Weekend box office: Solo flies past Deadpool to take the top spot

Brad Sturdivant May 27th, 2018

The chatter right now around the weekend box office is that SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY (click the link to read our review) is a big disappointment because it only opened with about $114 million. Stop it. First, a movie opening with $114 million isn’t a disappointment, even if it is a Star Wars movie. And before we start piling on and declaring Star Wars is dead, let’s stop and think about the situation Solo was in. First, none of the new Star Wars films have opened over the summer and the fact is, there’s way more competition when you open on May 25th compared to opening on December 15th. Second, don’t compare Solo to THE LAST JEDI; the films in the regular trilogy are going to do better than the spin-offs. Instead, compare it to Rogue One’s $155 million opening. But keep in mind ROGUE ONE wasn’t competing with the biggest Marvel movie of all time (AVENGERS INFINITY WAR) as well as one of the biggest R-rated films of all time (DEADPOOL 2). Under the same circumstances, I think ROGUE ONE would have struggled to hit $100 million. To put it in perspective, the #2 and #3 films on SOLO’s opening weekend brought in over $75 million and happened to be competing for the exact same audience. On ROGUE ONE’s opening weekend, the #2 (MOANA) and #3 (OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY) films opened with just over $20 million and weren’t competing for the same audience. So again, stop the nonsense that SOLO is a failure and Star Wars is dead. Given the circumstances, SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY did alright.

Next week should come down to another battle between SOLO and DEADPOOL as the two heroes won’t be facing much competition. There’s nothing to note opening next weekend as it seems studios are smart to spread their movies apart and avoid the two tent pole films. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.

1. Solo: A Star Wars Story $114m

2. Deadpool 2 $55.8m

3. Avengers: Infinity War $20.6m

4. Book Club $12m

5. Life of the Party $6.4m

6. Breaking In $5.3m

7. Show Dogs $4m

8. Overboard $3.6m

9. A Quiet Place $2.6m

10. RBG $1.2m

(Deadline)