The new trailer for the home video release of Solo: A Star Wars Story is exactly the kind of trailer Disney should have been using with the theatrical release of the film. The new video punches up the action, as well as offers up some scenes that fans wanted to see all along, but, unfortunately, it's too late to save the movie from its box office crash.
Solo released in May to decent critical and fan reviews, but Disney failed to properly market the movie. When first announced, fans wondered why anyone wanted a film about young Han Solo in the first place, particularly without Harrison Ford in the role. The production seemed dogged by problems, which included losing its original directors. Then there were rumors that its lead actor, Alden Ehrenreich, needed acting coaching to live up to the Han Solo character. The film eventually released, though, and most would agree it wasn't as bad as anticipated. But the movie failed to get people in the theaters and ultimately proved itself as a failure at the box office.
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Part of the problem was that the company didn't seem to know how to market the movie. A new trailer released for the home video version by Disney, though, shows that maybe the earlier trailers didn't sell the film as well as they should have. This new trailer features everything fans want to see: a defiant Han Solo, his first meetings with Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian and him flying the Millennium Falcon. The home video teaser is the trailer fans deserved all along.
Another problem with Solo was its release date. Star Wars movies generally release in December, but Disney decided to put Solo out in the spring. The original plan was to release in the winter, but Disney rejected Lucasfilm's plans to do so. In doing so, Disney set the movie up to bomb at the box office, which is precisely what happened.
Although it was probably not intentional, Disney set Solo up to fail, mostly due to poor marketing. Disney waited until February to begin promoting the movie, just three months before its release. The trailers were lackluster, and barely even featured the main character speaking. Then they released the film around the same time as Avengers: Infinity War, and it was apparent which movie got more of the marketing effort.
This home video trailer is a prime example of how Disney could have better situated Solo for getting more fans to see it in the theater. At this point, it's probably too little too late, which is sad, considering a Solo sequel might have been even better.
More: Solo Director Ron Howard Responds To Box Office Underperformance
Source: Disney
