Star Wars: Why Solo FAILED At The Box Office

3. It's Not An Event Movie

The other problem with dropping Solo into the summer blockbuster movie window is that it's simply not an event movie any more. In a marketplace already full of Star Wars-sized movies like Infinity War, Jurassic World, Deadpool 2, Mission Impossible, Incredibles 2 and even Skyscraper (to name but a few), it's wrong to simply suggest that the Star Wars label will be enough to guarantee box office domination.

It's a sorry fact, but there's a good chance that Origin Fatique is a genuine thing. Because superhero movies inevitably have to have origin stories, there's been a bit of a penchant for origin stories apeing that outside of the "genre." And when films like Pan and King Arthur failed so badly and the new Robin Hood has been so unenthusiastically received, there's definitely something to be said of the possible negative impact.

Star Wars used to be about huge scale and expanding new stories, but by doing an origin (and not a prequel like Rogue One), they've but Solo into the packed recent and future marketplace of The First Purge, Ouija: Origin Of Evil, Robin Hood, King Arthur, Pan, Black Widow (when it comes), 2019's The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle, Tomb Raider, The Nun, Bumblebee and Venom...

It's just a little too conventional and a little too similar (in spirit if not actual content) to what's already out there. In other words, it simply didn't do anything brave enough to really grip and there's no way it could call itself an event movie. And event movies are the only ones that pull in event movie money.