On the Star Wars lot, it’s fair to say that Han’s solo flight has failed to light up the box office in the way Disney would have hoped. Granted, the Anthology pic was never expected to post the same numbers as, say, The Last Jedi, but even Rogue One was able to score a bigger debut two years ago.
That largely comes down to the fact that it was a self-contained adventure spun out from A New Hope‘s opening crawl and opened big in December, when most of the schools were still off for Christmas. Solo: A Star Wars Story, on the other hand, dropped during the midst of blockbuster season, and faced stiff competition from both Deadpool 2 and Avengers: Infinity War.
The situation didn’t get any better this week, either, as Ron Howard’s movie limped its way to a measly $29.2 million domestically. That’s the lowest second weekend of any film in the franchise and has it looking likely that the spinoff might need its home video release and other ancillary revenue to turn a profit on the $250 million it cost to produce the dud.
At the moment, Solo currently has $148 million on this side of the pond and $115 million internationally, combining for a total of $264 million. We don’t need to tell you how hugely disappointing that is, and to put things into perspective, Rogue One took in $290 million worldwide on its opening weekend alone, with $155 million coming from North America. In other words, the franchise’s latest release is a massive flop for Disney.
Still, whether there was talk of a Solo sequel being on the cards or not, it seems unlikely that this box office disappointment will affect the studio’s decision to push on with some of the film’s developments, of which there are many. And with productions from that galaxy far, far away lined up for a long, long, time to come, Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s shortcomings will no doubt soon be forgotten.