Media analysts Doug Creutz and Stephen Glagola (via) thinks that Solo‘s lackluster performance at the box office comes down to the film’s marketing not being able to sell audiences on lead Alden Ehrenreich. They compare the Solo teaser trailer with Rogue One’s:
The first 35 seconds of the trailer almost exclusively focuses on Felicity Jones as the protagonist Jyn Erso, selling her as a new franchise hero. The second half is dominated by the Imperial alert klaxon and Forest Whitaker’s voice over, and practically screams ‘EPIC’ at the viewer, before closing on another hero shot of Jones.
Solo’s, on the other hand:
The teaser, by our count, only had about 10 seconds of screen time where Ehrenreich’s face was clearly in the picture – not, in our opinion, nearly enough. In general, we felt like the Solo marketing campaign didn’t get fully up to speed until about a month before the movie came out, and that is simply too short of a window for a big franchise picture.
Ehrenreich did figure much more prominently as the campaign went on, but maybe it was a case of too little, too late? They dismiss the effect of Star Wars fatigue, mixed reaction to The Last Jedi, and production worries as fairly minor concerns.