On today’s episode of “Daily Variety” podcast, in our Box Office segment, Variety’s Rebecca Rubin explains why Lionsgate’s “Michael” made a surprise return to No. 1 in a weekend that marks the calm before the start of summer blockbuster season next week with Disney’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu” opening over Memorial Day weekend.
“Summer movie season officially will kick off over Memorial Day with ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu,’ and this is one that everyone is keeping a close eye on because it is the first Star Wars movie in seven years since ‘The Rise of Skywalker,’ which earned $1 billion in 2019 before the pandemic. And a lot has changed since then, of course, not just with box office theatrical and the benchmark that films have for success, but also in terms of Star Wars as a property,” Rubin observes. “They have had a lot of television shows since then, but they have not been able to get a movie off the ground. And so it’s going to be really telling to see if this is still a viable cinematic property. And it sounds a little maybe a little surprising to hear that about a franchise like Star Wars, but they have been having a lot of success on the small screen. And so they have the added challenge now of trying to get a younger generation to now associate this franchise with theaters, because it has become so synonymous with Disney+ over the past seven years.”
