The underperformance of 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' has given LucasFilm pause for thought regarding further spin-offs, according to reports.
LucasFilm has apparently made the decision to put the development of all future Star Wars spin-off movies on hold, following the disappointing box-office performance of the recently released Solo: A Star Wars Story, it has been reported.
Entertainment news site Collider quotes “sources” as revealing that LucasFilm, the company primarily responsible for producing the franchise, has put all potential future spin-off films on ice and decided to concentrate its efforts on the official body of the series.
The decision has been made because of Solo’s box-office takings, which stand at $196.2 million after three weeks on release in the United States. By contrast, 2016’s Rogue One had taken $455 million in the same time period. That figure is replicated worldwide, with $343.3 million for Solo well behind the potential to match the $1.06 billion that Rogue One made.
The cast of 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' at Cannes 2018
Industry insiders reckon Solo will lose at least $50 million for Disney and LucasFilm, representing the first time that a Star Wars film has failed financially.
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The spin-off films had been conceived of as a way to expand Star Wars into its own kind of Marvel Cinematic Universe, filling in the gaps between the main narrative episodes. The ninth film, directed by JJ Abrams, is scheduled for release in December 2019.
Solo appeared less than six months after the release of the eighth main film, The Last Jedi, in December last year. The underperformance of the new spin-off has been put down to what experts are calling “franchise fatigue”.
The projects that appear to be threatened by Lucasfilm’s decision are the rumoured Boba Fett spin-off story, which reportedly had Logan director James Mangold attached to direct for a release date of 2020, and the Obi-Wan Kenobi film that was put into development last year and with Ewan McGregor potentially returning. No official word on the status of these yet, though.
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