The Star Wars franchise found itself in unfamiliar territory last year, with Disney and Lucasfilm’s second Anthology film Solo: A Star Wars Story becoming the first instalment in the series to disappoint at the box office.
Coming off a troubled production where Ron Howard was brought in to reshoot the majority of the film after the firing of original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller – and finding itself being in the unfortunate position of opening just five months after the hugely divisive Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Solo was met with mixed reviews, and grossed just $392 million at the box office – a far cry from the billion dollar plus hauls of Disney’s first three Star Wars movies.
Speaking to THR, Disney’s film chief Alan Horn spoke about the sky high expectations placed upon Disney’s big movie offerings, stating that he felt the media reaction to Solo was a little unfair.
“It’s always a challenge because — and I say this with love and respect for media — the thing about these big movies is they get a lot of attention, whether positive or negative. So when they don’t work, like Solo, the media says it’s a failure. I think it was a pretty good movie. It didn’t resonate as much as we’d hoped it would, but the press writes it up in a more negative way than I would. These are very high-profile movies. If Aladdin, which I happen to think is a terrific film, doesn’t work somehow, that’s big news and much bigger news than if a movie somewhere else, like The Kid Who Would Be King [at Fox,] doesn’t work.”
SEE ALSO: Solo: A Star Wars Story co-writer ponders what might have been with a December release
Do you agree with Horn? Was Solo a better movie than it was given credit for? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @FlickeringMyth…
A new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy. Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes.
Solo: A Star Wars Story features Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!) as the famous smuggler, Donald Glover (Atlanta) as Lando Calrissian, Woody Harrelson (War for the Planet of the Apes) as Tobias Beckett, Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) as L3-37, Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) as Qi’Ra, Thandie Newton (Westworld) as Val, Ian Kenny (Sing Street) as Rebolt, Harley Durst (Wonder Woman) as Moloch, Jon Favreau (Spider-Man: Homecoming) as Rio Durant, Paul Bettany (Avengers: Infinity War) as Dryden Vos and Warwick Davis (Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi) as Weazel.
