Is “Star Wars” fatigue setting in?
“Solo: A Star Wars Story” opened to a projected $101 million at the domestic box office over the four-day holiday weekend, below expectations and putting it on pace to be the lowest opening weekend for a “Star Wars” franchise since 2002. ComScore had predicted [1]it to open at $130 million to $140 million.
Overseas, the news was even worse, with the young-Han Solo spinoff tale grossing just $65 million outside the U.S., also far less than what was expected.
To be fair, “Solo” had the best Memorial Day-weekend domestic haul of any movie in four years, and most movies would be happy to crack $100 million in their first weekend. But anything from Lucasfilm and Walt Disney Co.’s DIS, +0.09%[2] “Star Wars” universe is no ordinary movie. Recent installments such as “The Force Awakens,” “The Last Jedi” and “Rogue One” rank first, eighth and 10th, respectively, on the all-time domestic box office list, according to BoxOfficeMojo[3]. 2016’s “Rogue One,” the only other spinoff “Star Wars” movie beside “Solo,” took $150 million in its opening weekend.
“Solo” hit theaters just five months after “The Last Jedi” was released, and is the first of the newer “Star Wars” films to be released in the more competitive summer.
“Solo” had a tumultuous production process, with Ron Howard taking over after Lucasfilm fired directors[4] Christopher Miller and Phil Lord over creative differences, and reported concerns over star Alden Ehrenreich’s acting[5]. But the movie opened to largely positive reviews.
Disney hopes “Solo’s” underperformance is merely a speed bump. The company is banking on the future of “Star Wars,” with at least seven more movies [6]— including the recently announced Boba Fett spinoff [7]— in the works, as well as a live-action TV series. The next movie installment, “Episode IX,” is scheduled to be released in theaters on Dec. 20, 2019.
Outside of the “Star Wars” universe, Fox’s FOX, +0.05%[8] “Deadpool 2” finished in second place this weekend with an estimated $53.5 million over the four-day weekend, putting its two-week total at about $218 million. “Avengers: Infinity War,” from Disney’s Marvel Studios, finished third in its fifth week with $20.1 million, pushing its total domestic haul to almost $622 million. “Book Club,” from Viacom’s VIA, +0.15%[9] Paramount, finished fourth, with an estimated $12 million....