When T.S. Eliot wrote “this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper,” he could have been predicting the disappointing debut of “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”

The film, which was released over Memorial Day weekend, fell short of its anticipated revenue and praise. It pulled in just $103 million domestically despite being slated to earn around $155 million, the figure the first Star Wars Story, “Rogue One” earned its first weekend. The movie was also poorly received overseas, earning only $68.2 million compared to the $1.056 billion gained by “Rogue One.”

The underwhelming box office opening could be a result of being released only five months after “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” causing an oversaturation of Star Wars films.  So is this flop a product of “Star Wars fatigue, ” a swing and a miss by Disney, or just a bad movie?

We discuss the film’s underperformance with KPCC film critics Tim Cogshell and Amy Nicholson alongside David Sims and Scott Mendelson.

Guests:

David Sims, staff writer covering culture at The Atlantic, where he wrote “With ‘Solo,’ Has ‘Star Wars’ Fatigue Set In?”; he is also the co-host of Blank Check Podcast, which reviews directors’ complete filmographies; he tweets

Scott Mendelson, contributor to Forbes, where he covers the film industry and wrote the piece “‘Star Wars Fatigue’ Not To Blame For ‘Solo’ Box Office Disaster”; he tweets

Amy Nicholson, film critic for KPCC, film writer for The Guardian and host The Canon podcast as well as a new podcast called Unspooled, where Amy and comedian Paul Scheer check off the AFI Top 100 movies of all time; she tweets

Tim Cogshell, film critic for KPCC, Alt-Film Guide and CineGods.com; he tweets