Well, its a pity but despite the vast majority of us here giving it a lot of good support the movie isn't performing well against expectations at the BO so far.
I should point out in the UK half term has just begun ,so there is a whole week for people and their families to go to the cinema, depending on the weather.
But I think the reasons can be broken down to this;
The Fan Rebellion
We have a number of very vocal individuals and groups of SW fans who are boycotting this in protest ,as a reaction to way the new SW trilogy has gone,particularly on social media sites like You tube .And there is no denying they are having an absolute field day at the moment , which is a great pity given that Solo actually feels like Lucasfilm really strongly tried to deliver a film in line with fan expectations this time.
Its kind of understandable, but its the active depth and strength of the anger which ,combined with an anti movie movement organised with such vehemence, has undoubtably had an impact.
And the fact Solo was such a dangerously controversial OT character choice to have made anyway has meant its been burdened by the strong dislike thats transferred across from TLJ for the way they treated Luke. If fans were upset by the choice of actor to play Solo, what happened to Luke and the way it was managed after that films release probably kept more people away.
I think all studios, and certainly those with a strong fanbase, are going to need to quickly rethink and learn how to handle themselves differently in the context of the social media age, if only to prevent the escalation of a verbal conflict between themselves and the fandom.This is particularly apparent when social media sites actually act as a " reward " for an inflamed narrative by creating a larger and more polarizing debate , especially when movie makers add to it by antagonising a section of that fandom further.
Negative publicity.
Vocal fans aside ,there has been a huge amount of general negativity and poor publicity surrounding "Solo". The controversial choice for lead actor, followed by the original directors being fired, the expense of the reshoots then followed by rumours of acting coaches, rewritten scripts and a troubled production struggling to hit its release date all impacted rather poorly on the overall opinion of the likelyhood it would be a reasonable SW movie.
By the release date this was converted into a fairly tepid set of reviews in the entertainment media. Its becoming obvious that critics play to sentiment , so then even a good film, when burdened with a lot of poor prepublicity, is likely to suffer. This all pervading sense of lacklustreness continued to damn Solo, and it was quite noticable in its the effect right up to and beyond the premiere.
And thats a shame because I simply couldn't match a great deal of what was being said about the film and its characters by the critics (but in fairness I felt that with TLJ). It was an enjoyable SW movie, and quite a great deal better than I had hoped.But of course even the milder criticisms have played straight into the antagonistc delight of the negative elements of the fandom, which is only going to try and perpetuate the problem.
Release date.
I think there are a couple of factors here.
Solo openned far too close to a previous SW movie which upset a sizable portion of the fan base. Then also with the TLJ home media releases coming out just a short time ago ,the issues were never allowed to settle or go away . It neither let the memories fade away or gave time for the interest and appetite to build up again for another SW film.
It also proves rather conclusively that a May SW release date has no real positive influence with either the general movie public or fans on BO performance.
I'd have waited for a winter again, for some reason Sci fi and fantasy films seem to do better then, maybe its the lack of anything else to do during a cold wimter, or we've taken a long enough break from the summer blockbusters.
Certainly I think Solo was significantly over shadowed by the interest and appreciation in Infinity War and Deadpool 2 OTT humour, and from this it seems clearer that Lucasfilm NEED to really think about one thing right NOW:
Story.
Star Wars isn't Marvel and arguably it can't be made into it either. Not currently.
Marvel built an interlinking storyarc , with quite differing sets of characters and story enviroments in each movie. These were skillfully built upon each episode over a decade, so that with each movie released, even in close proximity to the others , audiences were at the least allowed to see an entire sequentially relevant storyline form across the current series.
Its this "what happens next" reveal of a storyline that plays (particularly these days) very well with social media, where speculation about plot points and outcomes have a significant impact on the interest and anticipation of a movies (and TV series) release. People cannot wait to find out what happens and then discuss it.
I'll be honest here ,I don't think any of the current SW characters ,past or present is significantly strong enough to sustain a wider ranging audience interest outside of the fanbase.
Within it then yes, to some extent, but the main "histories" have already been worked out and the critical effects they have had ,particularly with the older characters , on the story narrative has already played out. None of the theories are really worth discussing because their futures are already in the past.
As SWs fans we may have certain characters which we would like to see more of, but Boba Fett, Obi wan ? Outside of the fandom and dependant on your age group who really cares? Certainly not the general movie going public it seems.
So unless the writers come up with a superbly constructed story, none of these characters outside of their ensemble are fantastically interesting. They really just aren't. Spin off characters are rarely able to capitalize strongly off their original success, they are just missing too many elements.
If I were Disney or Lucasfilm I would take a hard look at the future. I would honestly stop the Boba and Obi wan movies because, unless their production budgets are low, they are not going to make the financial returns off a reasonable BO performance.
I would look even harder at the proposed new movie trilogies. I think Rian Johnsons wants canning now, there is just too much antagonism between him and the fandom for it to be a success. Let the GOT team develope their ideas and see where they go, as well as the TV series.
And if I really had a hard call to make I'd say do something with EP9. They may have killed the past in SW but in doing so have probably damned its future by a substantial margin as well. EP 9 needs to reset that narrative.