The underwhelming box office performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story showed that this brand isn’t invincible, but a new report from Forbes suggests that Star Wars: Episode IX is already in a good position to put the franchise commercially back on track.
There are many theories out there for why audiences stayed away from Solo, ranging from poor marketing to Star Wars fatigue, but one of the more persuasive suggestions for a possible factor is that the Ron Howard-helmed spinoff was overshadowed by heavy competition, having arrived in cinemas around the same time as such popular franchise releases like Avengers: Infinity War and Deadpool 2. With this in mind, Forbes’ argument certainly seems plausible that a few recent scheduling changes could do some real favors for the upcoming sequel to The Last Jedi.
You may have heard the news recently that the highly anticipated Wonder Woman 1984 has been delayed a full seven months from its previously planned November 1st, 2019, release date. While the internet may not have been too happy with this development, it could be pretty good for Episode IX, which is no longer at risk of having to compete with the DCEU movie for the public’s attention when it comes out a little later in the year.
Similarly, with Bond 25 pushed back from its November 8th, 2019, release slot and The Terminator brought forward in the year a couple of weeks to fill Wonder Woman’s old slot, the lane is suddenly looking a lot clearer for director J.J. Abrams’ next film.
When Star Wars: Episode IX does hit theaters on December 20th, 2019, it’s unlikely that the bitterness among certain fans over last year’s divisive The Last Jedi will have completely subsided, but if this new report is anything to go by, then the odds are looking pretty good regardless for this all-important trilogy closer.