‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ Targeting $13M-$15M Thursday Night B.O. – Early Read
May 25, 2018
‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ Targeting $13M-$15M Thursday Night B.O. – Early Read
EXCLUSIVE: Very early estimates indicate that Disney’s Solo: A Star Wars Story is heading for a $13M-$15M Thursday night. These figures come from Deadline sources, not Disney.
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On the high end, that’s in the vicinity of what the studio’s Marvel titles Thor: Ragnarok ($14.5M) and Iron Man 3 ($15.6M) grossed on their preview nights. Showtimes begin at 7PM in each time zone and once the west coast hits, there’s a possibility that Solo could surge past $15M.
Thursday night for both Ragnarok and Iron Man 3 respectivelyrepped about 31% and 23% of their Fridays which came in at $46.4M and $68.8M. Ragnarok turned in a 3-day weekend of $122.7M while Iron Man 3 did $174.1M, so a big swing there with the latter launching summer during the first weekend of May five years ago.
It’s too soon to tell how Solo will leg out over four days as there are various factors in play but by comparison to the previous Star Wars 2016 spinoff pic Rogue One that film turned in $29M on a December Thursday before posting a Friday of $71M, and 3-day opening of $155M. Heading into the weekend projections for the Ron Howard-directed Star Wars spinoff ranged from as low as $130M over FSSM to as high as $170M. Disney currently holds the Memorial Day opening record with 2007’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End ($139.4M). Solo arrives with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 69% fresh, which isn’t the lowest for a Star Wars movie (that belongs to The Phantom Menace at 55% Rotten), but it’s more a popcorn film than it is an overall critics-pleaser, so audiences could push its fortunes higher. And while Memorial Day is seen as the traditional kick-off to summer (it use to be at the box office long ago), the weather is partly cloudy and blase here in Los Angeles in the low 70s for the weekend (certainly not beach weather) and that could spike Solo‘s west coast sales.
Solo‘s Thursday night projection towers over other releases that launched over Memorial Day in recent years including The Hangover Part 2 ($10.4M), X-Men: Apocalypse ($8.2M), X-Men: Days of Future Past ($8.1M), Fast and Furious 6 ($6.5M).
Solo will play in 4,381 theaters tomorrow, including 3,300 3D locations, 400+ Imax screens, 600+ premium large format screens and 200+ D-Box locations.