Jonathan Olley

Solo: A Star Wars Story is on track for an estimated $101 million opening weekend in the US, Disney announced Sunday. It's a respectable haul that takes into account Thursday and the three-day Memorial Day weekend. But compared with more recent Star Wars films since 2015's The Force Awakens, it's the movie franchise's lowest opening weekend.

Solo is also expected to make $65 million overseas, making a global total of $148.3 million for the weekend.

The three-day domestic estimate of Friday through Sunday, however, is $83 million, and that puts it quite a bit behind the opening weekends of Friday though Sunday for other recent Star Wars films. Box office sales for The Last Jedi's domestic opening weekend in December brought in $220 million and 2016's Rogue One spin-off film earned $155 million, according to Box Office Mojo. The Force Awakens had the highest opening weekend of the four films with $247 million in the US.

In my review of Solo, I called the movie "simple and fun" but it lacks the epic feeling we normally get from comparable Star Wars movies. It does have a heck of a cameo scene featuring a returning character movie audiences likely did not expect.