Solo: A Star Wars Story First Reactions Are In

[Starter Set]

Best Star Wars movie i watched since Rogue One.

Which isn't telling much but still, decent movie.

[trooper_thorn]

I haven't seen the film so I can't comment on its quality ("it's fine" seems to be the most consistent remark I've heard) but I have been following news on the box-office and it isn't looking good at the moment:

https://deadline.com/2018/05/solo-a-...ce-1202397848/


Solo is looking at an opening three day weekend (plus Thursday night) haul of around $114M right now in the US and Canada which is about $15M under the most recent low ball predictions.

I know $114M sounds pretty good but you also have to consider the budget for this movie (well over $300M before even adding in marketing). It also appears to be a dud in China and India (opening nights being $120k and $60K respectively) so I don't think this is going to be rescued overseas.

[SpiderClops]

I haven't seen the film so I can't comment on its quality ("it's fine" seems to be the most consistent remark I've heard) but I have been following news on the box-office and it isn't looking good at the moment:

https://deadline.com/2018/05/solo-a-...ce-1202397848/


Solo is looking at an opening three day weekend (plus Thursday night) haul of around $114M right now in the US and Canada which is about $15M under the most recent low ball predictions.

I know $114M sounds pretty good but you also have to consider the budget for this movie (well over $300M before even adding in marketing). It also appears to be a dud in China and India (opening nights being $120k and $60K respectively) so I don't think this is going to be rescued overseas.

Star Wars has never been popular in India and China. This isn't anything unexpected.

[trooper_thorn]

Star Wars has never been popular in India and China. This isn't anything unexpected.

There's unpopular and then there's only making a grand total of $180K in two nations with a combined population of 2.6 billion people on opening night. For what it's worth Box Office Mojo has Last Jedi having an opening weekend of $28M and a grand total of $42.5M in China so a better comparison should be available by the end of Sunday.

Anyhow, my original point was less about the foreign reaction and more about how the amount of money they're bringing in is unlikely to be able to cover the absurdly high production costs.

[Anthony W]

There's unpopular and then there's only making a grand total of $180K in two nations with a combined population of 2.6 billion people on opening night. For what it's worth Box Office Mojo has Last Jedi having an opening weekend of $28M and a grand total of $42.5M in China so a better comparison should be available by the end of Sunday.

Anyhow, my original point was less about the foreign reaction and more about how the amount of money they're bringing in is unlikely to be able to cover the absurdly high production costs.

Hmm...https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/he...eviews-1114854 I knew this movie was screwed when Star Wars started talking about a Boba Fett movie so early. It's like showing off your hot new wife at your old wife's funeral.

[Pinsir]

Anyhow, my original point was less about the foreign reaction and more about how the amount of money they're bringing in is unlikely to be able to cover the absurdly high production costs.

The thing is though that none of the Disney Star Wars films have a made a profit because Disney bought the rights for 4 billion dollars. TFA made 2 billion, R1 made a billion, TLJ made 1.3 bill I think. These obviously cost some money to make, maybe 700 mill in total for all three, but you also get the money from the toys, which even though the franchise doesn't have the vigor in toys sales it once did, it is still probably some cash. You also got a bunch of additional revenue streams too, like Netflix and Blue-Ray sales.

I'd say its likely that by now Disney may have recouped the loss from the initial purchase (with interest, mind you) and so Solo was suppose to be their first profit earned from the franchise. Except, well, whatever profits they reap won't be spectacular.

FYI, this is also while the Fox deal is pretty bad.

[ChrisIII]

Hmm...https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/he...eviews-1114854 I knew this movie was screwed when Star Wars started talking about a Boba Fett movie so early. It's like showing off your hot new wife at your old wife's funeral.

This hasn't been officially confirmed by Lucasfilm/Disney yet. It could just turn out to be just a persistent rumor, just like the Obi-Wan film has been.

I think the only confirmed films/projects we have right now are episode 9, the Johnson trilogy, The Beiness/Weiss trilogy, the Favreau TV show, and The Resistance cartoon.

[godisawesome]

Just got back from watching it. Good, not spectacular.

Donald Glover si amazing as Lando, and the action set pieces are legit. Enfys Nest is awesome. Paul Bettany brings his charisma to the game as Dryden Vos. Chewie and Han have a great buddy cop dynamic going in. And no one really does a bad job at acting; the biggest weaknesses of the film are that new Han is a bit less charismatic and Q'ira's a little underdeveloped, but I think the script doesn't really give new Han much to do to separate himself from Harrison Ford, and Q'ira's supposed to be cryptic, so it's not that much of a surprise.

I personally like it more than TLJ, but that's more because I think TLJ has massive plotting flaws.

[Scott Taylor]

It was everything TLJ was not, which is to say it had great action and stirring sequences but not much character development.

Still a good movie.

[Derek Metaltron]

Solo has softened my concerns over the so called ‘anthology’ movies being character driven instead of era driven as Rogue One was, which makes me more comfortable with stand alone movies for Fett, Obi Wan, Leia, Lando, Yoda or Snoke. Hoping that we can get more stand alone movies outside the 3 and 4 era bracket, mind...

[Jokerz79]

The thing is though that none of the Disney Star Wars films have a made a profit because Disney bought the rights for 4 billion dollars. TFA made 2 billion, R1 made a billion, TLJ made 1.3 bill I think. These obviously cost some money to make, maybe 700 mill in total for all three, but you also get the money from the toys, which even though the franchise doesn't have the vigor in toys sales it once did, it is still probably some cash. You also got a bunch of additional revenue streams too, like Netflix and Blue-Ray sales.

I'd say its likely that by now Disney may have recouped the loss from the initial purchase (with interest, mind you) and so Solo was suppose to be their first profit earned from the franchise. Except, well, whatever profits they reap won't be spectacular.

FYI, this is also while the Fox deal is pretty bad.

Disney never bought Star Wars for the films their just promotional material for the real reason merchandising Lucas didn't build his empire on films he did toys and that's the real test if toys sales are in a slump like with TLJ.

[ClanAskani]

Disney never bought Star Wars for the films their just promotional material for the real reason merchandising Lucas didn't build his empire on films he did toys and that's the real test if toys sales are in a slump like with TLJ.

This. Disney bought Marvel and Star Wars because they needed properties to appeal to boys. Disney Resorts was losing business because Disney World/Disneyland were seen as appealing only to young children and girls who liked Disney Princesses. Disney Channel appealed to tween girls with Hannah Montana and similar tv shows and was losing ground to Cartoon Network and Nick with boy demos. Disney needed something to appeal to boys and just Pirates of the Caribbean movies wasn't enough.

It's difficult to judge how much Disney has made off the deal. It's not just ticket prices. It's families booking $3,000 vacations to Disney World or a Disney Cruise and other revenue like merchandise licensing.

But they are continuing to spend millions to build Star Wars theme park attractions and those need to bring in the number of visitors as Universal's Harry Potter attractions.

What the biggest troubling stat is that SW toys sales to little boys have fallen off a cliff. Collectors not buying toys hurts Hasbro. Disney wants kids to actually be invested in their properties. They want little boys obsessed with Star Wars the way little girls love Frozen.

[BeastieRunner]

Solo has softened my concerns over the so called ‘anthology’ movies being character driven instead of era driven as Rogue One was, which makes me more comfortable with stand alone movies for Fett, Obi Wan, Leia, Lando, Yoda or Snoke. Hoping that we can get more stand alone movies outside the 3 and 4 era bracket, mind...

Anthology 3 is either Obi-Wan between Ep.s 3 & 4 or Boba Fett set from Eps. 3-7. So don't bank on outside that time frame.

[Derek Metaltron]

Anthology 3 is either Obi-Wan between Ep.s 3 & 4 or Boba Fett set from Eps. 3-7. So don't bank on outside that time frame.

I meant I don't want ALL future anthology movies to be set in that time frame. A Yoda movie pre Episode 1 or a Snoke movie prior to 7 is entirely possible.

[trooper_thorn]

The RLM guys seemed to like it (well, other than Jay but he didn't hate it).