After a seven-year absence, Disney brought “Star Wars” back to the big screen with “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” which topped the box office heading into Memorial Day weekend.
“The Mandalorian and Grogu” earned $33 million on Friday from 4,300 North American theaters. The intergalactic western is projected to make between $80 million and $100 million through the holiday frame.
A ceiling of $100 million positions “The Mandalorian and Grogu” with a near identical opening to 2018’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” which also opened over Memorial Day. While that film was considered a major financial misstep, the metrics on “The Mandalorian and Grogu” are being interpreted as a modest success. You could fill a Star Destroyer with the amount of recent box office think pieces that have been penned about why that is, and they mostly boil down to franchise fatigue and the small-screenification of “Star Wars” via Disney+ shows like “Andor,” “Ahsoka” and “The Mandalorian,” which is the source material for “The Mandalorian and Grogu.”
Directed by Jon Favreau, “The Mandalorian and Grogu” follows the titular bounty hunter and his young companion as they attempt to save Rotta the Hutt, Jabba’s muscular son, from the clutches of a warlord gangster. The film stars Pedro Pascal, Jeremy Allen White, Sigourney Weaver and Jonny Coyne.
