting."
Did audiences want Solo?
Ron Howard isn't wrong when he brings up how Disney may have fumbled the release strategy for "Solo: A Star Wars Story." While George Lucas-era "Star Wars" films historically debuted in May, audiences may have become conditioned to the December releases that Disney gave the franchise. "The Force Awakens," "The Last Jedi," and "Rogue One," all debuted in December to phenomenal box office receipts. After three years of showing up to the cinemas in December, it may have confused audiences as to why "Solo" was debuting in May.
Even then, May 2018 was relatively empty, with "Solo" only suffering competition from "Deadpool 2," which debuted a week prior. Seeing as the latter was an R-rated superhero film, "Solo" was the obvious choice for families heading to the multiplex. But it's possible that families, especially young children, just don't care about Han Solo, a character who was ceremoniously killed in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." When Howard says the film could have been "too nostalgic," it's worth examining how fans were vocal that about how a Han Solo prequel film wasn't really needed.
In a Reddit thread from early 2017, a number of fans discussed how they were indifferent about the film, which had just entered production under the direction of Phil Lord and Chris Miller. "This makes me sad. I've never not wanted to see a new 'Star Wars' movie but I really don't care for this at all," wrote Reddit user u/robint88. Others agreed, discussing how peeling back the layers on an iconic character like Han Solo would render the legacy surrounding him moot. "The great thing about Han Solo is that he's a mystery," shared Reddit user u/pixelfop."Did we learn nothing from the prequels? Seeing every bit of his backstory spelled out in detail will only spoil it."
What Lucasfilm learned from Solo
Hardcore fans showed up in droves over Memorial Day weekend in 2018, but casual fans never bothered to give the Alden Ehrenreich-led film a chance. After an average $84 million debut, the film suffered a 65% drop in its sophomore weekend, nabbing just shy of $30 million. While that's almost on par with the drop of "The Last Jedi," that film opened to a much healthier $220 million and managed to end with a healthy $1.3 billion total. Word of mouth would have definitely helped "Solo," but the film just simply wasn't the crowd-pleaser that "Rogue One" was — compare its 87% Rotten Tomatoes audience score to the Han Solo film's 63%.
Following the release of "Solo," Lucasfilm was no longer flying high. While the failure of "Solo" could have been treated as a minor setback, it emerged as a call to action, forcing the company and its creatives to enter crisis mode. One major pivot? Deciding to not recast beloved characters. While speaking with Vanity Fair in 2022, Lucasfilm boss and "Star Wars" steward Kathleen Kennedy candidly admitted that bringing in another star to step into the shoes of Han Solo was a misfire. "There should be moments along the way when you learn things," Kennedy said about Ehrenreich's casting. "Now it does seem so abundantly clear that we can't do that."
Is the right lesson to learn from the failure of "Solo"? Maybe. But Lucasfilm remains indecisive, realizing that character nostalgia is still character nostalgia, with Kennedy clarifying her comments regarding recasting characters in an interview with Total Film Magazine. "I never say never. It's certainly not something that we're doing with any intention right now," Kennedy said, before teasing the long-gestating Lando Calrissian origin series starring Donald Glover.
Solo changed how Star Wars stories are told
As of this writing, "Star Wars" hasn't seen a live-action theatrical release since 2019's "The Rise of Skywalker." The early intention was to "MCU"-ify the "Star Wars" saga with yearly installments, but after the failure of "Solo," Lucasfilm and Disney are taking a more conservative approach. The focus has shifted to television, with stories featuring characters like Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) dominating on Disney+. The single biggest lesson Lucasfilm learned from "Solo"? The future of the franchise, at least when it comes to stories not relating to the core Skywalker batch of characters, will exist on television.
Lucasfilm had big plans for marquee characters such as Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) to have their own cinematic outings but those ideas were repurposed for the small screen. While speaking with The Direct, "Obi-Wan Kenobi" series writer Stuart Beattie revealed how the failure of "Solo" helped shift the project. "I wrote the film that they based the show on," Beattie explained. "And then, when the decision was made not to make any more spin-off films after 'Solo' came out, I left the project and went on to other things."
The long-gestating Boba Fett picture also dealt with a similar fate, with prospective creator James Mangold explicitly blaming the failure of "Solo" to cancel the film's development. "In a moment of corporate realignment or whatever happened with the Han Solo movie, they just suddenly decided they weren't making pictures like that, and the opportunities in streaming presented themselves," Mangold said on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast.
Now, the theatrical "Star Wars" slate looks barren... and it remains to be seen if the ones in production will ever see the light of day. But the franchise is going strong on television, and that's all thanks to "Solo" — kind of.