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The prequels went off of the Vader storyline and went with Obi-Wan's character. Rogue One featured Vader and the events in between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Han Solo was brought back for TFA, added to the Vader storyline and then died. The Last Jedi continued the Star Wars story momentum while burning down the franchise. Solo must have gone with the route that The Wolverine went with when they went smaller with the characters and scope. There are characters to be introduced and the Han Solo backstory can be heard through the dialogue of the original trilogy just like the prequels and Rogue One reflected. It is traditional for the Star Wars franchise to tell these characters in a film and usually new films cover anything hinted at from the original trilogy of the 70s and 80s. I noticed with Clone Wars that they can retell things from films or other episodes in brief flashbacks and maybe Han Solo has appeared in some of that stuff before too, I don't know. Solo: Star Wars should still make its budget back and could do well in Japan adding another 200 million overseas.

the decent holds for other films is also alarming that a Star Wars movie was not the #1 option.

potential Sunday dailies based recent numbers. Show Dogs - 0.732 + 1.235 + 1.170 + 1.098 = 3.137 / 4.235 = 11.83 Black Panther - 0.113 + 0.186 + 0.181 + 0.140 = 0.48 / 0.62 = 698.76 Rampage - 0.19 + 0.32 + 0.30 + 0.25 = 0.81 / 1.06 = 94.16 Life of the Party - 1.37 + 1.97 + 1.78 + 1.28 = 5.12 / 6.40 = 40.39 Breaking In - 1.11 + 1.64 + 1.42 + 1.10 = 4.17 / 5.27 = 36.86 The Book Club - 2.73 + 3.58 + 3.49 + 2.70 = 9.80 / 12.50 = 34.88 A Quiet Place - 0.62 + 0.87 + 0.79 + 0.55 = 2.28 / 2.83 = 180.59 Overboard - 0.73 + 1.12 + 1.16 + 0.72 = 3.01 / 3.73 = 42.22 Avengers - 4.3 + 6.5 + 6.8 + 5.1 = 17.6 / 22.7 = 627.89 Deadpool - 12.1 + 15.9 + 15.5 + 12.1 = 43.5 / 55.6 = 220.31 Solo - 14.1 + 21.6 + 24.7 + 24.3 + 21.6 = 84.6 / 106.2

the sequels to A New Hope and the prequels had backlash. then TFA and R1 had backlash. TLJ burnt down the mythology. and it too had backlash.

I don't think TLJ will cause any financial problems for IX. Revenge of the Sith survived Clones. Rogue One did well. the selling point has always been Vader IMO. The prequels, TLJ and TFA all had an up-tempo to them with spectacle and epicness. the prequels succeeded too with 3 year gaps*

Ex Machina has that +1 Oscar selling point on dvd covers which probably helps with dvd checkouts. that probably has worked for The Golden Compass.

NBA - with two teams in opposing conferences built to win the playoffs and make it to the championship for four years in a row, at least we got two game 7's in each conference leading up to this. Maybe next time the mathematically efficient Spurs will make it back.

was anyone able to pick up on what film is holding the majority of the double feature drive in showings with Solo: Star Wars?

cant wait to add Solo to the Star Wars rankings.

just in case Solo goes up over 25 on Saturday.

Solo - 14.1 + 21.5 + 24.6 +24.6 + 21.5 = 84.8 / 106.3 Deadpool - 12.1 + 15.8 + 15.8 + 12.1 = 43.7 / 55.8 = 220.5 Infinity War - 4.25 + 6.50 + 6.25 + 5.00 = 17.0 / 22.0 = 627.2 Book Club - 2.7 + 3.6 + 3.6 + 2.7 = 9.9 / 12.6 = 35.00 Life of the Party - 5.0 / 6.3 = 40.3 Breaking In - 4.1 / 5.1 = 36.7 Show Dogs - 3.0 / 4.1 = 11.7 Overboard - 2.8 / 3.4 = 41.9 A Quiet Place - 2.2 / 2.8 = 180.6 Rampage - 0.75 / 1.0 = 94.1

will try to fill in stuff for next weekend when estimates arrive

I don't know if this has been brought up yet. Tomorrowland increased over 22% from its real Friday to Saturday. Monday was up a bit over actual Friday too. This was in 2015 and is most likely the record for best increase for opening picture over MLK weekend. X-Men: Apocalypse and Pirates 5 were up around 12.5% over Friday. This evidence suggests a 27.5 million range for Solo might be out of reach. Maybe 22.5 Fri + 26.5 Sat + 25 Sun + 22.5 Mon + 14.1 previews = 110.6

predictions Solo - 14 + 23 + 27 + 26 + 25 = 90/115 OW, 300 domestic, 525 worldwide. Infinity War - 4 + 6 + 5.5 + 4.5 = 15.5/20 -- 625.20 Deadpool 2 - 12.5 + 18.0 + 17.0 + 12.5 = 47.5/60 -- 224.70. -- 300 domestic. Book Club - 3.00 + 3.75 + 3.25 + 2.50 = 10.0/12.50 -- 37.88

Solo appears to be a spacefaring epic. GOTG movies and the new Star Trek never brought any of them close to 1 billion worldwide

Boba Fett could probably* do 300m overseas and probably 300 domestic.

maybe they could pull off an Oscar-worthy vfx effort by making a Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan film with the visual effects making Liam Nesson and Ewan McGregor look pre-The Phantom Menace

Obi-Wan might resonate well with overseas audience because of the prequels

Episode IX* 750 Domestic 750 Overseas

Solo - 300-400 domestic, 500-700 worldwide. *Rogue One ~1.05 billion The Force Awakens ~ 2 billion The Last Jedi ~ 1.33 billion ...............maybe 1.5 billion for Episode IX?

The Book Club is showing up at 8am on the East coast. Theaters are probably opening right now because of Solo. I wonder how many walk ups at 8am right now are going to DP2 vs Solo. Solo will be getting that boosted up super early showing though. the second earliest showing might be a better indicator.

I skimmed through about ten theaters (reserved seating), fifteen showings on the West Coasts around 430am west coast time. the ten earliest showings around 8am-930am all are averaging around 20 purchases. about half of them were premiums. the other five showings were the latest showings at those theaters, around midnight or after. Some sold around 5, some were empty.

400 people per theater multiplied by $9.16 average per purchase multiplied by my estimation of 3,957 for Thursday location showings gives a Thursday number of 14.50, half of Rogue One's. If this 400 attendance avg # doubles on Friday to 800 at 4,381 locations with the $9.16 avg, you get a 32.1m Friday. if the 400 avg Thursday attendance goes to 800 on Friday and then 1,000 on Saturday, Saturday becomes 40.1m and -5%ish on Sunday could be 38 million. This all adds up to around 110/125ish. These are longshot numbers and it would be too risky for long range predictions because you will be stacking predictions on top of predictions. A better guess would be 800 people-per on Friday, then 900 Saturday *(GOTG2 Friday level), and 900 Sunday. I think 800 is the upper end range because it shows that Solo would be headed for 115*+ 3-day which is above forecasts.

Solo seems to be doing well on the East coast right now off Fandango pulse. It is almost 7:30 am there, shows could be as early as 8am. I would not be surprised if a lot of those tickets are people skipping work in the morning to see a showing of Star Wars. Well, maybe a decade ago.

if this still does 126 3-day, 156 4-day and get 54m second weekend (-57%) 244 10-day, then Solo could still be going for a domestic total larger than Incredibles 2 or Jurassic World. If you count Infinity War towards the spring films, then Solo: Star Wars wins the summer.