| Jon-Erich said: I think Solo can be compared to Justice League in many ways. Both movies were already expensive to make and then were made even more expensive after extensive reshoots were needed. In Solo's case, 70% of the movie had to be reshot after Ron Howard took over directing. This meant that even a modest box office return which may have been profitable wasn't enough. Both movies came out after previous movies in their franchises disappointed and divided audiences. For DC, that was Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad. Wonder Woman was successful, but that's because it worked off of a character people actually like from Batman v Superman. With Star Wars, that was the Last Jedi. It is also worth mentioning that the Last Jedi Blu Ray and DVD sales are performing nearly as well as a Star Wars movie should be. Both movies on their own are decent. They're watchable. However, they both suffered from unfortunate circumstances that made it almost impossible for them to be a success. |
bold: I'm not sure if that's correct. It's selling well enough but not in the same level as a SW movie it seems. See this reddit link:
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/8pc883/the_last_jedi_blu_ray_sales_drop_to_56_of_force/
Further evidence that The Last Jedi sadly did turn off about half the audience, the-numbers.com is now reporting the launch week sales of The Last Jedi and... it's not good. Whereas The Force Awakens sold 3,420,540 units in its first week of release, The Last Jedi only sold 1,940,241 units. In raw monetary terms, the Last Jedi brought in over $40,000,000 less revenue in its first week of Blu Ray sales. Given its divisive nature, it is likely that after collectors' purchases the sales dropped rapidly in comparison to other Star Wars movies. Those numbers will be released next Wednesday.
Blu Ray sales are one of the very best ways of gauging an audience's reaction to a movie as purchasing a movie after seeing it in a theater is a vote from the consumer's wallet for the quality of the film. Although some are pointing to Solo's plummeting box office returns as a shock, Disney knew privately they were in trouble with the Star Wars brand as they've been holding onto The Last Jedi's Blu Ray sales outside of public view for the past few months. When a sequel gathers only 56% of its predecessor's Blu Ray sales, it indicates a massive swing in public opinion. As an example, the first Captain America movie released on BluRay to a sales amount of $20,313,189, while the sequel released to sales amount of $22,358,092. This indicates growth from one entry in the franchise to the next. Dropping the amount of Last Jedi from Force Awakens in the launch week tally is a gigantic number, and further evidence that Disney is hemorrhaging Star Wars consumers post-TLJ.
Links for reference:
The Last Jedi sales numbers: https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Star-Wars-Ep-VIII-The-Last-Jedi#tab=video-sales
The Force Awakens sales numbers: https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Star-Wars-Ep-VII-The-Force-Awakens#tab=video-sales
This post is not intended to make a statement as to the quality of either film or as to the direction of story content for the franchise. This post is simply a report on Blu Ray sales.
In the wilderness we go alone with our new knowledge and strength.
