Solo sputters during take-off with B2.6bn at box office
In the largest disturbance yet in Disney’s otherwise lucrative reign over Star Wars, the Han Solo spin-off Solo: A Star Wars Story opened well below expectations with a franchise-low US$83.3 million (2.6 billion baht) in ticket sales over the threeday weekend in North American cinemas.
Disney estimated on Sunday that Solo
will gross $101 million over the fourday Memorial Day weekend, a figure below even the opening weekends of the much-derided Star Wars prequels. Last week, forecasts ran as high as $150 million for the four-day haul of Solo.
Overseas ticket sales were even worse. Solo, starring Alden Ehrenreich in the role made iconic by Harrison Ford, grossed $65 million internationally in its opening weekend, including a paltry $10.1 million in China.
Solo came in with a Millennium Falcon’s worth of baggage following the mid-production firing of directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who were replaced by Ron Howard. With the rejiggered production, the budget soared well past $250 million.
But the cause of the spinoff’s disappointing performance may have had as much to do with Star Wars fatigue ( The Last Jedi
exited cinemas just last month) and the stiffer competition of a summer holiday weekend. While no major releases dared to open against Solo, Fox’s Deadpool 2 moved
its release date up a week ahead of Solo.
The gambit may have hurt both releases. After debuting with $125 million last weekend, the R-rated Ryan Reynolds sequel dropped 66% to second place with $42.7 million and an estimated $53.5 million four-day haul.
Solo notched the biggest Memorial Day weekend opening in several years, but it also came on the heels of a pair of a summer-sized blockbusters — Deadpool 2 and Disney’s own Avengers Infinity War — making for an unusually crowded May. Infinity War added $16.5 million in its fifth weekend to bring its domestic total to $621.7 million and its global sales to $1.9 billion — both among the highest of all-time.
“It is a business that is built on momentum but also one where people probably are only able to get to theatres a certain number of weeks in a row,’’ said Dave Hollis, Disney’s distribution chief.
But there were also questions beyond the effect the calendar had on Solo. While reviews were generally positive (71% “fresh’’ on Rotten Tomatoes), there was little about Solo that made the movie a must-see event. Fans were sceptical of Ehrenreich and uncertain about the dismissal of Lord and Miller (the popular filmmaking duo behind 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie). Unlike any Star Wars release before, Solo was deemed — gasp — skippable. As it arrived in theatres, Disney might have been wishing it had instead made a Lando Calrissian spinoff with the red-hot Donald Glover, the star of TV’s Atlanta. In the days ahead of release, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy said a Lando movie is a possibility. The Last Jedi also flopped in China (it was pulled from cinemas after a week), and Rian Johnson’s movie — even though it grossed $1.3 billion worldwide — showed relatively weak legs at the box office, while proving divisive among Star Wars die-hards.
The magic around a Star Wars film may be fading. To right the ship on Episode 9, Lucasfilm has turned to an old friend: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams.
He, too, is replacing a fired director after Colin Trevorrow departed last autumn.