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Lucasfilm plan forSolo : A Star Wars Storyto be the first of manyStar Warsfilms free in May . Prior to being acquire by Disney , the studio apartment traditionally slot theStar Warsmovies in May ; the first six installments of the Skywalker saga premiered during the moneymaking summer movie season . That changed when the Mouse House relaunched the franchise andThe Force Awakenscame out in December 2015 . SpinoffRogue Onehit the scene the following holiday season , finding great commercial-grade success in that window . Very quickly , audiences became habitual to a newStar Warsmovie debuting around Christmas .
Initially , The Last Jediwas go to debut in May 2017 , but Lucasfilm made the decisiveness to reschedule it to December in an attempt to replicateThe Force Awakens’release conditions . However , they keptSoloon track for its May 2018 bow - even when it stomach wicked production woefulness and Ron Howard replaced Phil Lord & Chris Miller as director . As it turns out , this was part of a strategy to returnStar Warsto its older May dates for the foreseeable future .
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The bookThe artwork of Star Wars : The Rise of Skywalkerincludes the tidbit in a passage discussingStar Wars 9’smove from May to December 2019 . tick off it out in the space below :
Solo : A Star Wars Story had been designate to be the first of many Star Wars films to retort to the enfranchisement ’s traditional late - May release date .
It goes without saying this backfired tremendously . Solowas the firstStar Warsmovie to bomb at the box office , gross only $ 392.9 million worldwide . In line , the trio ofForce Awakens , Rogue One , andLast Jediall buy the farm the $ 1 billion sign and were the highest - grossing films domestically in their respective years of release . The Rise of Skywalker’sdelay to December was necessitated by changes to the creative team ( J.J. Abrams replaced Colin Trevorrow as director ) , but it ’s possible Lucasfilm would have shifted it any fashion in answer toSolo’scommercial failure . The spinoff ’s underwhelming public presentation instance the franchise was better off sticking to December , where it would n’t have to compete with other high - profile tentpoles . Besides , fellow Disney property Marvel has had a foothold on May for years , so it makes sense for Disney to space their blockbusters out .
Lucasfilm appear to have learn their lesson . The next threeStar Warsmovies are scheduled to come out in December 2022 - 2026 , alternate Disney ’s pre - Christmas windowpane with James Cameron ’s fourAvatarsequels . Historically , that should mean they ’ll see box spot succeeder . Even thoughThe Rise of Skywalkerwas the lowest - grossing entry in the sequel trilogy , it still made $ 1 billion globallyand turned a nice profit for the studio . The sentiment of seeingStar Warsreestablish itself as a summertime motion picture ball of fire is nice , but Disney has a obligation to put these films in a position where they can boom . Instead of being the start of a new trend , Soloended it on arrival .
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Source : The Art of Star Wars : The rising slope of Skywalker
