'Solo' Box Office Means 'Star Wars' May Flee The Summer For The Foreseeable Future

‘Solo’ Box Office Means ‘Star Wars’ May Flee The Summer For The Foreseeable Future

The box office performance ofSolo: A Star Wars Storyis so off-the-mark that it has Disney and Lucasfilm reconsidering its entireStar Warssummer release strategy. In a rare miss for Disney,Solounderperformed at the box office, raking in half as much as its spin-off film predecessor,Rogue One.

Now, withSolostruggling to break even, Disney and Lucasfilm are at a crossroads. Do they continue releasingStar Warsmovies in the high-competition summer season? Or will they stick to the Christmas months that have given them record-breaking success withThe Force AwakensandThe Last Jedi?

It will likely be the latter, insiders toldThe Hollywood Reporterin the wake ofSolo’s disappointing $103 millionopening weekenddomestic haul. TheStar Warsprequel disappointed internationally as well, only raking in $65 million in global markets. That bringsSolo’s grand total so far to $168 million, which is measly compared toRogue One’s $290.5 million global opening in December 2016. THR estimates that atSolo’s current rate, the film won’t gross much more than $400 million total.

So what could be the cause ofSolo’s disappointing box office performance? Some point to the stiff competition that theStar Warsfilm currently faces at the box office, including fellow Disney cohort,Marvel’sAvengers: Infinity War, and20th Century Fox’sDeadpool 2. Both comic book movies have enjoyed critical acclaim and tons of hype, dominating the top of the box office charts for the past few weeks. Meanwhile,Solocomes merely five months after the polarizingStar Wars: The Last Jedi, and was plagued by behind-the-scenes troubles includingerrant directors(original directorsPhil Lord and Chris Millerwere replaced byRon Howardmidway through production).

Disney Takes Us Back to December

But Disney and Lucasfilm may be honing in on the “Star Warsfatigue” explanation. The companies won’t abandon their “oneStar Warsmovie per year” plan, but it looks like they’re conceding that five months really is too short of a window. Disney will likely keep all of theirStar Warsreleases — main saga, spin-off, or otherwise — to the December months/Christmas season, where all of the newStar Warssaga and standalone films have done phenomenally well.

Force Awakens,Rogue OneandLast Jediall opened in mid-December and had no direct competition. All three went on to become the biggest films of their respective years (2015, 2016 and 2017).

In retrospect, it seems like it was foolhardy of Disney and Lucasfilm to go through with a May release date forSolo— especially after its eleventh-hour director switch — but it’s not totally surprising that they would gun for a summer release date.Star Warsused to own Memorial Day weekend, with each of the films in the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy opening in late May. But it looks like they’ve lost the box office battle for that holiday weekend. But no matter:Star Warswill still be the king of Christmas with J.J. Abrams’Star Wars:Episode 9set to open in theaters onDecember 20, 2019.