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New Star Wars Movie Solo Has Worst Opening Weekend In Recent Franchise History By Far

So low.

184 Comments

The newest Star Wars movie, Solo, opened this weekend--but it was not the hit that Disney and Lucasfilm would have wanted. The movie is tracking to make around $101 million in the US and Canada over this Memorial Day long weekend, according to Entertainment Weekly. That would put the film easily in the top spot, but it's well below what projections said it might make. Industry watchers said the film was expected to pull in between $130 million and $150 million for its opening.

Solo made an estimated $83.3 million in the Friday-Sunday period, which gives it the worst three-day opening weekend box office figure of any of the new Star Wars films by a very, very large margin. Here are the three-day domestic opening-weekend figures for the three previous new era Star Wars films.

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Now Playing: Solo: A Star Wars Story Review - A Well-Crafted Side Story

  1. The Force Awakens ($248 million)
  2. Rogue One ($155.1 million)
  3. The Last Jedi ($220 million

Solo made around $65 million in the Friday-Sunday window from international markets--including China--which is not the greatest.

The record-holder for the four-day Memorial Day weekend is 2007's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which made $139.8 million. Solo was projected to potentially dethrone that movie, but it came nowhere close to doing that.

Being a spinoff movie, Solo was never going to be able to make as much as The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi. But the comparisons to Rogue One are noteworthy, given that was a spinoff as well and it did considerably better.

According to EW, which supplied all of the box office figures, Solo cost around $250 million to produce. The budget likely incurred an extra cost beyond normal, as Disney fired directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord just 11 months before the movie came out. Oscar winner Ron Howard was later brought on to take over.

Solo is the first of the new Star Wars movies to not open in December, and it comes just five months after the release of The Last Jedi in December 2017.

Despite Solo's slow start, Disney is of course moving forward on more Star Wars movies. The next one is Episode IX in December 2019, while Disney is also reportedly planning standalone films for Obi-Wan Kenobi, Lando Calrissian, and Boba Fett. Just recently, we learned that Logan director James Mangold may be directing the Boba Fett movie. Additionally, Disney hired the creators of Game of Thrones for a new Star Wars film series, while The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson is making his own new trilogy of saga films after JJ Abrams' Episode IX next year.

Below you can see the full Top 10 box office report for the May 25-27 period in the US and Canada, as relayed by EW.

  1. Solo: A Star Wars Story — $83.3 million ($101 million four-day)
  2. Deadpool 2 — $42.7 million ($53.5 million four-day)
  3. Avengers: Infinity War — $16.5 million ($20.1 million four-day)
  4. Book Club — $9.5 million ($12 million four-day)
  5. Life of the Party — $5.1 million ($6.5 million four-day)
  6. Breaking In — $4.1 million
  7. Show Dogs — $3.1 million
  8. Overboard — $3 million
  9. A Quiet Place — $2.2 million
  10. RBG — $1.2 million

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TiringPillow

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I skipped Rogue one in theaters and am debating skipping this one too. I'll only definitely go to the theater to see episode 9.

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bat725

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I didn’t see it because I (and everyone I know) have ZERO interest in seeing a Han Solo movie without Harrison Ford.

Kennedy should’ve known better. So many other characters to work with, but they decided on this.

A young Yoda movie would’ve been bad-ass! Or how about a Darth Vader movie? That seems like a no-brainer, to me.

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VFighter

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Hopefully it does well enough to warrant a sequel, the ending had me absolutely hooked for another Solo movie!!!

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SammyF

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I skipped it because The Last Jedi was not a good movie (for reasons having absolutely nothing to do with whatever spews out of the complaint-holes of neck-bearded men's rights weirdos). I couldn't give half an apathetic f*ck about any actor's gender or race as long as they have an interesting character to play, but the writing in the new films is just plain awful. I couldn't bring myself to find out what kind of stupid, terrible ideas they might cook up for a full-length Han Solo origin story. I worried that it would be the equivalent of three hours and five minutes of Greedo shooting first.

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VFighter

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@sammyf: Think what you might, but it was a great movie and Solo shoots first in this one. ;)

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SammyF

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@vfighter: I'm old enough to remember that the initial reviews for the Phantom Menace were mostly positive, too.

I'm taking a pass on the next few movies until I can rent them through Amazon Prime after reading a handful of objective, dispassionate reviews. It's sort of like EA and Battlefront 2. The only mechanism I have to tell Disney that I won't pay full price to see terrible movies on opening weekend is if I stop paying money to see terrible movies on opening weekend.

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USDevilDog

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Edited By USDevilDog

Complaints about over-saturation are way off -- this is only the fourth film in the universe since 2015. There have been 9 Marvel films in that time span. Before 2015, there was a 10 year gap from Revenge of the Sith to the next Star Wars film. If anything, most Star Wars and EU fans have been waiting for more canonical films. We are finally getting it after all these years and now people are going to complain about having too much? I'm not a young guy; I am now in my early 30s. My parents are in their 50s. My grandparents are in their 70s. We are all fans of the universe. I hope the older generation will get to see more of these films that they grew up with before it's too late. It's okay to criticize these films or even hate them, but to say that there is an over-saturation is not that accurate.

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Berserk8989

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Shame. Really enjoyed the movie.

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Millionsedge

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Disney will learn and slow down the Star Wars saturation rate. They are the masters of extracting money from people.

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Berserk8989

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@millionsedge: Marvel movies are far more saturated, but still make a ton of money. Star Wars fans are just far harder to please.

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Otterbee

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Does anyone remember the monologue from Hooper X in Chasing Amy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3XTHVC1Nf0

Yes, it was comedy...but it was speaking an ounce of truth. The reality is, even the original Star Wars had some political bent to it. It was just masked a bit better; either that, or we were just too young to really pick up on it. Now that the original fan-base is much older, and we're inundated with SJW/PC non-sense every other hour of every day, we're hyper-sensitive to it all. We're now unable to just enjoy a movie for being a movie, because we can't focus on it just being entertaining. I haven't seen Solo...and I don't think I care to. I don't know why...but it's not because of all the hate I'm hearing/reading about the movie. It's that I don't enjoy going to the movie theater any more, when I know I'll be able to watch in the comfort of my own home in less than 3 or 4 months, most likely.

I've read through some of the comments and quite a few of them talk about "Star Wars fatigue"; if you think this is fatigue for a series/franchise, I'd hate to see what you think about the saturation of the Marvel universe!! They're guilty of three times the saturation that Star Wars has delivered! Or, are we going to argue that Marvel is a different demographic, and therefore acceptable?

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stm1185

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Edited By stm1185

Last Jedi was pure garbage, but you couldn't tell before it was released.

Solo was obviously garbage. The guy playing him was all wrong, the very idea completely stupid. They ruined the character in Force Awakens, they destroyed the life we expected him to have, and then murdered him. Why would we want to see backstory on him now? You ruined him.

Delete the new movies and start over!

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VFighter

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@stm1185: Solo was really good, not sure what you're smoking?

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USDevilDog

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@stm1185: They already are starting anew. LucasFilms stated that the next trilogy will be focused on different and new characters in the Jedi universe.

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Kalbent

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too many all at the same time. Infinity war, Deadpool, now this? i need a break.

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aproxinate

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I would assume timing. End of the school year and that shit even stresses parents out! Finals, graduation, etc I ain't got time to see no space movie!

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Jarten

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Edited By Jarten

I have nothing against the movie or the director, or the actors/actresses. I really want to see it and I love the idea of a movie for Han Solo. I just won't go and see it in the theaters because of Kathleen Kennedy.

2 • 
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SexyMiralda

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Watched it just now and really enjoyed it. Good movie.

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Bread_or_Decide

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Great, now TLJ haters think they have power over box office, when in reality other major factors are why solo performed poorly.

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Berserk8989

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@tatanka: What exactly did he say wrong? This was always part of literature. As long as it fits and is not shoehorned in, what's the problem?

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Bread_or_Decide

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@tatanka: And?

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stm1185

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Edited By stm1185

@Bread_or_Decide: It performed badly because all of us TLJ haters didn't go see it. We wont be seeing Episode 9 either, unless LucasFilm makes it clear they know they done wrong, they fire Kennedy, they fire Rian Johnson, and they put this thing right. You want Marvel money, you better deliver a Marvel quality product that treats the fans with respect, instead of shitting on them!

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Bread_or_Decide

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Edited By Bread_or_Decide

@stm1185: Eh, not really. But TLJ haters will run home with this narrative. Nerds have very little box office power. Solo failed to attract a more mainstream audience. The four quadrants. Most films succeed without the nerds. But you’re free to think whatver you want.

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fishnpeas1

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@Bread_or_Decide: Now there's a guy in denial

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Daveof89

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Star Wars was ruined the day Disney got their hands on it. You know

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bat725

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@Daveof89: Just like The Muppets!

Let’s face it, Marvel is successful because they take zero input from Disney/Kennedy.

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Daveof89

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@bat725: truth

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stm1185

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@Daveof89: I thought there was hope after The Force Awakens. Sure it was a diversity casting job, but the chick and pilot seemed decent enough if they had a good writer, and a plan.

But instead they let a hack toss the plan out of the window and ruin the franchise.

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Boodger

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Hopefully the higher ups attribute this to audiences turning their back on the Franchise due to The Last Jedi.

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gamingdevil800

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@P00DGE: No doubt Kathleen Kennedy will attribute it to male protagonists.

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Obiroid1

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I really enjoyed solo. fun movie

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deactivated-5bee09b4aa01f

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The last Star Wars series I liked was episode 1 phantom menace.

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Bread_or_Decide

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@badboyfx86: you have awful taste

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cetaepsilon

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@Bread_or_Decide: I don't believe it myself but I missed Jar Jar Binks after TLJ.

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deactivated-5bee09b4aa01f

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@Bread_or_Decide: Keep kissing Disney’s ass.

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Bread_or_Decide

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@badboyfx86: ok garbage taste. You like jar jar binks lol

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deactivated-5bee09b4aa01f

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@Bread_or_Decide: How many nerves did my comments hit you with? ? everyone has different opinions, your trying way too hard get a life.

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Bread_or_Decide

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@badboyfx86: meesa yussa wusssa

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gargar

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If the movie cost about 250-300 million to make, exluding advertisement than you need about 750-800 million in box office to break even. After all, the cinema take a cut from ticket sales as well.

What a failure.

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Berserk8989

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@gargar: They need about 500 million to break even, it's confirmed from many sources.

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VFighter

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@gargar: You're not very good with numbers are you?

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deactivated-60510cd00304f

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I love Star Wars, but I cannot continue to support the series. This video sums it up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ULbkqAuo48

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DaVillain

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DaVillain  Moderator

It failed because there was no real draw to the movie. With Disney/LocusFilms making so many new Star Wars movies, one was bound to be skippable. And marketed as mostly a fun prequel with no actual bearing on the rest of the series, this was the one people saw it as skippable.

I knew what I was expecting out of Solo and I give it a 7/10 but I didn't enjoy it that much as Rogue One as far as SW side story movie goes.

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