'Solo' Could Be the Least Popular Disney Star Wars Film
by EG
Solo: A Star Wars Story is likely to open with this weekend with a debut take that's lower than any of the other contemporary Disney Star Wars films. That's less of a big deal when you consider that those films are some of the most successful movies in history. Solo is still going to have one of the biggest debuts of 2018 so far, and it will easily win the weekend over last week's top movie, Dead Pool 2.
If all goes well, a young Han Solo and his band of outcasts will take out Captain Jack Sparrow and set a new Memorial Day weekend record at the box office.
Disney and Lucasfilm's spinoff Solo: A Star Wars Story is tracking to open to $130 million to $150 million over the long holiday weekend, with $130 million being on the low end of expectations. To date, the Memorial Day weekend record-holder for the top domestic launch is 2007's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End with $139.8 million, not adjusted for inflation.
Solo is opening in most points around the globe timed to its U.S. launch, including China, for a projected worldwide start of $300 million-plus.
The tentpole is the first of the four titles in the revitalized Star Wars franchise to brave the summer box office. It also opens a mere five months after Star Wars: The Last Jedi hit theaters. Last Jedi, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: The Force Awakens all opened a year apart, and each in December.
Unless it comes in ahead of projections, the Han Solo origin story will post the lowest domestic opening of the four films and come in behind fellow stand-alone pic Rogue One, which debuted to $155.1 million in December 2016. Force Awakens, which continued the main franchise after a long absence, debuted to a then-record $248 million in 2015, followed by $220 million for Last Jedi, a follow-up to Force Awakens.
Solo stars Alden Ehrenreich in the titular role opposite Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo and Paul Bettany. The story follows Han Solo as he teams with a band of misfits and mercenaries — as well as a young Chewbacca — to stop the villainous Dryden Vos.
Ron Howard stepped in to helm much of Solo after co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired over creative differences with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and Solo screenwriters Lawrence and Jonathan Kasdan.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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