After struggling in its opening weekend with just $148 million worldwide, less than half its original tracking projections, Solo: A Star Wars Story suffered a huge drop this past weekend and has limped to a global haul of just $267 million globally since its release at the back end of May.
Solo is on course to become the lowest grossing Star Wars movie to date, failing to surpass the $538.4 million haul of 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back (and that’s without taking inflation into account), and THR is reporting that the Anthology film is likely to close out around $400 million, making it the first Star Wars movie to lose money.
Disney spent upwards of $250 million on production, including extensive reshoots, as well as a nine-figure marketing budget. As such, the studio stands to lose $50 to $80 million or more from the film’s theatrical run.
That doesn’t take into account home-entertainment, television, promotional deals and merchandise, so it would seem likely that the film will make money eventually, but its lacklustre theatrical run must surely be a concern to Disney and Lucasfilm chiefs.
Of course, Disney’s finances won’t be hurting too badly off the back of Solo, as the studio has already pulled in $1.35 billion from Black Panther and close to $2 billion from Avengers: Infinity War, while Disney-Pixar’s Incredibles 2 is expected to be another big hit this summer.
SEE ALSO: Disney’s distribution chief reflects on Solo: A Star Wars Story’s disappointing box office
SEE ALSO: Solo: A Star Wars Story Isn’t Terrible, But It’s Not Great Either
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.
