From the outside looking in, there was a time when Solo: A Star Wars Story appeared to be a rudderless ship spiraling deeper and deeper into trouble.
Soon after the sudden and quite frankly shocking departure of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Lucasfilm turned to the seasoned Ron Howard not just to complete the film, but also oversee extensive reshoots – reshoots which allegedly involved the original script.
History tells us that Howard was able to complete his creative overhaul before the deadline, ensuring that Solo is still holding on to that crucial May 25th launch date. That’s all well and good, but how will the film fare at the box office? Can it possibly reach the high bars set by the franchise’s previous outings? Well, the first projections are now in and it looks like the Anthology pic will perform alright. Not amazing, but decent.
According to Box Office Pro, Solo is pegged for a $150 million domestic debut, which would put it just slightly below Rogue One‘s $155 million. It’s still early days, but the outlet also believes that its final domestic total will be $390 million, with the possibility of hitting $475 million depending on reviews and word of mouth.
While not the end of the world, Disney might not look too favorably upon that number, as Gareth Edwards’ aforementioned spinoff finished with $532 million on this side of the pond. Now, once you add in the international haul, the studio will still have made some good money and will obviously turn a profit, but these projections are definitely on the low side and you have to imagine that the Mouse House would have liked to have seen higher figures.
Of course, with two months to go before release, things can and probably will change, so don’t take this as set in stone just yet. The Star Wars brand is strong right now and the first trailer for Ron Howard’s upcoming Anthology film impressed, so who knows where it’ll end up at the box office when all’s said and done?
If one thing’s for certain, it’s that it’s going to be an interesting summer watching all these blockbusters fight for the throne and we can’t wait to see where Solo: A Star Wars Story finishes.
