Solo (young Han Solo film) *spoilers from post 1493*

Tony EH

ZeitgeistGlee wrote: »

Definitely agree with Alden's gurgling being removed but if you're overtly detailing the beginning of the Han/Chewie partnership there has to be some explanation of how he understands the Wookiee language (albeit foregoing any attempt to speak it and vice-versa for Chewie speaking Basic).

The different way to write that scene is not to have Chewie as a man eating monster and just a wookie that's been tied up in a prison.

The whole "beast" thing was a terrible idea.

The original backstory for how Han met Chewie was far superior. IIRC, Solo is an Imperial soldier who was tasked with transporting wookies to Kessel (or somewhere) and a superior orders him to make an example of an unruly wookie. Han refuses and is admonished by his superior officer who then dishes out a beating to Chewbacca. It's at that moment that Solo realises that the Imperial life is not for him and hatches the idea to break the wookies (or just Chewie) out, while he deserts (or gets chucked out of) the Navy.

The way the film tells it though, is bloody awful.

ZeitgeistGlee wrote: »

That said I suppose the same point stands for how Luke and others understand astromech droids but I always assumed that was just ubiquitous after centuries/millennia while Shyriiwook is still really only spoken on Kashyyyk

Understanding languages doesn't need an explanation though. I can understand a bit of German, but do you really need to know how?

It's a galaxy full of people speaking foreign tounges and the original films never went out of their way to show how people could understand a different language to the one they were speaking the most. That's part of its otherworldly charm. We can assume that Luke understands astromech beeps, because his farm is staffed mostly by droid labour and he understands Huttese because it's a common language on Tatooine. It's like how a lot of French people can speak some German and vice versa.

Penn

I enjoyed the film a lot. Not the greatest of films by any stretch but would have beaten Rogue One if not for the Darth Vader scene. You kinda have to drop Harrison Ford completely out of your mind though, and just focus on the character as he is in this film. But otherwise, I thought all the actors did a great job, there were some fantastic scenes, and it was a fairly tight story.

Also Paul Bettany needs to be in more things.

Agent Coulson

'Solo' Will Lose $50M-Plus in First Defeat for Disney's 'Star Wars' Empire

Lucasfilm's stand-alone Han Solo origin pic is faltering at the global box office, where it is expected to top out in the $400 million range.
To borrow one of Han Solo's lines from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, "That's not how the Force works!"

It's an apt way to sum up the troubled performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story. In one of the biggest box-office surprises in recent times, Solo is badly underperforming and will become the first of the Star Wars movies made by Disney and Lucasfilm to lose money.

Wall Street analyst Barton Crockett says Solo will lose more than $50 million. Industry financing souces, however, say that figure could come in at $80 million or higher, although no one knows the exact terms of Disney's deals for home entertainment and television, among other ancillary revenues.

Solo, directed by Ron Howard, isn't likely to gross much more than $400 million globally against a budget of at least $250 million and a major multimillion-dollar marketing spend. The movie lost major altitude in its second weekend of play to finish Sunday with a domestic total of $148.9 million and a global cume of $264.2 million.

Until now, Disney and Lucasfilm appeared unstoppable. Force Awakens, benefiting mightily from pent-up demand, earned $2.068 billion globally to rank as the No. 3 title of all time, not adjusted for inflation. The stand-alone title Rogue One: A Star Wars Story flew to $1.056 billion, while Star Wars: The Last Jedi grossed $1.332 billion. Since expectations for any film in the Star Wars franchise are sizable, no one expected Solo to fly so low.

“This marks a tough return to movie reality for a Disney that had in recent years enjoyed a can’t-miss mystique,” Crockett wrote in his note to investors.

In his own note to investors, analyst Doug Creutz of Cowen & Co. pins the blame on a lacklaster marketing campaign rather than franchise fatigue.

Disney can withstand any loss and isn't expected to take a write-down for the Solo shortfall. This year alone, Disney and Marvel's Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in profit for the studio. Black Panther has grossed $1.345 billion worldwide, including nearly $700 million domestically.

Infinity War has grossed $1.966 billion globally and is poised to become the first summer film in history to cross $2 billion. The all-time top three grossers are, not adjusted for inflation, Avatar, Titanic and Force Awakens, which were all released in December.

Disney's next film, Pixar's Incredibles 2, is tipped to be one of the biggest films of the summer.

The studio also has time to regroup before the next Star Wars movie as Star Wars: Episode IX, a follow-up to Force Awakens and Last Jedi, won't hit theaters until Dec. 20, 2019.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/solo-will-post-first-loss-disneys-star-wars-empire-1116927

Agent Coulson

Agent Coulson wrote:

'Solo' Will Lose $50M-Plus in First Defeat for Disney's 'Star Wars' Empire

Will lose it in theaters, VOD, streaming licencing, psychical copies, TV deals and so on will ensure that Solo more than makes it's budget backs and then some over the coming years.

Sad Professor

Deleted User wrote: »

Will lose it in theaters, VOD, streaming licencing, psychical copies, TV deals and so on will ensure that Solo more than makes it's budget backs and then some over the coming years.

Yeah, there's far too much focus on box office results. Solo will make its money back eventually. Even Waterworld turned a profit on video and that was in the 90s. Clearly they won't be making any Solo sequels, but it's not a total disaster. That's the thing about these franchises: they can't lose money, not really.

I was reading somewhere that its was poor promotion and advertising that was to blame for such poor takings at the cinemas, but it will definitely make money no doubt.

Falthyron

Deleted User wrote: »

I was reading somewhere that its was poor promotion and advertising that was to blame for such poor takings at the cinemas, but it will definitely make money no doubt.

Nah, that would be the spin department. Disney don't want to admit they made an incorrect decision in making a film that nobody asked for nor wanted. Their Steve Jobs approach (tell people what they want) would be in jeopardy for other films and franchises, so they would prefer to blame it on anything other than the fact that nobody wanted a Solo film.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote:

I was reading somewhere that its was poor promotion and advertising that was to blame for such poor takings at the cinemas, but it will definitely make money no doubt.

I do think marketing was an issue, in the rub up to TLJ it was everywhere, hell it was even on oranges in Tesco whereas is say I saw the trailer for Solo once before a film or on TV. I also think that calling it Solo was a mistake, they didn't emphasise the Star Wars angle on posters as much as they should have.

Sad Professor

Falthyron wrote: »

Nah, that would be the spin department. Disney don't want to admit they made an incorrect decision in making a film that nobody asked for nor wanted. Their Steve Jobs approach (tell people what they want) would be in jeopardy for other films and franchises, so they would prefer to blame it on anything other than the fact that nobody wanted a Solo film.

The Steve Jobs approach was telling people what they didn't know they wanted, i.e. he didn't do traditional market research. And he was ridiculously successful at it. Making yearly SW movies that wallow in their own nostalgia until the end of time while audiences become ever more sick of them is actually reflective of the opposite approach: of asking people what the want when it turns out maybe people don't know what they want, leading to them just being served more of the same.

Tony EH

It's amazing, the different excuses that have emerged over this.

Look, it's simple. People - fan, casual and general cinema goer - were just not interested in a mediocre film about a recast Han Solo that they can wait and see on Netflix in a short time.

It's not Star Wars fatigue, it's not bad advertising, it's not memorial day weekend, it's not BBQs and it's not other films being on in the cinema at the same time.

People just didn't care enough to go. Not last weekend, not the weekend before and not next weekend either.

robinph

Tony EH wrote: »

It's amazing, the different excuses that have emerged over this.

Look, it's simple. People - fan, casual and general cinema goer - were just not interested in a mediocre film about a recast Han Solo that they can wait and see on Netflix in a short time.

It's not Star Wars fatigue, it's not bad advertising, it's not memorial day weekend, it's not BBQs and it's not other films being on in the cinema at the same time.

People just didn't care enough to go. Not last weekend, not the weekend before and not next weekend either.

Nobody could know that it would be mediocre though before it came out, other than people who spend all their days going through all the fan sites for any little nugget of information on the upcoming film. Most people are not doing that though, they hear about a film coming out, they go to see it, they get on with their lives. People just didn't know about it and they wasted their last several years worth of marketing a Star Wars movie coming out pre-christmas.

ED E

I enjoyed it. Liked was waiting to see how the MF changed shape all the way from when we first see it. Was worried the two leads would be DIRE, they were passable. A few times he sounded a little like Harrison, rest of the time he missed it. Too smiley though. L3 was grand as droids go.

Viper Droids: OOOOOH be careful, super dangerous. Then Val riddles them with a sidearm. Cool bruh.

Maul: Looked even worse than before.

The group of friends I went with, myself included, weren't sure how the org chart works for this with Crimson. Is this teeing up for another film in between Solo and Rogue?

ceegee

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Will lose it in theaters, VOD, streaming licencing, psychical copies, TV deals and so on will ensure that Solo more than makes it's budget backs and then some over the coming years.

The budget was around 250 million before they decided to reshoot most of it, add in the cost of the reshoots and promotion and they've probably dropped 500 million plus into this movie.

If it gets the projected 400m box office, Disney gets about half so they'd be looking to bring in 300 million from TV, streaming, Blu-ray's etc.
Seems a big ask, especially as it's not going to be as desirable as a numbered star wars film for stations showing marathons, Blu-ray sets etc

OwaynOTT

murpho999 wrote: »

I saw this last night and thought it was fine.

Some things I liked and some things I didn't like.

I do think they missed an opportunity.

As Harrison Ford is in his 70s now I think people tend to think of Han Solo as older. Thing is Han Solo was 30-35 in Star Wars but I'm guessing this "young Solo" is 25ish so why didn't they go back further?

Where is he from, what sort of youth did he have, family etc? They could have done so much more.

Instead we just see him introduced as an on the run trickster and no idea how he got there.

Then he joins the Empire who have the worse selection/recruitment process I have ever seen and they ridiculously give him the "Solo" name.
Not much info of what happened whilst there. A missed opportunity again.

At points I was bored. There is no sense of real danger as you know the characters survive.

I enjoyed the backstory of Chewbacca but would love to know how Han Solo can speak his language. Again another missed opportunity.

Think it picked up after the heist and wrapped up well at the end.

I think the betrayal by Qi'ra in the end shows how Solo had trust issues in his life and never really had a happy relationship in the future.

I hope there's no more sequels to this. As they'll just turn into adventure and action movies and add nothing to Star Wars.

So it's just fine nothing more.

Unlike many here, I have enjoyed the reboot. Unlikely many here, I enjoyed TFA. Loved Rogue One, and enjoyed TLJ.
The criticism by many of TLJ is ott in my opinion. Too many people expecting the same thrill they got watching Star Wars as kids whilst now in their adulthood and that's not going to happen.

I think Disney though need to pull back a bit. Close off the episodic element well in Episode 9 and then take the franchise to new places and galaxies as prequels with old characters is not going to add anything.

Their recruitment policy explains to me how the storm troopers are so bad in the OT movies.

Tony EH

robinph wrote: »

Nobody could know that it would be mediocre though before it came out, other than people who spend all their days going through all the fan sites for any little nugget of information on the upcoming film. Most people are not doing that though, they hear about a film coming out, they go to see it, they get on with their lives. People just didn't know about it and they wasted their last several years worth of marketing a Star Wars movie coming out pre-christmas.

No. But they would know if they were excited about seeing a film about Hank Solo though and when this film was announced it was greeted with


¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So, it's safe to assume that the majority weren't enthused to begin with and the lackluster audience feedback just cemented the meh.

Look, it isn't marketing. Anyone who was interested in Star Wars would have known and anyone interested in cinema in general would have known.

Plus, this thing is on for weeks. It's not like this is in the cinema for a single day and you have to see it then, or not at all.

robinph

Tony EH wrote: »

Look, it isn't marketing. Anyone who was interested in Star Wars would have known and anyone interested in cinema in general would have known.

The staff in the cinema I went to were not even sure when it was on or when the tickets were released when I first enquired about getting a ticket, and then I only realised it was on due to there being a trailer playing on the screen behind the till in the cinema as I was buying a ticket for something else. There really hasn't been anywhere near the same level of advertising as for previous films and despite me popping into this thread on occasion for a quick look as to what was going on I still wasn't aware that it was coming out in May rather than December. Any advertising that I did see didn't make any obvious mention of the release date.

It's not the regular cinema goers that they need to sell the movie to, or even the die hard Star Wars fans, it's the people that do not go regularly to the cinema or read every article on every fan site that they need to sell to. They wouldn't care if the director had changed or there were problems with production, they just want to watch a film. But before they can do that they need to know it's even on.

Tony EH

robinph wrote: »

The staff in the cinema I went to were not even sure when it was on or when the tickets were released when I first enquired about getting a ticket, and then I only realised it was on due to there being a trailer playing on the screen behind the till in the cinema as I was buying a ticket for something else. There really hasn't been anywhere near the same level of advertising as for previous films and despite me popping into this thread on occasion for a quick look as to what was going on I still wasn't aware that it was coming out in May rather than December. Any advertising that I did see didn't make any obvious mention of the release date.

It's not the regular cinema goers that they need to sell the movie to, or even the die hard Star Wars fans, it's the people that do not go regularly to the cinema or read every article on every fan site that they need to sell to. They wouldn't care if the director had changed or there were problems with production, they just want to watch a film. But before they can do that they need to know it's even on.

It's hard not to know it's on now. Why are people still not going to see it? It's going to be on for another few weeks still. If anyone really wants to go, they'll go.

Sorry, the "advertising" thing doesn't convince me Robin. It might be a slight factor for some of the absentees, I'll conceed that. But, people are staying away in droves, even Star Wars fans.

People who don't regularly go to the cinema, probably wouldn't have gone anyway, so I don't think there's an overwhelming loss of ticket sales there. Certainly nothing near explaining such a bad BO take that the film has suffered.

robinph

I've seen far more advertising for it since it's been out admittedly, but if that is a conscious decision to only start advertising it after release then it's a risky move unless they know it's a great film. Get people in to see it before anyone has had a chance to bad mouth it to their friends.

But people in general don't regularly go to the cinema anymore, as said before more films are watched at home via streaming services than in the cinema but you need to spend big on the advertising to let people know it's on in the big screen and worth going to. For the last few December releases of Star Wars films every screen of the local 12 screen multiplex has been showing the midnight release and were all pretty much sold out, there were a couple of empty seats for TLJ but not many. For Solo they again had every screen available, but there was possibly only enough people I saw milling around the foyer before hand to fill a couple of rows in one of the screens.

I just don't believe that many people were turned off the Star Wars franchise by TLJ since December or that they were even that against the idea of the Solo movie, if they knew it was on then more would have gone. Yes ideally the takings should have picked up since opening night, but if they screwed up the opening weekend then it's difficult to get people motivated to make the trip off their sofa. Part of the fun in previous releases has been the midnight showing (for me it's also one of the few time slots I can get out of the house) but they missed creating that buzz.

Maybe I'm just annoyed that it nearly passed me by, but it was only a fluke that I realised when it was on.

thegreengoblin

Deleted User wrote: »

I do think marketing was an issue, in the rub up to TLJ it was everywhere, hell it was even on oranges in Tesco whereas is say I saw the trailer for Solo once before a film or on TV. I also think that calling it Solo was a mistake, they didn't emphasise the Star Wars angle on posters as much as they should have.

The title of the film is Solo: A Star Wars Story. Not really sure what else they could have done it get the Star Wars angle in there...

thegreengoblin

thegreengoblin wrote:

The title of the film is Solo: A Star Wars Story. Not really sure what else they could have done it get the Star Wars angle in there...

Solo is front and center in the advertising, the Star Wars is in smaller text and easy to miss if you just glance at it. The fact that so many people didn't realise that the film was out says a lot about the marketing.

thegreengoblin

Deleted User wrote: »

Solo is front and center in the advertising, the Star Wars is in smaller text and easy to miss if you just glance at it. The fact that so many people didn't realise that the film was out says a lot about the marketing.

I agree that it's been poorly marketed but people not realising the film was out isn't really down to the title of the film. It had to have Solo in there somewhere. The posters and billboards for Rogue One were similar but it was marketed much better.

Penn

I think they would have been better off waiting until later in the summer. Coming right after Infinity Wars and Deadpool 2, two films bound to attract huge audiences already, people might not want a third cinema trip in such a short space of time.

fluke

I have seen all the prequels and the Disney SW movies, except this, in the cinema. I even chose Deadpool 2 over this. Why? Purely because I'm not interested. Han Solo's story was legitimately told in Eps 4-7. This looks and sounds like a tribute band rather than the real thing.

johnny_ultimate

Penn wrote: »

I think they would have been better off waiting until later in the summer.

One of the many problems with Disney buying up all pop culture (I’m exaggarating only slightly) is that there’s barely a month in the year now when they’re not going to be going up against themselves with a big tentpole blockbuster. September alone is the only month where they don’t have one or two big films planned. It’s actually really grim for anybody interested in a diverse range of cinema, as Disney now nearly completely ‘own’ the lucrative summer and winter stretches.

johnny_ultimate

johnny_ultimate wrote:

One of the many problems with Disney buying up all pop culture (I’m exaggarating only slightly) is that there’s barely a month in the year now when they’re not going to be going up against themselves with a big tentpole blockbuster. September alone is the only month where they don’t have one or two big films planned. It’s actually really grim for anybody interested in a diverse range of cinema, as Disney now nearly completely ‘own’ the lucrative summer and winter stretches.

Galway finally got an art house cinema, almost 10 million of tax payers money spent on it and then the council hands it over to Element pictures to run as a private enterprise which, when Solo came out had it screening on 2 out of the 3 screens there. Bad enough that multiplexs have the latest Disney crap on multiple screens but when cinemas whose very mission statement is to show nonHollywood fare start showing it on most screens it's hard to argue that cinema as an art form is in danger.

Tony EH

Deleted User wrote: »

Galway finally got an art house cinema, almost 10 million of tax payers money spent on it and then the council hands it over to Element pictures to run as a private enterprise which, when Solo came out had it screening on 2 out of the 3 screens there. Bad enough that multiplexs have the latest Disney crap on multiple screens but when cinemas whose very mission statement is to show nonHollywood fare start showing it on most screens it's hard to argue that cinema as an art form is in danger.

I'd like to know what their ticket sales were. If they were as poor as everywhere else. They might have been mightily sorry they chose to show 'Solo' and not something more..."arty" instead.

pixelburp

Deleted User wrote: »

Galway finally got an art house cinema, almost 10 million of tax payers money spent on it and then the council hands it over to Element pictures to run as a private enterprise which, when Solo came out had it screening on 2 out of the 3 screens there. Bad enough that multiplexs have the latest Disney crap on multiple screens but when cinemas whose very mission statement is to show nonHollywood fare start showing it on most screens it's hard to argue that cinema as an art form is in danger.

That's a pretty sh*tty decision, and were the independent cinema in my back yard I'd be royally po'ed, but I hope at least you've expressed the anger / disappointment to the cinema itself?

They replied that Star Wars is so timeless that they couldn't not show it and they were an inclusive cinema. Heard from someone that they plan to show more Hollywood fare going forward as they don't want to alienate anyone. Complete and utter crap of the highest order. If you ain't a multiple and you claim to be all about art house cinema then stick to your guns.

Tony EH

Didn't they get council money on the basis that they were going to be showing independent movies?

Or did I hear that wrong?

ceegee

Penn wrote: »

I think they would have been better off waiting until later in the summer. Coming right after Infinity Wars and Deadpool 2, two films bound to attract huge audiences already, people might not want a third cinema trip in such a short space of time.

Should have waited until Christmas, would have given more time for the moaning about TLJ to die down. Disney have a packed enough slate for July already (antman, Incredibles 2) and August isn't usually seen as a good month for box office (guardians of the galaxy being a recent exception)

salmocab

So saw it today, I enjoyed it for what it was, a bit of an adventure yarn. I think I’d have preferred if it was set in the 3 years they skipped with Han in training with the imperial navy.
I’m not sure it adds to the star wars universe but it certainly hasn’t ruined it for me.
It had the usual mix of good and bad characters in it along with bloody annoying droids that every single star wars movie has had.

OwaynOTT

Deleted User wrote: »

They replied that Star Wars is so timeless that they couldn't not show it and they were an inclusive cinema. Heard from someone that they plan to show more Hollywood fare going forward as they don't want to alienate anyone. Complete and utter crap of the highest order. If you ain't a multiple and you claim to be all about art house cinema then stick to your guns.

Complain to the county council. The arts department is say would you best shot.
They shouldn't be showing stuff like that, there's at least one other cinema in Galway that can show that stuff.

OwaynOTT

OwaynOTT wrote:

Complain to the county council. The arts department is say would you best shot. They shouldn't be showing stuff like that, there's at least one other cinema in Galway that can show that stuff.

They are a private operator, they can show what they want when they want. The arts council has no say in what they can or can't show.

OwaynOTT

Deleted User wrote: »

They are a private operator, they can show what they want when they want. The arts council has no say in what they can or can't show.

Did you not say the county council handed it over to them to run? If they did, surely they'd have some say into how it was run? Local county council and their art department not the arts council.
I'd assume their was stipulations on how it was to be run when it was handed over. The local council are probably giving funding to it too. At least that's how it works in a theatre down this way.
Privately run but with local government funding.

OwaynOTT

OwaynOTT wrote:

Did you not say the county council handed it over to them to run? If they did, surely they'd have some say into how it was run? Local county council and their art department not the arts council. I'd assume their was stipulations on how it was to be run when it was handed over. The local council are probably giving funding to it too. At least that's how it works in a theatre down this way. Privately run but with local government funding.

It was financed by the government, bit once the charity regulator got involved in relation to various breaches of the law those behind it handed it over to Element for pretty much nothing. All profits raised go to Element, the council have as much say in relation to what is shown that you do

Theboinkmaster

I hope Disney learn from this.

- TLJ was very poor and hated, created poor appetite from star wars fans, Disney lost ALOT of goodwill after that sh!tfest of a film

- released too soon after TLJ, should've waited until Xmas

- nobody was interested in the film or wanted a Han Solo film

- film itself was poor, very bland and uninteresting

Corporation has displayed some arrogance and disrespect to it's customers over this whole thing and they're rightly being punished.

kerplun k

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I was reading somewhere that its was poor promotion and advertising that was to blame for such poor takings at the cinemas, but it will definitely make money no doubt.

You can say what you want about the actual film but there’s no doubting that the promotion and advertising was all wrong for this.. I only watched the trailer after I seen the film and found it really bad,

The teaser posters, the ones which they got sued for, looked terrible, they looked nothing like a Star Wars film and more like a Quentin Tarantino spaghetti western,

The life sized character card board cuts outs in the Cinema looked ridiculous, they looked like something out of a parady film or Comic Con.

The promotional material looked cheap and tacky. They tried to mesh a Star Wars film with the Wild West and it looked awful, everything was bad, right down from the coloring, font and style. They pushed legacy characters which looked like dressed up cosplayers rather than an ensemble.

homerun_homer

I never noted it in my initial reaction but I really didn't like the lack of music/fan fare after the "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." bit, in which is drops the crawl for more writing. I don't think any better insight is gained from what they added to read.

I also didn't like how they handled the opening of Rogue One either.

Nettle Soup

My 2nd ever film in a cinema was Star Wars (I was 7). I still remember the awe I felt afterwards.

I wont even mention the prequels (1,2,3) but The Force Awakens and to a lesser extent Rogue One kept the Star Wars aura alive.

The Last Jedi broke my heart. It was truly awful. Solo wasn't far behind.
I don't care anymore which is terrible.

Let them go on making billions from the legacy but they must realise the magic is gone.

robinph

homerun_homer wrote: »

I never noted it in my initial reaction but I really didn't like the lack of music/fan fare after the "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." bit, in which is drops the crawl for more writing. I don't think any better insight is gained from what they added to read.

I also didn't like how they handled the opening of Rogue One either.

But that is deliberate, and I think correct, way of them showing Rouge One and Solo as being nothing to do with space wizards. It's not a fantasy tale, there is no one with special powers, it just happens to be based in the same universe.

The films with the opening crawl have people with magic powers, the ones without just contain "normal" people.

JohnFalstaff

robinph wrote: »

But that is deliberate, and I think correct, way of them showing Rouge One and Solo as being nothing to do with space wizards. It's not a fantasy tale, there is no one with special powers, it just happens to be based in the same universe.

The films with the opening crawl have people with magic powers, the ones without just contain "normal" people.

Rogue One has a fair amount of Force stuff going on. Chirrut is able to channel it, if not quite control it. Vader pops up too.

Andrew Beef

I think that there a couple of major issues:

- The marketing campaign was non-existent; when I told colleagues that I was going to see the new Star Wars movie, most people didn’t know that it was out and some even asked “do you mean in December?”

- Nobody outside of Star Wars nerds like us cares about peripheral stories; “wouldn’t you love to see how Han won the Falcon from Lando?”; truthfully? not really...it was a card game, I get it.

It’s a world away from “how did Anakin Skywalker become Darth Vader?” or “how was the Death Star built and ultimately destroyed?” which are actually interesting storylines.

In Summer 2029 will we be watching “Farming with Uncle Owen; A Star Wars Story”?!

silverharp

if it had been their xmas movie it might have done better, for the last several years there have been big movie sequels which take the xmas slot. Also I think there just isn't demand for a grand Star Wars universe in the way there is for Marvel, A movie every other year will be grand thanks.

Sabre0001

Andrew Beef wrote: »

- Nobody outside of Star Wars nerds like us cares about peripheral stories; “wouldn’t you love to see how Han won the Falcon from Lando?”; truthfully? not really...it was a card game, I get it.

And on that point, there was no time spent explaining how the card game worked, so it doesn't really build tension when you see some information. Any tension or drama that they were trying to create fell on its face a bit for me.

robinph

Sabre0001 wrote: »

And on that point, there was no time spent explaining how the card game worked, so it doesn't really build tension when you see some information. Any tension or drama that they were trying to create fell on its face a bit for me.

Needed a bit of an explanation for why Lando didn't expose Han as cheating in the second game. Sure that could have then exposed Lando as having cheated in every previous game, but Han was just the newcomer to the table that Lando was playing at with all his "mates", who is going to believe the kid that just walked in and happened to clean out the card playing superstar Lando?

He just rolled over and gave away the Falcon too easily.

J Mysterio

Deleted User wrote: »

I do think marketing was an issue, in the rub up to TLJ it was everywhere, hell it was even on oranges in Tesco whereas is say I saw the trailer for Solo once before a film or on TV. I also think that calling it Solo was a mistake, they didn't emphasise the Star Wars angle on posters as much as they should have.

...

robinph

But that is after the event, and based on you being on a page talking about the film and your other Googling or Facebooking.

Go and buy a lawnmower on Amazon and then come back and see what adverts you get.

J Mysterio

J Mysterio wrote: »

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You must be one of the 5 people who do not use an adblocker. Ads on a forum board such as this is preaching to the choir, my point was that traditional ads such as on TV, bus stops, buses, branded products and so forth are much rarer for Solo than say the Last Jedi. In the run up to TLJ, ads were everywhere, it was like a cancer and you couldn't turn on the TV but be bombarded by them. I don't think I've seen an ad for Solo on TV yet.

Tony EH

Ads on TV are rare for most movies these days though. I don't see this as a the overarching factor. I can't recall seeing an ad for the last Avengers film, for example.

Besides, and I'll say this again.

The film is STILL IN THE CINEMA and will be for another couple of weeks.

People can go, if they want to. There can't anyone out there that's unaware of it as a cinema release now. Especially with all the huff and puff.

If there are, then those folk were probably not going to go anyway.

thegreengoblin

I would bet that if this film came out next Christmas it would do much better at the box office. The polarising reaction to The Last Jedi hasn't gone away, it's actually a festering sore as witnessed with all the Kelly Marie Tran social media stuff at the moment. Maybe they felt they couldn't wait much longer given the delay in production. Maybe they really wanted to get a Star Wars film out in May but why not release it on May 4th and cash in on all the publicity that gets?

We have to wait a year and a half until the next Star Wars film and that almost seems like a lifetime these days! I just want to get this phase out of the way and see something brand spanking new.