It's official — Solo: A Star Wars Story is the first movie in the Star Wars universe to flop at the box office. Of course, it's not really part of the mainline series, just the prequels. But still, the idea of a Star Wars films flopping is scary.
Following a lukewarm reception during its first week, the movie continued to falter in its second, reaping only $29.3 million, which represents a steep 65 percent decline from its initial uptake. Already the film is being hailed as a massive failure, despite mostly positive reviews.
Is 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Flopping? The Answer Seems Yes
Those numbers are alarming. The first film in the "A Star Wars Story" prequels, Rogue One, earned $64 million in its second week by comparison. The Last Jedi, part of the main Star Wars trilogy, earned $71 million in the same period.
Solo brought in an additional $30.3 million from international screenings, bringing its total gross so far to $264.2 million after 10 days. This is a far cry from its budget of $250 million, and such poor numbers raise questions about where the Star Wars cinematic universe would go from here.
A common criticism of the film is that it's not really necessary. It's deemed as a generally well-made and well-crafted project — Solo holds an unimpressive but decent 71 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing — but isn't something fans would call totally important to the overall cinematic universe. Vanity Fair notes that this could be because the film tells the backstory of a character who doesn't necessarily need one, or perhaps it's because of the many woes encountered during production.
Solo: A Star Wars Story Production Troubles
The film faced many issues that caused its budget to balloon significantly. First was the termination of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who were supposed to be the original directors. Miller and Lord were fired months into the film's production over creative differences with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. Ron Howard, Academy Award-winning director of A Beautiful Mind, took over directing duties. It's unclear how Howard's vision differs from Lord and Miller's. A series of reshoots also further damaged Disney's pockets.
Have you seen Solo: A Star Wars Story? Do you agree that it's a pretty good film but largely unnecessary? As always, if you have anything to share, feel free to sound them off in the comments section below!
