*There are NO spoilers in this post*
This year, Disney, Ron Howard and the Kasdan
Family gave us our sophomore stand-alone Star Wars movie focused on our
favourite lovable nerf-herder, the one and only Han Solo. The story surrounds a
young Han in the early days of his career as a swindling soldier of fortune. The
galaxy is in disarray. Anarchy and lawlessness have made way for the Empire to
begin its Nazi-reminiscent march of domination as savage organised crime
syndicates run wild beneath.
Good start, right?
Alden Ehrenreich takes the lead with a very
natural and aesthetically accurate performance reprising Harrison Ford’s iconic
role supported by Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones, Terminator Genisys),
Donald Glover (Spider-Man Homecoming, The Martian), Thandie Newton (Westworld,
2012), Paul Bettany (Avengers, Legend) and of course, spectacularly
diverse movie veteran Woody Harrelson, adding yet another great film to his
already impressive resume.
Now then… We’ve all seen the clickbait posts popping
up all over social media. We’ve all seen the stories making Solo out to be a
box office disaster… But is it? Well since everyone seems to be fixating on the
box office takings, let’s examine the numbers in a little more detail:
As of June 4th, 2018, Solo: A Star
Wars Story has earned a total of around $152m domestically and $115m
internationally adding up to a total of $267m worldwide. In its opening weekend,
the film took home $84.4m. Not a bad haul, right? You would think not, however
the number represents just 34% of its gargantuan $250m budget. Disaster! What
would account for that, I wonder?
1. Well,
Solo was released on Memorial Day Weekend, a time of year notorious for
poor cinema takings. Even then, Solo is the seventh highest
grossing film ever released on Memorial Day Weekend, beating blockbuster hits
such as X-Men Apocalypse, Men in Black 3 and the latest release
in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
2. The
film has also been heavily boycotted by elitist fans due to outrage over The
Last Jedi. Some viewers felt that Disney didn’t have their best interests
in mind during the production of the eighth instalment of the main-line Star
Wars franchise. Some felt that the Han Solo backstory was a film they never
wanted or asked for in the first place and as such, Disney had no right to make
it.
3. Solo is up against some pretty stiff competition in cinemas from Avengers
Infinity War and Deadpool 2 creating a tricky decision for
non-regular cinema goers, particularly with Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom
just around the corner.
4. Just
in case anyone missed it, Solo’s budget was extremely high, standing at
a whopping $250m. It’s currently ranked the most expensive movie in the franchise
and the ninth most expensive movie of all time.
There are definitely extenuating circumstances
that could skew the takings slightly. While we’re still crunching numbers, let’s
bring a little optimism to the proceedings!
After
its second week in cinemas, Solo is already the fifth highest grossing
movie of the year. Also, let’s be fair; fans who believe that the quality of a
movie revolves around its box office success are perhaps a little blindsided. “More
statistics to back that up, please” you ask? Well, alrighty then!
In
its opening weekend, the original Star Wars movie made just $1.55m against an $11m
budget representing a pity-inspiring 14%. That's $6.4m against $45.48m adjusted
for inflation from 1977.
The film was an exceptional example of a much sought-after
origin story, the cast was brilliant and very well chosen and it holds up very
well alongside Rogue One in the extended collection outside the story
arcs of episodes I to IX.
Go and see the film, you know it to be true!
Go and see the film, you know it to be true!
Statistics from www.boxofficemojo.com
Additional data from www.imdb.com
No comments:
Post a Comment