Mediaweek editor James Manning looks at the weekend box office for May 24-27, 2018.
The latest release from the biggest movie franchise ever has stumbled slightly.
Although Solo: A Star Wars Story opened at #1, it only narrowly outperformed the second movie on the chart.
The weekend box office was on $16.57m, down 9% from the previous weekend. It would seem pretty likely this is the only time ever a Star Wars release hasn’t resulted in ticket sales growing from the previous week.
#1 Solo: A Star Wars Story $6.61m
Too much Star Wars is never enough. However, despite opening at #1, audience demand for the latest adventures from a galaxy far, far away is starting to decline. Just last December Star Wars: The Last Jedi opened with $20.97m. The latest Star Wars adventure was never expected to do numbers anywhere near that, but just over $6m might have been a little below expectations. Solo opened on 780 screens with a screen average of $8,478 which was the second highest over the weekend. By comparison both The Last Jedi and Jumanji 2 did better than that for three successive weekends. (Admittedly in a holiday period though.)
#2 Deadpool 2 $5.91m
For its second weekend the Marvel release has again had the best screen average – $10,637 from 556 screens. It has made it to $25m after just two weekends.
#3 Avengers: Infinity War $1.20m
Still writing strong business after five weekends, now certified as the third highest-grossing movie ever in Australia, the movie remains on 481 screens after shedding 196 this week. Total earn will climb above $60m this week.
Bill Nighy in The Bookshop
#4 Life Of The Party $592,000
Total gross is now over $4m after three weekends with 252 screens giving it a screen average of $2,352.
#5 The Bookshop $506,000
Some poor reviews didn’t stop this European co-pro from grossing half a million on debut with $4,117 average from its 252 screens. The wonderful cast includes Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson and Bill Nighy.