Solo "bombs", so what happens next?

Cool, did you bring along the other 10 million or so people that are missing from the ticket sales, and probably waiting to watch the movie too?

 

Hi Mr. "I didn't get the point".

I was providing anecdotal evidence for what @DailyPlunge and @KeithF1138 were talking about. People weren't prioritizing SOLO like they did other movies in the franchise.

 

No.. I did get the point... (that's why I tagged your post as funny cause it was really funny) and my point was to add more humor, and that's why I asked if you brought the others with you... guess my humor fell short...

 

The problem with your theory is where is the evidence? It rests on the idea that that a lot of fans lost interest after The Last Jedi and then decided not to watch Solo. That would makes sense, but TLJ is a a film that did very well financially. It's a film that critics loved (which the study you cited says should be in line with audiences). We know among fans it was more divisive... but "more divisive" doesn't mean it failed with a majority of Star Wars fans. It doesn't even mean that the number of fans who disliked TLJ are a large minority.

If this minority "lost interest" they wouldn't be on this forum, social media, and YouTube telling everyone how much they hated TLJ. There's just too many assumptions for this theory to be convincing.

 

Ummm.. when some noname, nobodies, video of how they are unhappy with the current direction of Star Wars and don't plan on watching any more movies because they are unhappy, are getting 10's of thousands of thumb up's, or up votes or likes... That means something.

When on the Official Star Wars facebook page, every second or third reply to their post is that the person is unhappy and doesn't plan on going to another movie because they are unhappy, than that says something. And that's just the people that are willing to post on facebook, or go and look for video's that they feel reflects how they feel.

Again, you want to use that silly little poll, and kind of laugh of the 8%... but the math doesn't lie... 8% say they are actively boycotting and you kind of put that down... how many total "fans" do you think are out there? 15 million? 20 million? 25 million?

15 million fans means 1.2 million fans are actively boycotting
20 million fans means 1.6 million are actively boycotting...
25 million fans means 2.0 million fans are actively boycotting...

the math doesn't lie... you think the loss of 1.2 million fans to a boycott is nothing? 1.6 million fans is nothing? what about 2 million? What number of loss of fans to a boycott is no longer nothing in your eyes?

As I said, OW for Rogue One sold 17 million tickets (I believe that's what it was).. 8% of 17 million tickets means a loss of almost 1.4 million tickets, or about $14 million in box office revenue for that weekend... is that nothing? Is that something to laugh at? You think Disney would just shrug that off?


Edit: and I am not trying to be sarcastic, I am being serious, what number of "boycotters" do you think is significant?

 

Oh I believe that there is a certain amount of people that are indeed boycotting. It seems rather childish. Even if I hated TLJ I would not have punished my selg because one film didnt work for me. So yes some people are different. I dont think that is the masses. I think it is a combination of things. I believe some are indeed taking their ball and going home. I believe some didnt see stellar reviews and stayed away. I think some have simply spent 2 much money on movies last few months and chose to skip Solo at least for now. I believe some just dont see a reason to rush out and see it. I also think politics have something to do with it.

Star Wars is inherently a left leaning story. Since TFA their has been alt-right backlash. It has grown. It was complaints with TFA that a stormtrooper was black and a women was lead. With R1 it was an anti-Trump movie. The groups have become more organized and our country has become more polarized. It is preached from the President. Far right groups have become more powerful all over the world. Never have you seen left leaning groups attempt to boycott Star Wars. You have seen the likes of the alt-right and Breitbart and you have had left leaning people mock them for it. If you dont think polarization is having an effect all I need to point to is the NFL. The NFL put in rules to appease Trump and the right.

 

It means you don't have much evidence to support your claim. You mocked me for citing Deadline and then rest your case on YouTube traffic. Those videos can both be popular and at the same time cater to a very small minority of Star Wars fans. I can see I am not going to change your mind, but I'm a stat nerd at heart and the internet is great for motivated groups to find each other.

 

No they aren't the same, because I am not letting someone else form my opinion for me and than turn around and regurgitating it back into a forum...

furthermore, I am showing that real people, have real issues, and real complaints...

and i didn't rest my case on just that... you completely ignore the rest of my post because you have no answer for it...

again...

It's you that keeps bringing up that poll that states 8% of "fans" are boycotting, that doesn't include those that just have decided they have lost interest...

8%... if you are a "stat nerd"

again... how many "fans" do you think are part of the Star Wars fandom? Because for every 1,000,000 fans that someone adds to the fandom, that means 80,000 are boycotting.... remember it's you that keeps bringing up the poll...

20 million fans? that means roughly 1.6 million are boycotting? How many movie tickets would those 1.6 million fans buy? are half of them good for a 2nd viewing? (hell we won't even get into a 3rd or 4th viewing) Well that means those 1.6 million fans would be good for 1.5 tickets each during the course of a movies run... or 2,400,000 tickets... at an average $9.10 per ticket, that's a loss of $21,840,000 in box office revenue on about .

Come on now, you're the stat nerd.. tell me, with 8% of fans boycotting, assuming a fandom of 20 million, is the loss of $22 million in box office revenue just minor?
and that's just those that "boycott". That's not including fans that have just lost interest.

Again, you have thrown the poll at me twice now... so this is me throwing some numbers into the poll with some fairly easy calculations...

I personally think the potential loss of $20 million to $22 million in box office revenue due to a boycott is a serious issue (again assuming a fandom of about 20 million) and something that would grab my attention if I ran LFL...anad again, that's active boycotts, that not to mention fans that simply have walked away...

I mean now-a-days, a lot of companies crap their paints at near mention of a boycott....

 

latest----Solo has 77% box office drop from friday to friday, worst prognosis was 67 %https://screenrant.com/solo-movie-star-wars-box-office-flop/

This can't be explained, this is above any argumentation.

Its general audience contempt for Star Wars.

Force help us..

 

I admire your passion, but there's nothing really new here so I'll just agree to disagree. No sense in this back and forth if we'e just saying the same thing over and over.

 

Solo is Star Wars film people, please understand.And not bad at all Star Wars film
Episode IX. will be stormed by audience while Solo is actively avoided by that same audience?
How?
This is major crisis.

 

Such is the world of us people. In this moment media are in race to announce Solo as box office disaster.

Forbes oficially dismissed Solo one hour ago, its over, disaster.https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottm...-story-plunges-77-for-8m-friday/#4dcd62772648

I swear to God I love the film and I think its very good Star Wars film and will be in my SW collection as proud part of it.. Kessel run is unforgetable thing.

 

People had issues with the characterization of Luke or poor writing/acting of the Rose character or the conflicting social messages of the Canto Bight plot, etc. Instead of acknowledging and/or responding to those criticisms at face value (all the while being able to agree or disagree mind you), the common reaction, from KK all the way down to many fans, has been to dismiss people who voice those issues as racist/sexist/bigoted/etc. That is the problem. When you respond to genuine concerns with misplaced insults, it only makes the situation worse. In this case, a lot worse. Such that even the virtues of a well-done movie like Solo get ignored.

 

I'm sorry, I'm asking for an example of this? Keep in mind if you look at the social media accounts of those people every one of their posts are filled with responses from vile people making racist/sexist/bigoted remarks.

I don't consider complaining about "poor writing/acting" a "genuine concern." It's certainly not a good way to approach a content creator. As someone who loves TLJ maybe there's a better way to approach a director.

I'm trying to imagine a world where every complaint about something has to be acknowledged and apologized for by content producers. I didn't like The Shape of Water and Guillermo del Toro won't acknowledge my genuine concerns with the film.

 

The failure of this film is pretty simple, and it came down to the failure of marketing. It's not SW fatigue, and it's not a sad few fans "boycottting" it (can you boycott something you weren't planning on seeing in the first place?), and it's not backlash from TLJ, or the fact that no one asked for this. These are all things that can be overcome. Marvel does it regularly. They release multiple films a year, and they aren't all as big hits financially as people think, they just don't get put under a microscope like Solo is; case in point, Dr Strange and Ant Man only did about $200 domestically or thereabouts, not huge blockbuster hits, they just sort of got by, and then a few months later there is another film out from a different character and it all gets forgotten about. Few fans were asking for an Iron Man film, he was always a B-level character, but now he's A-level because everyone went to see his films. They went to see it because the marketing convinced everyone that it was worthwhile.

Solos failure was all marketing. It's marketing's job to sell you on the idea of exchanging money and time to see the film. And the marketing did not convince.

This was a film that few asked for, so why should we see it? Marketing is supposed to convince us that, damn, I didn't think I wanted this but now I do.
This was a film coming off another film that had a segment of the fanbase with a giant chip on their shoulder, so why should we see it? Marketing is supposed to convince us that who cares about TLJ, this is a different cast and crew, with a different writer, different director and a totally different style.
This was a film that had a lot of behind the scene drama about it and a lot of rumors about how bad it was all going, so why should we see it? Marketing is supposed to convince us that, rest assured, you won't believe how good this film is! Look at these characters and this banter!

All this stuff is easy to overcome if you simply make the movie look good. Case in point, most people who have seen it are like "I'm surprised, it was decent!" In other words, you just proved it is possible that you didn't realize you wanted a Han Solo movie, that a Han Solo movie could be good or entertaining. The movie basically proved itself. But you have to have already exchanged your time and money to get to that realization. Marketing is supposed to get you there.

Maybe Disney thought the Star Wars brand would sell itself. All those other factors I mentioned holding it back, that can be overcome--controversy, fan backlash, fan apathey, etc. Those things cannot be overcome just based on the Star Wars brand. That's what they just found out. If the film had no controversy, then sure. Put a Star Wars movie out, it'll make a billion dollars. But when you have a film mired in controversy--even extending to the marketing itself, they had plagueirized poster art--then those factors will work against the film. You can't sell the brand based on itself in that case. You have to actively market it to overcome those things, you have to convince people they need to see this, because despite all the bad press this movie is gonna be awesome.

And they didn't. They didn't market this movie at all. They started late, and it was all half-hearted. Force Awakens had a teaser trailer thirteen months before it came out. Rogue One and Last Jedi had a teaser roughly nine months before release.

This had a teaser four months before release! And it sucked! There was no poster until the same time! And then they had to take it down because they were plagiarised. They had Solo posters in lobbies around the release of TLJ and it was just a logo on a black background, with no teaser and no behind the scenes photos, and everyone was like "wtf? Is that another SW movie? It says it's coming out in a few months..."

The marketing was non-existant. It's no wonder. This film was surrounded by controversy, from fan backlash to the movie's existance, fan backlash to the previous movie, controversy about its production, controversy about its star, and worry that the film would suck. You cannot expect the film to coast based on brand in this situation. The films reputation was toxic. It's anti-hype. If the films reputation was neurtral then sure, just put it out and it'll create its own hype. But when you have anti-hype, working against it, then you need to actively market it, to sell people that they need to go out and see it. And they didn't. I am guessing the reshoots screwed up their plans to start marketing this at the end of 2017, they were still filming in October, but they really should have double-timed it and started pushing it.

It was totally marketing and lack thereof. All the other factors don't matter, you just need to convince people that the film is good in spite of their fears. They clearly didn't. No one cares, and you can basically convince people to see anything if you market it right.

I really didn't give two craps about seeing this, and I'm as hardcore as they get (hey, I'm posting here, right?), I honestly was not looking forward to this film, and it's because the marketing confirmed the suspicion I already had, that this was unnecessary and done poorly--but I was wrong, the film was a solid B+, and I've paid money for far worse than that. The marketing did not get me excited to see this, I saw it out of obligation, and the box office you see right now is the "obligation" take of fans.

If hardcore fans are not excited then how could you expect regular audiences to be? Again, marketing, marketing.

 

The PR is absolutely disgusting...pablo hidalgo straight up insulted fans who wanted a old republic show, Abrams insinuated that anyone who hated the objectively poorly written last jedi was sexist, Rian Johnson said our fan theories sucked, Rian compared logical worldbuilding (the fuel of star wars staying power) to boring Wikipedia pages, the film journalists were dismissing TLJ audience score and saying the film was a success even when it was ripping this fan fanbase apart. Fans at force.net are blaming "appealing to hardcore fans"(codename for fans who want Kennedy gone) for solos problem.

Scott mendleson is already trying to create a narrative that Disney should double down with Johnson because fans want "unconventional" star wars films over "play it safe" solo

 

He didn't say this... you've chosen to believe an objectively out of context quote.

Huh? He didn't say that.

He didn't say that.

You're grasping at straws here to say that's bad PR.

If you're talking about the RT audience score then yes, they're right on both counts. I'm not sure why you're lumping in journalists to laundry list of alleged bad PR.

I understand you don't like the movie. That doesn't entitle you to an apology from the filmmaker.

 

Pablo did actually say that (i just looked it up) and Rian did say "your Snoke theory sucks," however it was more tongue and cheek then actually being serious.