Disney-Lucasfilm's Solo: A Star Wars Story opened to less than expected on opening weekend, causing a subset of Star Wars fans to lay blame on the controversial Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Lucasfilm's sophomore Star Wars standalone — this one centered on a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) — holds the record for highest preview night take ever for a Memorial Day weekend release, but came in well behind expectations with $101 million.
This gives the Ron Howard-directed Star Wars prequel the brands' lowest live-action opening, a disappointment for the well-received Solo that was previously projected to bring in as much as $130 million — $150 million over the holiday weekend.
"We are all over it, and will spend a lot of time digging into why things happened the way they did," Disney distribution chief Dave Hollis told The Hollywood Reporter of Solo underperforming.
Disney, who has released a Star Wars film once a year since 2015, doesn't believe franchise fatigue or oversaturation is to blame for Solo's less-than-expected box office performance.
"We have a year and a half before Episode IX comes out. We've had so much success," Hollis said. "The previous three Star Wars films did $4 billion worth of of business at the box office, so it doesn't feel like saturation is necessarily an issue, but we are still answering all of the questions."
Followup to franchise revival The Force Awakens and the eighth installment of the episodic Star Wars saga, The Last Jedi opened in December to massive numbers — $220 million — and went on to become the 11th highest-grossing movie of all time with a worldwide box office haul of $1.3 billion. The film peaked in 9th place, having since been pushed back by Marvel Studios' Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War.
Even as Solo wins the weekend box office, coming just weeks after massive hits Avengers: Infinity War and the just-released Deadpool 2, some Star Wars fans are pointing blame at The Last Jedi for leaving a bitter taste in the mouth — something they say has spilled over onto Solo.
The Last Jedi has the lowest audience score of any live-action Star Wars movie on Rotten Tomatoes with 46% "liked it," and the vitriol the film has since elicited was addressed by writer-director Rian Johnson in a talk with Business Insider and again on Twitter.
"The goal is never to divide or make people upset," Johnson wrote of the polarizing reaction to The Last Jedi. "But I do think the conversations that are happening were going to have to happen at some point if [Star Wars] is going to grow, and move forward and stay vital."
Backlash birthed by The Last Jedi has some fans calling for a boycott of Solo, claiming Johnson's film "destroyed the saga."
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Starring Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Emilia Clarke, Joonas Suotamo, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Woody Harrelson, and Paul Bettany, Solo: A Star Wars Story is now playing.