Solo Is No Longer The Lowest-Grossing Star Wars Movie (Kind Of)

We don’t need to tell you that things haven’t been going too well for Solo: A Star Wars Story from a box office perspective, with the Alden Ehrenreich-led actioner expected to lose the studio at least $50 million dollars. Whether you think it’s poor marketing to blame, Star Wars fatigue kicking in, production troubles generating bad buzz ahead of release, or the divisive Last Jedi keeping fans away, the Han Solo prequel isn’t getting the audience it needs, but it’s not all bad news.

Forbes is reporting today that at a current domestic total of $210 million, Solo is no longer the lowest-grossing film in the franchise – kind of. You see, The Empire Strikes Back, when unadjusted for inflation, only made $209.4 million on home turf. Of course, with adjustments made for inflation and the money it earned from reissues added in, it’s a totally different story (to the tune of $290 million), but either way, this is still a small victory for the troubled Anthology pic.

It now sits behind “Return of the Jedi ($252 million in 1983), Attack of the Clones ($302m in 2002), Star Wars ($307m in 1977), Revenge of the Sith ($380m in 2005), The Phantom Menace ($434m in 1999), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ($532m in 2016), The Last Jedi ($620m in 2017) and The Force Awakens ($937m in 2015).” Though as with Empire, once you factor in reissues and inflation, things look much different.

Between the divisive reviews and production troubles, along with the fact that many people weren’t interested in seeing anyone else other than Harrison Ford portray the titular character in the first place, it isn’t exactly surprising that Solo‘s been struggling at the box office. That said, no one could’ve expected it to post this big of a loss for Disney and its newest subsidiary.

Then again, the fact that it opened in close proximity to both Avengers: Infinity War and Deadpool 2 meant the origins pic was always fighting an uphill battle. Alas, it’s one that not even the great Han Solo could overcome, leaving the immediate future of Lucasfilm’s Star Wars movie franchise – Episode IX notwithstanding – up for debate.