Disney’s release of “Solo: A Star Wars Story” on May 10th, 2018 was met with disappointment, reaching only $264.2 million globally at the box office as of its second week. “Solo” took a 66% plunge in ticket sales in North America, from $84.4 million on opening night to $29 million on its second Friday.

Critics attribute the decline in ticket sales to the fact that “Solo” was released only a mere five months after “The Last Jedi,” whereas previous Star Wars movies had at least a year-long gap between each release. For instance, “Rogue One,” released a year after “The Force Awakens,” amassed $96 million in the second week alone. “Disney definitely has to reconsider its future Star Wars releases so that a similar incident does not occur,” said Hao Cao ’18.

Ron Howard, the director behind “Solo” has failed to impress viewers with his past few movies, including “Solo,” “Dilemma,” and “In the Heart of Sea.” Because of failure by previous directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who attempted to turn the film into a comedy stunt, Director Howard was forced to reshoot much of the film, which ramped up the production cost to over $250 million, doubling the original production cost and making “Solo” the most expensive “Star Wars” movie yet. “It will be difficult for ‘Solo’ to overcome that price tag by the end of its run,” said Hellen Zhang ’18. “It is at risk of becoming the first ‘Star Wars’ movie to lose money.”  

“It will be difficult for ‘Solo’ to overcome that price tag by the end of its run,” said Hellen Zhang ’18. “It is at risk of becoming the first ‘Star Wars’ movie to lose money.”  

The drop in “Solo” ticket sales is also because it was released shortly after Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Deadpool 2.” These two movies have yielded $1.965 billion and $598.6 million, respectfully, surpassing the amount that “Solo” has accumulated significantly. “I watched both ‘Deadpool 2’ and ‘Solo,’ and the latter was so disappointing compared to previous ‘Star Wars’ movies, while ‘Deadpool 2’ was so much more exciting than its prequel,” said Noor Raj ’18.

Despite the clear lack of success in the box office, there are still fans who claim that “Solo” is one of the best “Star Wars” movies that Disney has released. “‘Solo’ was a break from all the dramatic tension in previous movies; it didn’t have me on the edge of my seat, constantly worrying about the possible death of one of the characters,” said Jean Eo ’18, “I enjoyed the fact that it was really just a younger Han Solo embarking on an exhilarating adventure.”

“Solo” is undoubtedly lagging behind previous “Star Wars” releases in terms of the money it has amassed in the box office. The success of the movie is debatable between avid fans, with some claiming that it was predictable and lacked the tension of “Star Wars” movies, and others arguing that the movie was a refresher from the negative Forces and Dark Jedi in previous releases.