Solo: A Star Wars Story topped the Memorial Day weekend box office but fell short of expectations and projections. The film earned an estimated $83.3 million over the three days and should be about $100 million once the four day weekend is over. Disney had projected the film would earned between $130-150 million for the four day weekend. With a $300 million budget before advertising, that’s a massive stumble for the Star Wars franchise. Internationally the film brought in about $65 million with only Japan as a major market yet to see its release as well as Croatia and Trinidad next weekend.

The weekend was generally up from the previous year where the three day weekend almost equaled the total from the four day weekend. So, we can eliminate individuals not going to the movies as to the issue.

The film’s issue absolutely had something to do with a crowded market that saw Deadpool 2 open the previous weekend and Avengers: Infinity War two weeks earlier. That latter film had its opening date moved up a week due to the crowded market. The one thing that may be in Solo‘s favor is that things are pretty clear until June 22nd when Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opens. Still, the film will be lucky to cross the $200 million mark and will likely be one of the lowest grossing Star Wars films ever. The film also received a positive review from audiences with an “A-” CinemaScore but it was the first Disney Star Wars film to not get an “A.” The audience was 58% male and 64% over the age of 25.

In second place was Deadpool 2 which saw a 66% drop to earn $42.7 million and bring its domestic total to $207.4 million. The film almost beat Solo internationally with an estimated $57 million there. The film opens in Japan on June 1. Worldwide the film has brought in $487.1 million.

Avengers: Infinity War came in third place with an estimated $16.5 million. Domestically the film has earned $621.7 million and worldwide $1.905 billion. It remains as the fourth largest global release of all-time.

In fourth place was Book Club with an estimated $9.4 million which brought its total to $31.8 million.

Rounding out the top five was Life of the Party with an estimated $5.1 million to bring its total to $39.1 million domestically.

In other comic movie news….

Black Panther slipped just one spot to earn an estimated $453,000 after 15 weeks. The film’s domestic total is $689.6 million and $1.345 billion worldwide.

The Death of Stalin improved to come in at #32 with an estimated $38,742 to bring its domestic total to $7.9 million.

We’ll be back in an hour to do a deeper dive into this year’s comic adaptations.