The Chinese audience has been consistently cold on Disney's 'Star Wars' films, but the sputtering start by 'Solo' is looking weak by any comparison.


The Millennium Falcon just malfunctioned and crashed to earth somewhere in China.


Putting in one of the worst opening-weekend performances of any Hollywood tentpole of recent memory, Disney and Lucasfilm's Solo: A Star Wars Story earned just $10.1 million in its first frame in China, according to early estimates from ticketing app Maoyan.


The sputtering start left the Han Solo origin story lagging in a distant third place behind two holdovers. Chinese romantic comedy How Long Will I Love U dominated with $25 million in its second weekend, while Avengers: Infinity War similarly trounced its fellow Disney title, earning approximately $18 million in its third frame.


The Disney Star Wars films have continually disappointed in the Middle Kingdom (for a deeper dive on why, see here), but the franchise's trajectory in the country is beginning to resemble a death spiral.


Star Wars: The Force Awakens earned $52 million over a two-day opening frame in 2016 (a number already below Disney's forecasts, sources said at the time). A year later, Rogue One slipped to $31 million over a full three-day frame, despite co-starring Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen, two of China's biggest actors. Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi then fared even worse, earning $28.7 million for a second-place start behind a local hit comedy.


Chinese filmgoers have always been somewhat cold to fantasy sci-fi, but even some of the genre's biggest recent bombs did better than Solo's opening.


Paramount's Ghost in the Shell opened to $21 million last year; and Sony's 2016 stinker Passengers started with $14.8 million. Even Star Trek Beyond brought in $30.5 million in its first weekend.