Solo is suffering cause of the leadership of the Disney SW projects. There have been PR issues, poor management, no attempts to build any trust in Disney handling SW and the two tent pole movies in the Disney SW universe have not resonated with fans. It's not franchise fatigue, it's subpar movie fatigue with a side of we are sick of the bickering between "SJW's" and there opposition. I would love of both sides of that fight would STFU so maybe we could get some good SW
First we have a combative relationship with the decent amount of the fans due to comments made by people in control. I wanna start by saying that Kathleen Kennedy is an amazing women in Hollywood. Her resume is simply out of this world, so no I am not going after her cause I think a woman shouldn't be running SW. That being said If she had simply reworded or not made certain comments then there would potentially be a less combative fan base. She has said things like "I don't need to cater to male SW fans. I just need to do whats best for Disney" and "Female fans can't relate to Luke Skywalker". These statements simply drew a line in the sand for the internet fanboys. If she had instead kept the Luke comment to herself and simply said I am here for all the SW fans as well as doing what's best for Disney then she is not feeding the animosity. Then you have Rian Johnson saying that he tuned the fans out and just made his movie. This was like throwing gasoline on the TLJ bonfire, he can believe that but it shouldn't have been said. Kathleen Kennedy is in a place to fulfill her thoughts on women and diversity in movies, and if she was smart she would just do it instead of antagonizing some fans. Drawing lines in the sand never works well when you are trying to sell a product. I know people are going to say she has the right to say this and it's a good thing. I can say as someone that is in a corporate position that involves customer contact, some press and contact with bosses, that I have found that if I just keep my mouth shut and do what I think is right it works better then broadcasting something that could be controversial.
Second 2 of the 4 movies that have come out have had significant issues with production. Directors that have been fired by Disney Lucasfilms so far: Josh Trank who spent a year working on the Bobba Fett movie, Colin Trevorrow from EP. 9, Gareth Edwards who is listed as the Rogue One Director but the movie was redone by Tony Gilroy, and Phil Lord and Chris Miller we all know this story. Takia Waititi was considered for a SW movie, he joked that that he liked to finish his movies. Also he said that his vision of a SW movie wouldn't match up with Kathleen Kennedy's. JJ was brought back for EP 9 cause Kennedy felt she could trust him to make follow her vision of a SW movie. Even though she just let Rian Johnson trash much of JJ's plans for the movies. So cause of this we got a movie in the middle of a trilogy that simply muddied the waters and add no clarity to the trilogy, and now JJ has to retcon what he can while trying to find a way put together a semi logical ending. This is the a big issue that points to problems at the top. This along with the trend we are seeing with box office is troubling.
Third thing is they never established any kind of trust with SW fans. People bitch about how the first phase of MCU movies were kind of cookie cutter movies, and they are right cause they were trying to establish a universe while being headed by the wrong person in the beginning. If they had just simply pretended to listen to fans, make this trilogy in a fan friendly way then start getting weird. Instead they decided to piss of a large chunk fans with TLJ, who then got up on their internet soapboxes and yelled about.
Lastly due to all the other issues there was no fan faith in Solo. Which is a shame cause it was a fun movie, yeah it's flawed, but it was still entertaining. I was skeptical of the casting, but it worked. I loved seeing that side of the Empire with the gritty trench fighting and the propaganda. Part of me wants this movie to fail as a strong message to Disney, but part of me hopes it doesn't cause it was good.