Disney’s stock should have had a blockbuster day on Friday.
Its new movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens hit theaters in what analysts expect could be the highest-grossing opening American box offices have ever seen. By the afternoon, studio executives said they expected the film to gross more than $100 million on its first day—breaking the previous opening-day record set by Harry Potter: Hallows II in 2011—and more than $200 million by the end of the weekend.
Instead, Disney (DIS) shares dropped 4%, as the overall market also suffered declines, with the S&P 500 down 1.8%.
The reason the Jedis couldn’t save the moviemaker’s stock price: Disney is also facing its own fast-approaching battle with antitrust regulators next month, Reuters reported Friday.
The European Commission, which in July warned Disney and five other U.S. movie studios that they may have violated Europe’s market competition rules, scheduled a hearing on those charges for Jan. 18-19, according to Reuters.
Besides Disney, European officials also accused Sony (SNE), NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, 21st Century Fox (FOX) and Warner Bros. The regulators said they believed the companies were preventing European consumers outside the United Kingdom and Ireland from watching cable TV channels operated by British telecom provider Sky UK.
Such agreements would breach European antitrust laws that attempt to encourage trade across E.U. borders by prohibiting country-specific deals.
If officials decide at the hearing that Disney and the other implicated companies have broken those rules, they could be forced to pay large fines and rethink their agreements in Europe, Reuters noted.
