Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS) has seen a very solid return from its $4.05 billion purchase of LucasFilm back in 2012. The series has rattled off three straight installments that have exceeded $1 billion at the global box office, with Stars Wars: The Force Awakens reaching above the $2 billion mark. This is ignoring merchandise sales, which reportedly dropped off in 2017.
Stars Wars: The Last Jedi had a good performance at the box office, but tapered off after its first week due to a flood of fan backlash. Its previous standalone film, Star Wars: Rogue One, also performed well. This has not been the case for Solo: A Star Wars Story.
The film brought in approximately $103 million domestically over the Memorial Day weekend. It bombed overseas with a haul of only $65 million. Nothing concrete has come out of LucasFilm or Disney yet, but some in the industry are speculating that this could prompt a shift in strategy going forward. The company may change its strategy of having one Star Wars release per year.
The news is not all bad for Disney, of course. Its Marvel properties have continued to perform extremely well at the box office. Avengers: Infinity War has now amassed over $1.9 billion worldwide – the fourth largest box office haul in history. A lot will be riding on the final installment of its first sequel trilogy in 2019, while Disney also prepares to launch its own streaming service.
