Solo "bombs", so what happens next?

Sure, I would hate for Star Wars to be so blatantly multi-media as to require casual viewers to watch hundreds of animated episodes, in addition to comics, books, etc. That's not a good look at all.

I think for his survival, they could just have a casual mention that his rage sustained him, and he hunts for Kenobi now. No need to have a flashback to Savage and the Nightsisters restoring him or anything- to be honest, that'd raise more questions than it answered anyway.

And I agree- I totally would love to have a big Maul/Kenobi meetup moment on the big screen. It's a short enough fight that I guess it could arguably be reshot in live action with a good degree of fidelity to what happened in that Rebels moment- but if that's the case, I'd expect it to be something like the tablesetting in a Kenobi film in the first few minutes, rather than a final battle at the end of a film.

 

A Luke film? As long as it's not the "young Luke" some people seem to want. We've already had a Luke film. Heck, we had three. As you rightly pointed out, he was the protagonist of the OT. So I struggle to understand why we need a fourth film about Luke....

 

I watched the film twice last weekend. I quite enjoyed it. But to be fair, I would watch anything that says "Star Wars", no matter what the buzz sounds like.

Average movie goers apparently need more to entice them. This film did not appeal to the average person, judging by the numbers. The average person looked at the offerings, and saw 3 main options: Infinity War, Dead Pool, and Solo. Again, judging by the numbers, a lot of people decided to watch one of the other two movies on offer, or spent their money elsewhere.

What needs to be done? Make movies that average people care about! What do they care about? I couldn't tell you. But if I had to choose between 1)Solo, and 2)'Jedi vs Sith', I would choose #2.

 

LMAO FRESH??? You mean the film that was a rip off of Dances With Wolves? Yeah, okay. SMDH

 

Right.. that one.. Avatar... the #1 movie of all-time.

The freshness is due to the time gap, not necessarily talking content. It'll be like at least 10 years gone by the time Cameron gets the first sequel done. So just like TFA, it'll get some boost from being fresh and not having been run into the ground like SW has.​

It'll be actually interesting to see if the Solo implosion makes Disney more risk-averse with the Fox acquisition(especially given how much they were paying was dependent on stellar IP continuing to produce billion dollar babies, not boondoggles), and in turn has cold feet about going all-in with the Avatar sequels. The exposure is easily a straight billion dollars up-front for Avatar 2 and 3 between budgets and advertising.

 

It may be the number 1 box office of all time, but yeah, it is a rip off of Dances With Wolves, a far better film. And it isn't the "best film" of all time, but that's just my opinion.

I don't think they are going to be "risk averse" simply because of one Star Wars film, especially when, if you add up the profit from the previous three films, they have MORE than covered Solo. But I guess we will find out in the coming 18 months what, if any, consequences there are for Solo.

 

I think Star Wars fatigue is real. These movies work best as special events. I believe the standalone movies were ultimately a mistake, as they have diluted the brand.

You can't compare Star Wars to the MCU. The MCU formula works. I don't care for those movies, but they work. Maybe due to the fact that they are adapted from comic books, which are convoluted stories spanning decades to begin with.

For Star Wars to work and connect to the audience, it needs to retain strong elements of mythology and mystery; and the movies need to feel special. I actually think that TFA and TLJ did an excellent job with all of this. Each of the standalone movies, on the other hand, detracted from this in my opinion. They confused the general audiences while making Star Wars films more of a regular (as opposed to a special) event.

Lucasfilm should have taken the ideas for these standalone movies and used them to develop TV serials. The stealing of the Death Star plans or the adventures of a young Han and Lando could have been much better developed in the medium of TV, while reserving the movie theater as the place to unfold the larger saga.

 

I don't know... Rogue One did quite well at the box office. The big problem is they had a film, Solo, with a troubled production and a ton of negative stories. Add to that the fact that, like it or not, TLJ was controversial with at least a portion of the fan base (how large that portion is probably can't be determined, but it is out there). Then throw in the fact that only 5 months later they are releasing said film, on a holiday weekend which is no longer a guarantor of success... Plus you've already had two big films which are still at the theater.

I thought they should have held the film over until Christmas. That would have given them the time to do a full on campaign to build up the movie. Plus it would have allowed some fo the upset feelings over TLJ to subside.

As for the MCU... again, not every bloody film they release is a huge ginormous hit. Ant-Man, Captain America and Thor all made less than $200 million domestically. Those aren't massive hits. How about "The Incredible Hulk?" That one didn't even get to $140 million.

Not every Star Wars film is going to be a massive hit either. The expectations that it will be are just silly.

 

They made Solo because Kasdan asked. It was part of the agreement to bring him
back for TFA, if I remember well.

Kenobi is wanted by the fanbase and Mc Gregor is recognized as
Obi Wan just like Ford is identified as Solo.
Sure is not so poplular as Ford. But for the GA too, Mc Gregor
is Obi Wan.

It has more pros than Solo ever did. Honestly.

That said, to me the real question is how much new fans are really
on board.

@DailyPlunge is right. But I’d add that not matter what only “old” fans
showed up for Solo.

My take is that there is not interest in young people for the franchise.
Maybe is still there for the Saga movie, so for IX too...
But I don’t think - I may be wrong of course - they do care for something different than that.

That’s the real problem LF has.

Because the purpose of the ST was to serve as a big spot for new generations.
Not only to produce 3 Saga movies with huge BO...

 

My point is that Star Wars needs to be a different model than the MCU. They should expect every film to be a hit, by making less of them. Fill in the rest of the universe with TV, print, and video games. I have no idea if this strategy makes financial sense, but I think it makes artistic sense and will preserve the allure of Star Wars in the long term.

 

why am I not suprised? It has to be like that... one side or the other of the political debate...
That's sad.

 

I have had similar thoughts as this. I think Disney is going to get a feel as to why GL said he didn't want to make anymore after the fan reactions to the PT. Don't get me wrong, Im fine with the PT and enjoying the ST. The OT era was golden. It took the world by storm. Its something that is going to be hard to emulate and recapture exactly. Its going to be different and some people dont like different. Even though I have been a SW fan since it started, grown to love the characters as I delved into the EU, ultimately, I have no ownership over any of it. Its not my story that I want to tell. The OT had no expectations because those in the industry, even GL, did expect it to the be the hit it was but it was just bam, in your face WOW. The fan base has grown unbelievably from the OT's time and so has the brand. Now everyone has their own ideas as to what is should be about and the direction its going to take with the characters which is certainly making the saga films harder to do.

I totaly agree. I look at it like this, I loved many of the EU legends books. But, if I read one I didn't quite like, I didn't stop reading all the books because of it. I just moved on with life and picked up the next book that looked interesting to me. One SHOULDN'T affect the other, but that's on the particular fans that let and possibly miss out on something that is very good.

So, if Im understanding this correctly, a person is not a "true" fan if they liked TLJ?

 

Not one of the reasons has anything to do with a good story. I like many other fans feel exactly that way about Ewan, but have yet to hear 1 story that seems like it would be a good story. People bring up a Logan sort of movie. Well Logan is in a very different place then Obi-Wan is.

--- Double Post Merged, May 29, 2018, Original Post Date: May 29, 2018 ---

I do have to mention something that MCU doesnt have to deal or is forgiven for. MCU films seem to be perfectly OK with something happening in the world and only super that is the owner of the show seems to have any knowledge of it. Star Wars saga films dont have that luxury. Movies like Solo will have more of this freedom.

 

Agreed. As with Solo, it's Lucasfilm's job to give the general audience a compelling enough story. They make this rumoured Obi-wan film at their own peril.

 

I think that is why it hasnt been announced to be in production. They are working on story and havent come up with one yet.

 

Or the Disney bean counters and stat heads already had concerns about Solo and were waiting for the box office results before green-lighting another stand alone.

 

Those movies didn't cost the studio $400 million to produce and promote. Films are rated based on the money they make(note: GLOBALLY) in comparison to the cost they take to produce and how they were received. I understand that Star Wars doesn't sell well outside of the west, but Marvel films do.

Marvel took a very methodical and measured approach, particularly on the business side, to building their brand. It took 10 years, and now they have dozens of recognizable characters… whereas before 2007.. Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow were nothingburgers cinematically. Hulk was actually the most recognizable at the time, and as you point out... his film is kind of like the 'lost' film of Phase 1. Just didn't do very well. Part of that was Ed Norton injecting himself into production, and we haven't seen him since. Being serious here... what has he starred in since then of note?

Its fine to have smaller films, so long as they have smaller budgets such that they can show financial stability and preferably profit. But to bomb on a level of John Carter? Really? I'm sure Disney just LOVED being reminded of that movie with how low these numbers have been going.

And if you're spot-checking the stuff nobody outside HWood or hardcores pay attention to, like production issues, then there is only one doorstep that falls on, and that's Kathleen Kennedy's. Ultimately she's responsible for making sure the films are delivered on-time and on-budget. That's what she does. That's all she does.

 

I realised Solo had bombed from the very moment when "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." appeared up on the screen at the start, because when I looked around in the 200 seat screen I was sat in, I had only counted a total of only 30 people present, a 15% capacity.

And that was on its first day in its first week. I didn't even need to pre-order a ticket, I just walked in and bought one exactly where I liked, in the middle-middle.

Not a single kid present either, because they were all at school.

 

I totally understand and somewhat agree. I can see why people are upset with TLJ and Luke. We all want to see badass Luke in his prime. I can also see why LFL chose the direction they did. 30 plus years has passed since ROTJ, the OT characters have aged which has to be taken into account in the timeline. They could have still made Luke the badass but that had already been done in the EU. They wanted something different but still in line with the saga movies. So I see and can understand both sides. I think a Luke standalone could work and be beneficial if done right and I am no authority of what would be right. A standalone Luke can't be to young because I don't think a story about his moisture farming life before the OT would be to interesting. It would have to be after he began his journey to be a jedi... but we have that in the OT.

Ultimately for a younger Luke, another actor would have to be used? Would that be accepted by the fans? We see how some reacted when it was annouced AE would play Han. I liked Solo and thought AE did a good job but some other face playing our iconic characters would have to be accepted. If it could be accepted, I think it would open up a whole lot of possibilities. We already have a standalone Solo story with a new face as a younger Han. If they could make a younger standalone Luke and and younger standalone Lea with new faces that are accepted by the general audience and fans alike, then they could make saga that more closely in the timeline to TLJ and show what happened to Luke, Han, and Lea during that time between ROTJ and TFA. Show Luke and his new jedi academy. Show Lea with the new government. Show Snoke's rise to power and his connection to Kylo, Han and Lea. Show all those things that are difficult to do now simply because of the ages of our actors. It could be done, but there is a lot LFL would have to do right and a lot of acceptance from the fan base for new faces.

^^^^^^^ Exactly. Especially since they are being released more regularly.

yea, I think it would help some if they had something new and different from the Saga characters and story. Something fresh in the GFFA but with totally different, new characters and story. Something that us diehard fans will like but appeal the newer audiences of today. Something that captures and pulls everyone in like the OT did but not riding on the OT story and character coat tales. Which they have announced 2 other sagas that may do this, just have to wait and see and be open to something new.

 

SWNN polled their users which is a nice cross section of Star Wars fans...

The boycott doesn't seem to be a large amount of Star Wars fans who read this site.

However, there's a lot of Star Wars fans who weren't particularly interested in Solo.


These numbers aren't scientific, but they're difficult to brigade. It's worth noting.