The Force is not very strong with this one. Despite Disney's high hopes, Solo: A Star Wars Story has been a box office disappointment.

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Ron Howard, who took over as director of the Han Solo standalone movie less than a year before its release date, tweeted: "Didn’t meet projections but amounts to a new personal best."

According to the BBC, analysts had predicted that the movie – starring Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover – would take between $130m (£97.6m) and $150m (£112.7m) on its debut weekend in North America.

But despite promising reviews, the numbers have not lived up to the studio's hopes.

In North America, the movie came in well below estimates at $103m (£77.4m) across the first four days, with a further $168m (£126.2m) from overseas – including the UK.

In fact, Solo: A Star Wars Story had the worst opening weekend of any Star Wars movie since Disney bought Lucasfilm and took over the franchise. The Force Awakens took $248m in North America in its first three days, while The Last Jedi took $220m.

Even standalone movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opened to $155m domestically.

The movie's underwhelming performance could be a result of "box office fatigue" – given The Last Jedi was only released in December.

"We are all over it, and will spend a lot of time digging into why things happened the way they did. We have a year and a half before Episode IX comes out," Disney distribution chief Dave Hollis told The Hollywood Reporter.

"We've had so much success. The previous three Star Wars films did $4 billion worth of business at the box office, so it doesn't feel like saturation is necessarily an issue, but we are still answering all of the questions."

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Solo: A Star Wars Story is available in UK cinemas now

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Eleanor Bley GriffithsDrama Editor, RadioTimes.com
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