How Much Solo: A Star Wars Story May Make Opening Weekend

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It hasn't even been a full five months since Star Wars: The Last Jedi was released in theaters, but we're only a couple weeks away from revisiting a galaxy far, far away through Solo: A Star Wars Story. Rather than come out in the mid-December slot like its immediate three predecessors, Solo is taking its cue from the pre-Disney Star Wars era and hitting the big screen in May, a more traditional period for blockbusters. Still, early projections suggest that won't hinder its box office performance, as Solo is predicted to open at upwards of $170 million domestically.

While Solo: A Star Wars Story isn't the only movie opening on Memorial Day weekend, it is the only blockbuster of the bunch, which means that it's primed to attract a lot of moviegoers during that four-day weekend. According to industry projections passed on to Deadline, Solo is tracking "pretty strong," and if those estimates are correct, it'll reach $170 million without any issues, if not higher. For comparison, the last of the Star Wars "stories," Rogue One, opened at $155 million. I suspect that in contrast with Rogue One, whose main characters were all new, Solo featuring a few familiar faces will help put more butts in seats, and thus bring in more money in its first days. However, Solo won't come close to reaching The Last Jedi's opening haul, which totaled at over $220 million.

Even if Solo: A Star Wars Story only hits $150 million on opening weekend, that would still be an impressive achievement, as currently the top two Memorial Day weekend cinematic performers are 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at $126.9 million and 2017's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales at $139.8 million. It's certainly possible that people catching Deadpool 2 a week after its release or even Avengers: Infinity War a month after it dropped might affect Solo's performance a little bit, but overall, it sounds like the next Star Wars movie is in for an incredible debut.

Set approximately 10 years before A New Hope, Solo: A Star Wars Story will chronicle Han Solo's early adventures as a smuggler in the seedy galactic underworld, which will include him pulling off a dangerous train heist. Its cast includes Alden Ehrenreich as Han, Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca, Emilia Clarke as Qi'ra, Woody Harrelson as Tobias Beckett, Thandie Newton as Val, Phoebe Waller-Bridge as L3-37 and Paul Bettany as Dryden Vos. Phil Lord and Chris Miller were the original directors, but they exited the project during principal photography due to creative differences, and Ron Howard was tapped as their replacement.

Solo: A Star Wars Story blasts its way into theaters on May 25, so keep checking in with CinemaBlend for more news about the movie in these remaining weeks, as well as updates concerning the rest of the Star Wars franchise.