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Solo isn't Flying So High, Delivering Soft Memorial Day Weekend Debut
Disney and Lucasfilms's Solo: A Star Wars Story topped the Memorial Day holiday weekend box office, but the film fell well short of expectations, raising a few valid questions.
With an estimated $83.3 million over the three-day weekend, Solo: A Star Wars Story is the weekend's #1 film and while Disney is currently anticipating a $101 million, the question remains as to whether it will be able to bring in enough to reach $100 million over the four-day holiday frame. Disney entered the weekend projecting a performance anywhere from $130-150 million for the four-day weekend and with a reported $300 million price tag before prints and advertising this weekend's performance is extremely disappointing.
While competition from Deadpool 2 and Avengers: Infinity War certainly played a role in Solo's struggles, the small, five month window between the December release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Solo didn't help matters. Disney released the previous three Star Wars films in December, giving each a year's worth of breathing room, this was the first attempt at a summer start and had the price tag and expectations not been so high perhaps the smaller performance wouldn't appear to be such an issue, but as it stands this would appear to be a failure from a theatrical standpoint.
One caveat to that point is the live-action blockbuster landscape is relatively wide open between now and June 22 when Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom hits theaters. While Solo, Avengers and Deadpool will continue to fight for holdover audiences, should Solo hold on well next weekend it could slightly improve its position domestically. At this time, however, a $205-230 million domestic performance looks likely and its international debut isn't helping matters.
Internationally, Solo brought in a meager $65 million from virtually the entire international marketplace with Japan left as the lone major market yet to see release. Leading the way was the UK with $10.3m followed by China ($10.1m), Australia ($5.0m), Germany ($4.3m), France ($3.9m), Russia ($3.6m), Spain ($2.6m), Mexico ($2.5m), Italy ($2.2m), Brazil ($1.3m), Sweden ($1.3m) and Korea ($1.1m). The film will open in Croatia and Trinidad next weekend before opening in Japan on June 29.
For some perspective, Solo's domestic three-day debut was just 54% of the $155 million opening for Rogue One, its international performance wasn't even half of Rogue's $134.9 million overseas opening and that was without opening in South Korea and China. The top three markets for Solo compared to Rogue One show the UK opening was 48% of Rogue's debut, China was a third and Australia's opening was 46% of Rogue's. It will be interesting to see where the film goes from here as a worldwide performance anywhere from $525-575 million might be where this one ends up.
In exit polling, Solo received an "A-" CinemaScore from opening day audiences, the first of the Disney-released Star Wars films to not receive an "A". Audiences were 58% male and 64% of the audience was over the age of 25.
With an estimated $83.3 million over the three-day weekend, Solo: A Star Wars Story is the weekend's #1 film and while Disney is currently anticipating a $101 million, the question remains as to whether it will be able to bring in enough to reach $100 million over the four-day holiday frame. Disney entered the weekend projecting a performance anywhere from $130-150 million for the four-day weekend and with a reported $300 million price tag before prints and advertising this weekend's performance is extremely disappointing.
While competition from Deadpool 2 and Avengers: Infinity War certainly played a role in Solo's struggles, the small, five month window between the December release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Solo didn't help matters. Disney released the previous three Star Wars films in December, giving each a year's worth of breathing room, this was the first attempt at a summer start and had the price tag and expectations not been so high perhaps the smaller performance wouldn't appear to be such an issue, but as it stands this would appear to be a failure from a theatrical standpoint.
One caveat to that point is the live-action blockbuster landscape is relatively wide open between now and June 22 when Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom hits theaters. While Solo, Avengers and Deadpool will continue to fight for holdover audiences, should Solo hold on well next weekend it could slightly improve its position domestically. At this time, however, a $205-230 million domestic performance looks likely and its international debut isn't helping matters.
Internationally, Solo brought in a meager $65 million from virtually the entire international marketplace with Japan left as the lone major market yet to see release. Leading the way was the UK with $10.3m followed by China ($10.1m), Australia ($5.0m), Germany ($4.3m), France ($3.9m), Russia ($3.6m), Spain ($2.6m), Mexico ($2.5m), Italy ($2.2m), Brazil ($1.3m), Sweden ($1.3m) and Korea ($1.1m). The film will open in Croatia and Trinidad next weekend before opening in Japan on June 29.
For some perspective, Solo's domestic three-day debut was just 54% of the $155 million opening for Rogue One, its international performance wasn't even half of Rogue's $134.9 million overseas opening and that was without opening in South Korea and China. The top three markets for Solo compared to Rogue One show the UK opening was 48% of Rogue's debut, China was a third and Australia's opening was 46% of Rogue's. It will be interesting to see where the film goes from here as a worldwide performance anywhere from $525-575 million might be where this one ends up.
In exit polling, Solo received an "A-" CinemaScore from opening day audiences, the first of the Disney-released Star Wars films to not receive an "A". Audiences were 58% male and 64% of the audience was over the age of 25.
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