We haven’t even considered the film’s budget and marketing cost. Experts suggest that due to the extensive cost studios spend on marketing, a movie needs to make approximately twice its production budget globally, before actually seeing profits. Solo had a $US 275 million production budget; $US 550 million once you multiply that by 2. This means that the Ron Howard directed Solo which went through production hell, did not even recover its budget. Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via LRM), Ron Howard was asked for his thoughts on Solo’s abysmal box office numbers. Howard provided the following reasons:
[There wasn’t so much hate on] the Twitter feed,” Howard added, “but it was notable prior to the release of the movie in several of the algorithms, whether it was Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes. There was an inordinate push down on the ‘want to see’ and on the fan voting. Some friends from Silicon Valley explained to me how it works. Under that circumstance, I did not take it personally at all but I felt badly.” On the podcast, Howard also talks briefly about the film’s memorial day release date and competing directly with Deadpool 2 and Avengers: Infinity War. I couldn’t agree more. While there’s no denying the film’s lacklustre reviews certainly didn’t help it at the box office, Solo definitely set itself up for monetary failure by hitting the theatres in May. The Force Awakens, Rogue One and The Last Jedi were all Christmas releases and had the entire month of December and January to their own. Considering Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is getting a Christmas release as well, expect it to make more than $US 1 billion as well, perhaps even $US 1.5 billion. (Source: Happy Sad Confused Podcast)
