A scene from Solo: A Star Wars Story. Source: Disney

If Disney's first-quarter earnings are any indication, the media company could benefit from the Force in December. In 2015, after decades of "Star Wars" films appearing in theaters in May, Disney decided to release its newest trilogy in December. Since then, every "Star Wars" film, even the "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" has debuted just before Christmas, except one.

"Solo: A Star Wars Story" found itself with a May release and that was detrimental to both the film and the company behind it. In 2017, Disney released "Coco," "Thor: Ragnarok" and "The Last Jedi" during the first quarter. Together the three films made more than $1 billion at the box office in the U.S., according to data from Comscore. Cut to 2018. Disney released "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms," "Ralph Breaks the Internet" and "Mary Poppins Returns" and earned only $388 million domestically.

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" brought in more than $500 million in the U.S. between Dec. 15 and Dec. 31 and continued to make money well into the second quarter. Not only was it a box office hit, it also drove sales of toys, apparel and other merchandise. "The theatrical success of 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' in Q1 last year was a key driver to licensing results so the absence of a comparable franchise title in Q1 this year created a meaningful headwind to our licensing results," Christine McCarthy, Disney's chief financial officer, said during an earnings call Tuesday. Without a big blockbuster like "Star Wars" in December, Disney missed out on money at the box office and through retail. "Home Entertainment results also faced a difficult comparison given Q2 titles last year included 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi,' 'Thor: Ragnarok' and 'Coco,'" McCarthy said. "As a result we expect operating income from our theatrical and home entertainment businesses to be $450 million to $500 million lower than in Q2 last year, which was the best second quarter in the studio's history." "Solo" faced a number of issues ahead of its release, prompting some to suggest that Disney regroup and push the release date from May to December. To start, there was behind-the-scenes issues the caused directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller to leave the project three-quarters of the way through principal photography. The pair had about three and a half weeks of shooting left and five weeks of already scheduled reshoots to complete. Ron Howard was brought on to salvage the project.