Star Wars: MORE bad news for Han Solo prequel as box office woes continue

The film has so far managed $176.1 million in the US – a high number by many standards, but a weak showing considering the usual pulling power of Star Wars, and this movie’s astronomical budget.

Remarkably, Screen Rant have deduced that the film will likely fail to match the unadjusted original grosses of the three original trilogy movies.

Considering how much inflation has occurred since then, that’s a sorry state indeed for one of the most hyped movies of the year.

The Empire Strikes Back has made $290,475,750 domestically since its release – $222.7 million without its 1997 re-release.

Episode 4: A New Hope – the first ever Star Wars movie – took $220 million during its initial theatrical run, which would equate now to about $888 million with inflation accounted for.

This weekend, Solo made $15.1 million in its third frame; its returns diminishing sharply every week.

And over the next few weeks, the US market is set to get more and more crammed: The Incredibles 2 is out this weekend, with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom after that.

Both movies are tracking towards huge openings that will only serve to nudge Solo further and further out of the limelight.

Interestingly, the movie – starring Alden Ehrenreich – had reasonably good reviews.

Analysts have attributed its lack of widespread success to a poor marketing campaign, with Ehrenreich largely absent from initial trailers.

The change in director – with Ron Howard replacing a fired Phil Lord and Christopher Miller – is not considered to be a factor in its underperformance.

Whether or not Solo will get any direct or indirect sequels remains to be seen, but the door was certainly left very much open at the end; with viewers no doubt keen to find out whatever happened to Emilia Clarks’ Qi’Ra.

For now, the only Star Wars movie with an official release date on the horizon is Episode 9, the conclusion to the current sequel trilogy. It’s out on December 13, 2019.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is out now.