Ron Howard responds to Solo's box office failure

Ron Howard has addressed the well-documented failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story at the box office in an exchange with a fan online.

Howard explained that the turn-out for the movie, which is being considered the first flop in the Star Wars series, had made him ‘feel badly’.

It’s thought that the film, which tells the origin story of Harrison Ford’s character Han Solo, could lose Disney as much as $50 million once its cinema run is over.

Tweeting about the movie, Star Wars fan Kris Fairbanks said: “I’ve been reading so many theories as to why ‘Solo’ hasn’t been doing so well at the box office – sad to say, some SW fans are snubbing Solo b/c they’re still upset over Last Jedi. If so, they’re missing out & punishing a good film for something not its fault.”

In response, Howard said: “I’m proud of #SoloAStarWarsStory and the cast & crew worked hard to give fans a fun new addition. As a director I feel badly when people who I believe (& exit polls show) will very likely enjoy a movie… don’t see it on a big screen w/great sound.”

A number of factors are being blamed for the movie, which stars Alden Ehrenreich as the young galactic smuggler, including poor marketing and so-called ‘Star Wars fatigue’, though Marvel appears to make a very good fist of releasing movies every six months to widespread approval.

So far, it’s made $312 million, a disastrous sum for a movie from Lucasfilm.

Box office take up is already slowing considerably since its release at the end of May, making it less and less likely that it will break even after spending £250 million on production, plus its considerable spend on marketing and advertising.

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