Solo: A Star Wars Story has performed disappointingly on its box-office debut, recording much poorer results than the previous Star Wars standalone, Rogue One, and becoming the lowest-performing live-action Star Wars film at the US box office since Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones in 2002.
After its US release on the Memorial day weekend, Solo, starring Alden Ehrenreich, took an estimated $83.3m (£63m) for its first three days, well short of Rogue One’s $155.1m for the same period. With an extra day’s results for the “four-day weekend”, Solo has reached an estimated $103m – but that is well down on the projected take of $130m -$150m. Solo’s figures are also well behind Episode III – Revenge of the Sith’s $158.4m in 2005, which also benefited from a four-day opening weekend.
Solo’s problems have been compounded by dismal international returns, having taken only $68m outside the US (including $10.1m in China). By comparison, Rogue One managed $134.9m on its international debut – and that was before its sizeable China release.
The film’s results have raised questions as to whether Star Wars is suffering from “brand fatigue”, with Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com saying: “It’s certainly possible after four movies in two and a half years, although fatigue is a relative term in the case of Star Wars.”
Analysis in the Hollywood Reporter suggests that the five-month gap since the last Star Wars film, The Last Jedi, may not have been enough to re-energise the audience, while competition from Deadpool 2 and Avengers: Infinity War may have cut into filmgoers’ appetites. Disney distribution chief Dave Hollis said: “There’s a question of frequency, and how many times people will go to the movies. Is this too much and too soon for a third time in a five-week period?” Disney has also avoided early-summer slots for its recent Star Wars films, preferring the less competitive mid-winter Christmas market.
But there have also been questions over Disney’s longer term strategy of alternating “official” main-narrative episodes featuring the franchise’s principal characters and so-called “anthology” films forming self-contained one-off stories – a practice clearly modelled on the Marvel series, which are also owned by Disney. Jeff Bock, box-office analyst at Exhibitor Relations told the Hollywood Reporter: “Until the Star Wars universe is firing on all cylinders like the Marvel universe, I think it would behove them to ease their foot off the pedal in terms of spinoffs.”
•This article was amended on 29 May to correct the title of the most recent Star Wars film.
