Tickets for Solo: A Star Wars Story aren’t on sale yet (that will probably be on Friday, May the 4th), but early box office estimates for the standalone film are already in. Early estimates have Solo making $160 million over the four-day Memorial Day weekend, which would be a new record. The current title-holder is Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (the Pirates movie that isn’t the most expensive movie of all-time) with $139.8 million, followed by Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ($126.9 million) and X-Men: The Last Stand ($122.8 million). Hopefully Solo is better than literally all of those movies.
That $160 million is a lot of money, particularly in a 96-hour time period, but it’s still below what Disney might hope/expect from a Star Wars movie. The Force Awakens made a remarkable $288 million after four days, while The Last Jedi and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the closest comparison to Solo, brought in $241 million and $172 million over the same time period, respectively. Solo should have staying power, though (the biggest movie opening in its second weekend of release is Action Point, in which Johnny Knoxville, of Jackass fame, opens a theme park), especially if the early word-of-mouth reviews are positive.
The Ron Howard-directed Solo: A Star Wars Story, which stars Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Paul Bettany, opens on May 25.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)