SOLO Underperforms at the Box Office and I Wonder What This Means For The STAR WARS Franchise

Well, it looks like not everything that the Star Wars franchise touches turns to gold. Solo: A Star Wars Story ended up falling way below expectations over Memorial Day weekend. The movie only made $168 million worldwide! It made $103 million domestically and $65 million internationally, which isn't very much money at all considering the film's budget was over $250 million. This is actually one of the worst openings ever for a Star Wars movie ever. 

I'm actually really bummed out about this because I really loved the movie! I personally thought that is was the best film and most fun Star Wars film that has been made since Disney bought Lucasfilm. It's just crazy to me that audiences aren't rushing out to see this! Hell, I've even seen a lot of people online talking about how much they loved the movie as well, but even good word of mouth isn't helping.

Is there Star Wars fatigue? Are people just not interested in Han Solo's story? Is this the backlash for The Last Jedi? Maybe it's a little bit of everything. I don't know, but I wonder how this is going to affect the Star Wars films that Lucasfilm produces moving forward. Will we see a Solo sequel? Will we see that Obi-Wan Kenobi movie? Will that Boba Fett movie actually get made!? I imagine they are going to rethink a few things, and I wonder what that will lead to. 

Director Ron Howard shared his thoughts on Twitter regarding the film's soft opening and managed to find a silver lining. He says:

Didn’t meet projections but amounts to a new personal best. check #SoloAStarWarsStory for balanced feedback & then C it on a big screen! https://t.co/QsOxOLuo22

— Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) May 27, 2018

What do you all think about Solo: A Star Wars Story falling below expectations? Do you think this will heavily affect the kinds of films that Lucasfilm will make here on out?