User blog:Ceauntay/Box-office Preview: 'Sonic' And 'Solo' Battles Post-Memorial Day Weekend

=Four of smaller films open opposite the 'Star Wars' spinoff and 'Deadpool 2' — Warner Bros.' 'Sonic Boom: The Movie', Shailene Woodley's lost-at-sea drama 'Adrift,' Johnny Knoxville comedy 'Action Point' and genre pic 'Upgrade.'=

May tentpoles Solo: A Star Wars Story and Deadpool 2 and newcomer Sonic Boom: The Movie will easily dominate what's expected to be a quiet post-Memorial Day box office.

All eyes will be on Solo to see how the tentpole fares in its second weekend following a lackluster debut domestically. From Disney and Lucasfilm, the stand-alone debuted to $84.4 million for the three-day Memorial Day weekend, and to $103 million for the four days.

Warner Bros.' Sonic Boom: The Movie is expecting to open big coming in a close second place projecting to earn between $30 million to $35 million.

The film is based on Cartoon Network hit TV series Sonic Boom, which aired in 2014. Sonic the Hedgehog returns to the big screen with his first feature length film since the conclusion of the eight-part Sonic X blockbuster franchise back in 2014 with Sonic X: The Final Chapter - Part 2, which earned $1.4 billion globally, which is the highest animated film globally of all-time.

Natalys Raut-Sieuzac directs the film, who also directs the TV series and stars Roger Craig Smith Colleen Villard, Travis Willingham, Cindy Robinson, Nika Futterman, Mike Pollock and Akon.

Ryan Reynolds and 20th Century Fox's Deadpool 2 heads into its third weekend with a domestic total of nearly $225 million (that's through Tuesday) and more than $500 million globally.

Box-office observers expect Solo to gross north of $60 million for the weeked, although it could come in closer to $50 million if it drops dramatically. Deadpool sequel is tipped to earn another $20 million-plus.

If tracking is correct, none of the three smaller films opening nationwide this weekend will come close to matching Solo, Sonic or Deadpool 2.

STXfilms and Lakeshore's romantic survival adventure, Adrift, could fare the best of the trio with a launch in the $10 million-$13 million range. The film stars Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin as two young lovers and veteran sailors who experience one of the worst hurricanes in recent history. In the aftermath of the storm, Woodley's character must use her smarts and strength to save them both when her boyfriend is left badly injured.

Johnny Knoxville returns to the big screen this weekend in Action Point, an R-rated ensemble comedy from Paramount that's only expected to earn $4 million-$7 million in its domestic start.

Directed by Tim Kirkby, the $19 million film also stars Chris Pontius, Dan Bakkedahl, Matt Schulze, Eleanor Worthington-Cox, Johnny Pemberton, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Joshua Hoover, Conner McVicker and Eric Manaka. (Action Point is likewise counting on younger males.)

Knoxville stars as D.C., the crackpot owner of a low-rent, out-of-control amusement park where the rides are designed with minimum safety for maximum fun. Just as D.C.'s estranged teenage daughter, Boogie, comes to visit, a corporate mega-park opens nearby and jeopardizes the future of Action Point.

The third new nationwide offering is Upgrade, the latest offering from Blumhouse's BH Tilt alongside Goalpost Pictures and Automatic Entertainment. Directed by Leigh Whannel, the R-rated action-thriller is tracking to open in the $3 million-$4 million range. (It is targeting younger men as well.)

Upgrade, set in the near future, centers around a technophobe who is paralyzed in a freak mugging. Later, he's seemingly cured when implanted with an experimental chip. Logan Marshall-Green, Betty Gabriel, Harrison Gilbertson, Simon Maiden and Benedict Hardie star.