Ron Howard: "I Feel Badly" About The ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ Box Office Performance

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When Ron Howard took over directorial duties of “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” replacing original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the filmmaker faced an uphill challenge. Howard had to salvage a production that Lucasfilm was displeased with , while also dealing with the toxic fandom that has spun out of control since the ‘The Last Jedi.’ Suffice to say, the depressing box-office totals for ‘Solo’ were not what Howard was hoping for.

Now Howard is expressing disappointment on social media. When he was asked by a fan about why the film isn’t doing well at the box office, and whether the fan reaction to ‘Last Jedi’ played a role in that, Howard tweeted, “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.”

You can’t help but feel sympathy for the always-cordial Howard. Fans who were excited about a Han Solo film were immediately questioning the quality of the film the minute Lord and Miller got fired and talk of Alden Ehrenreich needing an acting coach likely didn’t help, even if only a small fraction of moviegoers pay attention to such news. Howard was handed the thankless task of taking over Lord and Miller’s work, and not only shoot newly written scenes but re-shoot plenty of already existing ones as well.  The ‘Solo’ result so far has amounted to just $176 million domestically, on its way to make even less than half of what “Star Wars” spin-off, ‘Rogue One,’ accumulated at the domestic box office.

At least Howard’s pedigree as a filmmaker isn’t tarnished completely by the reception of ‘Solo.’ All it takes is another great Ron Howard/Tom Hanks collaboration for the public to forget all about those problems in a galaxy far, far away.