LOS ANGELES, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Disney and Lucasfilms's "Solo: A Star Wars Story" topped North American weekend box office with an estimated 83.3 million U.S. dollars three-day debut, coming in well behind industry expectations.
The number makes "Solo: A Star Wars Story" the smallest opening for a "Star Wars" film since 2002. Another standalone "Star Wars" movie, "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," opened to 155 million in North America in 2016. Disney and Lucasfilms released the previous three "Star Wars films" in December, but "Solo: A Star Wars Story" was released mere five months after "Star Wars: The Last Jedi."
"In the hugely competitive environment of the summer movie season, 'Solo,' had a tough time living up to the initial projections for its opening weekend performance. A mere five month gap between 'Solo' and 'The Last Jedi,' may have not provided enough time to build huge excitement for the latest 'Star Wars' film both in North America and around the world," movie analyst Paul Dergarabedian at comScore told Xinhua.
"Solo: A Star Wars Story" is on track to earn an estimated 101 million dollars for its four-day Memorial Day Weekend weekend opening which includes the Monday holiday in the United States. The film also brought in 65 million dollars internationally, pushing its cume to 148.3 million dollars worldwide for the 3-days this weekend, according to studio figures collected by comScore.
The "Star Wars" prequel is the latest installment of "Star Wars" films. Based on the "Star Wars" legendary character Han Solo, it's the second of the "Star Wars" anthology films following "Rogue One." Directed by Ron Howard, the films stars Alden Ehrenrich as Han Solo and tells the origin story of how this iconic character and also how he met Lando Calrissian and co-pilot Chewbacca.
20th Century Fox's superhero film "Deadpool 2" came in second with an estimated 42.7 million dollars in it second weekend, pushing its North American cume to 207.4 million dollars through Sunday. It's the sequel to the 2016 film "Deadpool" based on the Marvel Comics character Deadpool. Directed by David Leitch and starring Ryan Reynolds in the title role, the film follows the story of Deadpool who forms the team X-Force to protect a young mutant from the time-traveling soldier Cable.
In third place, Disney and Marvel's superhero film "Avengers: Infinity War" brought in an estimated 16.5 million dollars in its fifth weekend. The latest from Marvel has earned 621.7 million in North Ameican theaters and has a global cume of 1,904.7 million dollars through Sunday.
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, "Avengers: Infinity War" tells the story of the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy who attempt to stop Thanos, one of the most powerful, insane and evil of all villains in the Marvel universe, from collecting the Infinity Stones.
Paramount's romantic comedy "Book Club" landed in fourth with an estimated 9.45 million dollars in its second weekend. The film tells the story of four lifelong friends whose lives are turned upside down after reading "50 Shades of Grey."
Warner Bros.' comedy "Life of The Party" finished fifth with an estimated 5.11 million dollars in its third weekend. The film follows a newly divorced mother who goes back to college to complete her degree, only to end up enrolled in her daughter's classes.
