Disney’s Alan Horn Thinks The Media Made Solo: A Star Wars Story Look Worse Than It Actually Was

Last year saw a disappointment for Disney when Solo: A Star Wars Story underperformed in the box office, and the movie was said to have been so poorly received that it grinded the other Star Wars anthology films to a halt. As it turns out, Disney still thought the movie was good—it was just the media that was making it out to look worse than it was.

Talking to the Hollywood Reporter, Disney chairman Alan Horn was asked about how the company was able to manage expectations with their movies, to which he answers:

"It's always a challenge because — and I say this with love and respect for media — the thing about these big movies is they get a lot of attention, whether positive or negative. So when they don't work, like Solo, the media says it's a failure. I think it was a pretty good movie. It didn't resonate as much as we'd hoped it would, but the press writes it up in a more negative way than I would. These are very high-profile movies. If Aladdin, which I happen to think is a terrific film, doesn't work somehow, that's big news and much bigger news than if a movie somewhere else, like The Kid Who Would Be King [at Fox,] doesn't work."

When Solo first came out, the movie was practically invisible to the public, as it was said that Disney had watered down the marketing of the film to focus on the release of Avengers: Infinity War. Not to mention there was a call for a boycott of Star Wars films after a lot of ‘fans' didn't like Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Personally, I thought the movie was fantastic, and I was really looking forward to the sequel that was being built up. We don't know about any other Lucasfilm projects that are coming out after 2019, but hopefully Celebration gives us an update of what's in store for Star Wars moving forward.

Fingers crossed that Solo 2 still happens.

Star Wars Episode IX comes out Dec. 20.

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