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As 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Flops, Are Movies About White Men Box Office Poison?
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:19 am
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:19 am
That's the headline of this Forbes opinion piece.
So, let's ignore that Solo failing is likely a complete backlash from how bad The Last Jedi was. Or how unappealing the Solo trailer looked. Or that maybe we're getting too much Star Wars all at once when we used to have to wait 3 years between flicks. Or that maybe, just maybe, the film just wasn't that good (I haven't seen it). I'll go with it being mostly from TLJ backlash, because I think we can all agree that it wasn't good.
But to go completely out of your way to say white men in leading roles is what is making films flop, that takes some pretty nimble mental gymnastics.
This year your top worldwide grossing films so far are Avengers (ensemble cast), Black Panther (black guy), Operation Red Sea (Chinese film), Ready Player One (white guy), Chinatown 2 (Chinese flick) Deadpool 2 (white guy lead), and Rampage (Samoan black lead).
Amongst the flops for the year, just naming a handful, A Wrinke in Time (Very mixed cast, but black girl lead), Death Wish (white lead, but released just after Parkland and it's an unnecessary remake), Early Man (animated), and Sherlock Gnomes (animated).
Last year, Star Wars TLJ won the worldwide box office numbers, but that was off of the enormous momentum they'd built with The Force Awakens. The article points out the strength of Wonder Woman. Great movie. But it was topped by Thor Ragnarok (white male).
Solo might flop. It's been predicted for a while the that it would. White male leads are not the problem. Hollywood's creativity and politics have been the main factors for declining numbers.
quote:
LINK ]
[quote]Solo: A Star Wars Story may struggle to pass the $248 million opening weekend of The Force Awakens, and maybe (if things go south) the $220m debut frame of The Last Jedi. If it had cost less (I have no idea how much reshoots added to the budget, but I can’t imagine they intended to make a $250m+ Han Solo prequel) or performed better overseas (that’s the real trouble spot), this would be a different conversation. Plenty of big movies earned over/under $200m and went on to do $550m-$800m worldwide business. But Solo isn’t Spectre, Pirates 5 or Fast and Furious 6.
It is ironic that the first failure of the new Star Wars era is the one with a white guy in the starring role. Moreover, Solo: A Star Wars Story tanked harder overseas than in North America. We are comedically past the point where anyone should still believe the conventional wisdom about minority-led movies or female-led movies struggling overseas. While I’m not going to argue that overseas audiences are drawn to big movies starring women and minorities more than standard white guy “he’s the special” hero’s journeys, they sure don’t seem to find them repelling either.
Tomb Raider made $215 million overseas versus $56m domestic. Moonlight made more overseas than in North America. Wonder Woman made $409 million overseas, while Black Panther made $646m in foreign grosses, more than any other solo superhero flick save for Iron Man 3 ($805m) and (if it counts) Captain America: Civil War ($745m). Pixar’s Coco earned $805m worldwide, including a record $189m in China. Pixar hasn’t had a non-sequel hit starring a white guy since the 2009 masterpiece Up. It’s no accident that Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) is getting the superhero spotlight in The Incredibles 2.
So, let's ignore that Solo failing is likely a complete backlash from how bad The Last Jedi was. Or how unappealing the Solo trailer looked. Or that maybe we're getting too much Star Wars all at once when we used to have to wait 3 years between flicks. Or that maybe, just maybe, the film just wasn't that good (I haven't seen it). I'll go with it being mostly from TLJ backlash, because I think we can all agree that it wasn't good.
But to go completely out of your way to say white men in leading roles is what is making films flop, that takes some pretty nimble mental gymnastics.
This year your top worldwide grossing films so far are Avengers (ensemble cast), Black Panther (black guy), Operation Red Sea (Chinese film), Ready Player One (white guy), Chinatown 2 (Chinese flick) Deadpool 2 (white guy lead), and Rampage (Samoan black lead).
Amongst the flops for the year, just naming a handful, A Wrinke in Time (Very mixed cast, but black girl lead), Death Wish (white lead, but released just after Parkland and it's an unnecessary remake), Early Man (animated), and Sherlock Gnomes (animated).
Last year, Star Wars TLJ won the worldwide box office numbers, but that was off of the enormous momentum they'd built with The Force Awakens. The article points out the strength of Wonder Woman. Great movie. But it was topped by Thor Ragnarok (white male).
Solo might flop. It's been predicted for a while the that it would. White male leads are not the problem. Hollywood's creativity and politics have been the main factors for declining numbers.
16
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:20 am to indianswim
Idiots.
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:21 am to indianswim
Black panther sequel time
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:23 am to indianswim
When their movies suck, the only explanation is white people's fault.
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:24 am to geauxtigahs87
White men.
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:25 am to indianswim
Terrible. How did that all-female cast for the Ghostbusters work out?
The Marvel movies have been very successful with mostly white male actors. Most of the biggest blockbusters have features white males in leading roles.
The issue with Hollywood is a combination of pushing a political narrative with movie choices coupled with terrible movies in general. No one wants to spend a small fortune to go to the movies to see a 'meh' film and get preached to the entire time when Netflix is available.
The Marvel movies have been very successful with mostly white male actors. Most of the biggest blockbusters have features white males in leading roles.
The issue with Hollywood is a combination of pushing a political narrative with movie choices coupled with terrible movies in general. No one wants to spend a small fortune to go to the movies to see a 'meh' film and get preached to the entire time when Netflix is available.
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:25 am to indianswim
quote:
Solo failing is likely a complete backlash from how bad The Last Jedi was
Its Star Wars fatigue, one comes out every 90 days. Plus Solo just looks terrible.
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:27 am to indianswim
Or just the fact that Disney seemed to think this was going to be a flop all along and created a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Very limited marketing budget. Opened on a weekend Disney usually uses to dump bad movies. Troubles during production. TLJ was a shitter (even politics aside), that movie was bad.
Very limited marketing budget. Opened on a weekend Disney usually uses to dump bad movies. Troubles during production. TLJ was a shitter (even politics aside), that movie was bad.
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:27 am to indianswim
(no message)
This post was edited on 5/27/23 at 7:50 am
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:29 am to indianswim
Yes, obviously white leads are the problem. Double down. That'll fix it.
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:31 am to Tiguar
Will Smith used to be a star. When was the last time he made a blockbuster? I know they've tried with several movies (After Earth). Most of his movies are downright bad these days.
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:31 am to indianswim
quote:
. I'll go with it being mostly from TLJ backlash, because I think we can all agree that it wasn't good.
I didn't think it was terrible, but not nearly as good as TFA or R1. Better than the prequels, which isn't saying much.
But I think Solo will struggle mostly from Star Wars fatigue. It was released too close to TLJ, which most die hard SW fans hated.
But most people I know that have seen it have said it was an enjoyable movie. I'll probably go see it next week.
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:37 am to The Spleen
Yeah I thought the movie was actually pretty good and the acting was solid. I just think it was about a character I never cared much about about and yeah TLJ did just come out. If you compare it to episodes I, II, and III, it is pretty much a masterpiece.
I think the series does need to explore other characters long term (I’d put Rogue One as the 2nd best Star Wars movie made).
I think the series does need to explore other characters long term (I’d put Rogue One as the 2nd best Star Wars movie made).
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:39 am to indianswim
quote:
It is ironic that the first failure of the new Star Wars era is the one with a white guy in the starring role. Moreover, Solo: A Star Wars Story tanked harder overseas than in North America. We are comedically past the point where anyone should still believe the conventional wisdom about minority-led movies or female-led movies struggling overseas. While I’m not going to argue that overseas audiences are drawn to big movies starring women and minorities more than standard white guy “he’s the special” hero’s journeys, they sure don’t seem to find them repelling either.
Yes, it's all about race. It couldn't possibly be that the movie sucks. This is just more shite to divide the populace and keep them from realizing that everyone is being screwed by politicians and the "elite".
quote:
more than any other solo superhero flick save for Iron Man 3 ($805m) and (if it counts) Captain America: Civil War ($745m)
Why wouldn't CA: Civil War count? Because it doesn't fit the narrative? Too much evidence against what the author is trying to portray? No one cares about race except the assholes pushing the ruling agenda. Everyone is being screwed equally. Stop buying into the bullshite identity politics and realize it is the 99% vs the 1%, nothing else.
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:39 am to indianswim
After recently seeing The Force Awakens for the first time, I can tell you exactly why Solo flopped. TFA was nothing but a remaking of the original Star Wars movies. I lost track of how many scenes were remakes, right down to the dialogue. If you are going to make new episodes, make a new fricking episode, continue the story. Don’t cherry pick the best scenes from the originals, cobble them together and call it a new movie. Jesus Christ, how many times are they going to blow up the Death Star? Solo is just a new spin on the old story line of the Luke and Vader dynamic, Vader kills all the Jedis and Luke kills Vader. Kylo Ren kills a bunch of Jedis and then kills Han Solo. At some point, the franchise needs to seriously branch out or just shut down.
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:40 am to indianswim
The fact that the piece is written a week after Deadpool had a huge box office for an R-rated movie is just asinine.
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:51 am to indianswim
quote:
Wonder Woman made $409 million
Yeah but have you seen Gal Gadot?
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:54 am to indianswim
There are plenty of problems with Solo, casting included, but the choice to put a white male as the lead isn’t it.
Much like James Bond, Han Solo is an iconic character who is a white male. Putting in a Polynesian transsexual as Solo would have killed this dead before the first foot of film was shot.
The bigger problems, as discussed in the last thread, were The Last Jedi shitting the bed and Kathleen Kennedy’s choices in direction of the SW universe and choice of directors of the films.
While they correctly jettisoned Josh Trank after the Fantastic Four clusterfrick, they still put a pair of improv heavy directors on Solo at first and, when the early rushes sucked, they had to fire them and bring in Ron Howard to save the film through reshoots.
The film is seen as decent but not making money in part because they spent so much on reshoots.
The cost of reshoots is cheap, though, compared to the potential damage to the franchise if Solo had completely shite the bed after The Last Jedi was so polarizing.
Much like James Bond, Han Solo is an iconic character who is a white male. Putting in a Polynesian transsexual as Solo would have killed this dead before the first foot of film was shot.
The bigger problems, as discussed in the last thread, were The Last Jedi shitting the bed and Kathleen Kennedy’s choices in direction of the SW universe and choice of directors of the films.
While they correctly jettisoned Josh Trank after the Fantastic Four clusterfrick, they still put a pair of improv heavy directors on Solo at first and, when the early rushes sucked, they had to fire them and bring in Ron Howard to save the film through reshoots.
The film is seen as decent but not making money in part because they spent so much on reshoots.
The cost of reshoots is cheap, though, compared to the potential damage to the franchise if Solo had completely shite the bed after The Last Jedi was so polarizing.
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:55 am to indianswim
When all you have is a hammer...
Posted on 5/30/18 at 10:57 am to indianswim
I watched it just to see Donald Glover as Lando.
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