Last week I opened a piece about viewers voting with their wallets by saying that Solo: A Star Wars Story wasn’t truly bombing. I was wrong. The film tanked this weekend with only $29.2 million, a drop of 65 percent. In contrast, Deadpool 2, an R-rated film a week older than Solo, pulled in $23 million. For those that thought Solo could somehow survive the summer onslaught of major movie releases and turn into a sleeper hit this does not bode well.
Thanks to the movie’s exploded budget due to the director change and reshoots the quickly dwindling box office is going to make this a massive flop for Disney instead of just a disappointing return. The film is on pace to only pull in $350 million worldwide at best, which will make it the worst box office for any Star Wars film by a longshot. There are going to be some serious discussions about how to move forward with the franchise because of this. Last time a movie bombed like this for Disney was The Lone Ranger in 2013 and that, coupled with John Carter, led to significant shakeups at the studio.
If you’re feeling sorry for Disney take solace in the fact that Infinity War just became the top-grossing Marvel film worldwide by pulling in $1.96 billion. Two billion dollars is perfectly reachable. So at least they got that going for them.
1. Solo: A Star Wars Story – $29,296,000
2. Deadpool 2 – $23,325,000
3. Adrift – $11,510,000
4. Avengers: Infinity War – $10,371,000
5. Book Club – $6,800,000
6. Upgrade – $4,458,000
7. Life of the Party – $3,455,000
8. Breaking In – $2,815,000
9. Action Point – $2,315,000
10. Overboard – $1,975,000
