‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ To Open Lower Than Expected For The Holiday Weekend
Everyone always knows that the summer is always the most packed time for huge movie releases. However, it seems like this summer brought out most of the major releases earlier in the season. Three huge tentpole films were just released within a small pocket of time within each other: Avengers: Infinity War on April 27th, Deadpool 2 on May 18th, and now Solo: A Star Wars Story on May 25th. Yes, one can say that Disney has nothing really to lose here because two of these films are under their name and they are bound to make a lot of money anyway. This is true, but this does leave an impact on the studio under Disney. Lucasfilm may now just feel this effect for Variety is reporting that Solo is more than likely going to underperform this Memorial Day weekend.
Image via Lucasfilm
Releasing a Star Wars film on a four day weekend obviously sounds like a great idea. However, releasing a Star Wars film that has traveled over a mountain of negative PR after the release of a popular comicbook movie (Deadpool 2) may be a gamble. Lucasfilm’s damage control and marketing for Solo should definitely be considered when examining the box office numbers because one would be surprised as to how much the general audience pays attention to film news in the new digital age.
Earlier estimates had Solo opening from between $130-$150 million. The film has now earned $35.6 million through just Friday. Estimates have now changed the opening reach to $114 million at its current pace. This is $41 million less than the previous spin-off, Rouge One: A Star Wars Story, opening with a normal 3 day weekend. Star Wars: The Last Jedi opened at $220 million less than six months ago as well. Solo‘s numbers are smaller by quite a noticeable margin here. Even so, the film is still tracking to be the fifth biggest film to open on Memorial Day weekend. Deadpool 2 will be the second place this weekend with close to around $54.5 million and Infinity War will be third place with $21 million.
It would be great over-exaggeration to start calling Solo a flop. It will open higher than Justice League which could not pass $100 million domestically in its first week. Solo is definitely making money, but not to the high standard of previous Star Wars installments. If it was closer to Rogue One‘s numbers then the previous statement would not be necessary, but there is currently a wide noticeable gap. Rumors about Lucasfilm releasing two films a year have been surfacing for the past few months. Justice League‘s performance proved that a name is not enough to perform well- the film must deliver the goods as well. Would releasing two Star Wars films a year really be a good idea when it comes to profit? Time will tell how Solo continues to deliver at the box office. Have you seen the film? Tell us what your thoughts on social media and make sure to check out Solo: A Star Wars Story if you already did not in theaters!
Source: Variety
