‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ Underperforms, but Still Wins Opening Weekend Box Office

If you needed a proof that big genre franchises have taken over Hollywood, all you need to do is look at the Memorial Day weekend box office, where Solo: A Star Wars, X-Men spinoff Deadpool 2, and Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War hold the top three spots.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is leading the way even as it disappoints in its opening weekend. The film was expected to bring in $130-150 million over the holiday weekend, but is now looking at a much lower $114 million opening weekend take from 4,381 locations.

Solo earned $35.6 million on Friday, including the $14.1 million earned in early previews on Thursday. That’s the highest preview night take ever for a Memorial Day weekend release, but not enough to lift Solo to typical Star Wars heights at the box office.

Even with the four-day weekend in its advantage, Solo: A Star Wars Story is trailing the first Star Wars Story movie, Rogue One, by $41 million. The most recent Star Wars movie, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, opened to $220 million.

If Solo really does open as low as expected, fans should expect a lot of industry discussion about franchise fatigue and whether it was a mistake for Disney to release another Star Wars movie so soon after the last. Solo is Disney’s fourth Star Wars movie in as many years and the tenth in the franchise overall. Its release comes just five months after The Last Jedi.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is primed to become the fifth-biggest Memorial Day opening ever. It follows behind Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Fast and Furious 6.

Last week’s box office winner, Deadpool 2, will slide into second place in its second weekend. The film is expected to earn $54.5 million over the four-day weekend, bringing its box office total to $220 million.

In its fifth weekend, Avengers: Infinity War come in at third place. The film is expected to earn $21 million from 3,768 locations, pushing its box office total to $625 million, past Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Marvel’s The Avengers to become the sixth-highest grossing movie of all time at the domestic box office.

Keep reading to see how this week’s 10 biggest movies at the box office stack up.

1. Solo: A Star Wars Story

Opening Weekend
Friday: $35.8 million
Weekend: $114.2 million

Young Han Solo finds adventure when he joins a gang of galactic smugglers, including a 196-year-old Wookie named Chewbacca. Indebted to the gangster Dryden Vos, the crew devises a daring plan to travel to the mining planet Kessel to steal a batch of valuable coaxium. In need of a fast ship, Solo meets Lando Calrissian, the suave owner of the perfect vessel for the dangerous mission — the Millennium Falcon.T

Directed by Ron Howard, Solo: A Star Wars Story stars Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo, and Paul Bettany

2. Deadpool 2

Week Two
Friday: $12 million
Weekend: $55.8 million
Total: $220.5 million

Wisecracking mercenary Deadpool joins forces with three mutants — Bedlam, Shatterstar, and Domino — to protect a boy from the all-powerful Cable.

Deadpool 2 is directed by David Leitch from a script by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds stars as Deadpool alongside Josh Brolin as Cable, Morena Baccarin as Vanessa, Julian Dennison as Firefist, Zazie Beetz as Domino, T.J. Miller as Weasel, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and Jack Kesy as Black Tom Cassidy.

The film is the eleventh in the 20th Century Fox’s X-Men movies franchise and lays the groundwork for the upcoming X-Force movie.

3. Avengers: Infinity War

Week Five
Friday: $3.9 million
Weekend: $20.6 million
Total: $625.7 million

Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and the rest of the Avengers unite to battle their most powerful enemy yet — the evil Thanos. On a mission to collect all six Infinity Stones, Thanos plans to use the artifacts to inflict his twisted will on reality. The fate of the planet and existence itself has never been more uncertain as everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment.

Avengers: Infinity War is directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Josh Brolin, and Chris Pratt. 

4. Book Club

Week Two
Friday: $2.7 million
Weekend: $12 million
Total: $34.2 million

Diane (Diane Keaton) is recently widowed after 40 years of marriage, Vivian (Jane Fonda) enjoys her men with no strings attached, Sharon (Candice Bergen) is still working through her decades-old divorce, and Carol’s (Mary Steenburgen) marriage is in a slump after 35 years. The lives of these four lifelong friends are turned upside down after reading the infamous “50 Shades of Grey,” catapulting them into a series of outrageous life choices.

Book Club is directed by Bill Holderman from a screenplay by Holderman and Erin Simms. It stars Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen

5. Life of the Party

Week Three
Friday: $1.3 million
Weekend: $6.4 million
Total: $40.3 million

When her husband suddenly dumps her, longtime and dedicated housewife Deanna turns regret into reset by going back to college. Unfortunately, Deanna winds up at the same school as her less-than-thrilled daughter. Plunging headlong into the campus experience, the outspoken new student soon begins a journey of self-discovery while fully embracing all of the fun, freedom and frat boys that she can handle.

Life of the Party is directed by Ben Falcone and written by Falcone and Melissa McCarthy. The film stars McCarthy, Molly Gordon, Gillian Jacobs, Maya Rudolph, Julie Bowen, Matt Walsh, Debby Ryan, Adria Arjona, Jessie Ennis, Stephen Root, and Jacki Weaver.

6. Breaking In

Week Three
Friday: $1.1million
Weekend: $5.3 million
Total: $36.9 million

Shaun Russell takes her son and daughter on a weekend getaway to her late father’s secluded, high-tech vacation home in the countryside. The family soon gets an unwelcome surprise when four men break into the house to find hidden money. After managing to escape, Shaun must now figure out a way to turn the tables on the desperate thieves and save her captive children.

Breaking In is directed by James McTeigue and stars Gabrielle Union. Union also produced the film with Will Packer, James Lopez, Craig Perry and Sheila Taylor.

7. Show Dogs

Week Two
Friday: $761,000
Weekend: $4 million
Total: $11.6 million

After a failed attempt to recover a stolen baby panda, police dog Max reluctantly teams up with a human FBI agent named Frank. A hot tip leads Max and Frank to Las Vegas for the world’s most exclusive dog show. To find the panda, Max goes under cover as a contestant to get the lowdown from his fellow canines. With help from their new friends, the crime-fighting duo must now foil another kidnapping plot and rescue other valuable animals from a gang of greedy smugglers.

Show Dogs directed by Raja Gosnell, written by Max Botkin and Marc Hyman and starring Will Arnett, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Natasha Lyonne, Jordin Sparks, Gabriel Iglesias, Shaquille O’Neal, Omar Chaparro, and Stanley Tucci.

8. Overboard

Week Four
Friday: $699,000
Weekend: $3.6 million
Total: $42.1 million

Kate is a single, working-class mother of three who’s hired to clean a luxury yacht that belongs to Leonardo — a selfish, spoiled and wealthy Mexican playboy. After unjustly firing Kate, Leonardo falls off the boat and wakes up with no memory of who he is. To get payback, Kate shows up at the hospital and convinces the confused amnesiac that they’re married. As Leonardo tries to get used to manual labor and his new family, Kate starts to wonder how long she can keep fooling her fake husband.

Overboard is a remake of the 1987 movie of the same name. The film is directed by Rob Greenberg, written by Greenberg, Bob Fisher and Leslie Dixon and stars Eugenio Derbez, Anna Faris, Eva Longoria, John Hannah and Swoosie Kurtz.

9. A Quiet Place

(Photo: Paramount Pictures)

Week Eight
Friday: $605,000
Weekend: $2.6 million
Total: $180.3 million

In the modern horror thriller A Quiet Place, a family of four must navigate their lives in silence after mysterious creatures that hunt by sound threaten their survival. If they hear you, they hunt you.

A Quiet Place is directed by John Krasinski, who also stars in the film opposite his real-life wife Emily Blunt. Krasinski also co-wrote the script with Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, based on a story by Woods and Beck.

In addition to Krasinski and Blunt, A Quiet Place also stars Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, and Cade Woodward. The film debuted at SXSW in March.

10. RBG

Week Four
Friday: $263,000
Weekend: $1.2 million
Total: $5.7 million

At the age of 84, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has developed a breathtaking legal legacy while becoming an unexpected pop culture icon. But without a definitive Ginsburg biography, the unique personal journey of this diminutive, quiet warrior’s rise to the nation’s highest court has been largely unknown, even to some of her biggest fans – until now. RBG is a revelatory documentary exploring Ginsburg ‘s exceptional life and career from Betsy West and Julie Cohen, and co-produced by Storyville Films and CNN Films.