{"id":2219,"date":"2026-05-23T16:53:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T16:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/23\/box-office-the-mandalorian-and-grogu-tops-friday-with-star-wars-franchise-low-33m-but-scores-series-high-audience-score\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T16:53:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T16:53:00","slug":"box-office-the-mandalorian-and-grogu-tops-friday-with-star-wars-franchise-low-33m-but-scores-series-high-audience-score","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/23\/box-office-the-mandalorian-and-grogu-tops-friday-with-star-wars-franchise-low-33m-but-scores-series-high-audience-score\/","title":{"rendered":"Box Office: \u2018The Mandalorian and Grogu\u2019 Tops Friday With Star Wars Franchise-Low $33M But Scores Series-High Audience Score"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\tIs the Force with The Mandalorian and Grogu<\/a><\/em>, or against it?<\/p>\n

\tJudging by grosses alone, Jon Favreau<\/a>\u2018s feature film adaptation of his Disney+ series is already making headlines<\/a> around the world for likely scoring the lowest \u8208\u884c\u53ce\u5165<\/a> opening of any title in the storied Star Wars<\/em> franchise since Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012. <\/p>\n

\tOn Friday, Mando<\/em> topped the domestic box office chart with a series-low $33 million from 4,300 theaters across North America. That\u2019s behind the $35.4 million grossed by the ill-fated Solo: A Star Wars Story<\/a><\/em> in 2018, not adjusted for inflation. Actual tickets sold on Friday for each are in the $21 million range when taking out the $12 million earned in previews by Mando<\/em>, of Solo\u2019s<\/em> $14.1 million in previews. \t<\/p>\n

\tAt the same time, Mandalorian and Grogu<\/em> boast an 89 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes \u2014 the best any Star Wars<\/em> film since Disney took over \u2014 and equally strong exit score on PostTrak, especially among kids. Disney insiders believe Mando <\/em>could become the most family-driven film of any title in the iconic series, at least in the modern era.<\/p>\n

\tKids, especially boys under the age of 13, are going nuts for the film, giving it an A CinemaScore, and 5\/5 stars on exit polling service PostTrak. General audiences bestowed the film with an A- CinemaScore and a stellar 4\/5 stars. Reviewers aren\u2019t as enthusiastic, although the critics\u2019 score on Rotten Tomatoes has risen to 64 percent.<\/p>\n

\tThe tentpole, which marks the first Star Wars<\/em> film to play in theaters in seven years, continues the story of The Mandalorian<\/em>, Jon Favreau\u2019s hit series that helped launch Disney+ and introduced the world to Baby Yoda (Grogu), who became a beacon of hope just before the pandemic struck and merchandising breadwinner worth north of $1 billion. \t<\/p>\n

\tHeading into the weekend, tracking services showed Mandalorian and Grogu<\/em> opening to roughly $82 million at the domestic box office for the four days, while some exhibitors saw it coming in as high as $95 million or as low as $70 million.<\/p>\n

\tDisney insiders now say the movie is on course to earn a better-than-expected $92 million to $96 million for the four-day holiday weekend, including somewhere in the $77 million range for the three days.<\/p>\n

\tThat\u2019s still behind Solo<\/em>, however, which posted a four-day opening of $103 million (that movie was dissed by audiences and critics alike). Solo<\/em> marked a low point for the franchise in topping out at less than $400 million globally.<\/p>\n

\tBy Saturday morning, rival studios were more bullish than Disney in predicting a four-day domestic opening of $95 million to $100 million for Mandalorian<\/em>. The big wild card is walk-up business on Saturday and Sunday. That is where families, who are notoriously hard to track, will come into play.<\/p>\n

\tDisney continues to point out that Mando<\/em> began its life on the small screen, so it is an entirely different proposition from previous titles in the Star Wars<\/em> pantheon, and introduces new characters not tied to the saga movies or stand-alone features. And if recent audience hits, including Project Hail Mary<\/a><\/em>, are any indication, it could have long legs.<\/p>\n

\tGlobally, Disney insiders expect Mandalorian and Grogu<\/em> to earn at least $160 million in its launch.<\/p>\n

\tThe movie sees Pedro Pascal return as\u00a0Mandalorian, a bounty hunter also known as Din Djarin, who is charged with protecting Grogu. Favreau directed from a script he wrote with Noah Kloor and Dave Filoni, who earlier this year, was\u00a0upped<\/a> to oversee\u00a0the creative direction of Lucasfilm as president and chief creative officer following Kathleen Kennedy\u2019s departure (he was a George Lucas prot\u00e9g\u00e9). \t<\/p>\n

\tIn the film, the Mandalorian is tasked by Sigourney Weaver\u2019s Colonel Ward of the New Republic to rescue Rotta the Hutt, voiced by Jeremy Allen White. Martin Scorsese also voices a memorable, four-armed food stand chef.<\/p>\n

\tThe other big headline of the Memorial Day weekend is Focus Features and Blumhouse\u2019s runaway horror hit<\/a> Obsession<\/a><\/em>, directed by Curry Barker<\/a> of YouTube fame. The horror film<\/a> looks to come in No. 2 for the weekend<\/a> with $19.9 million, a 16 percent increase over its opening last weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is the Force with The Mandalorian and Grogu, or against it? Judging by grosses alone, Jon Favreau\u2018s feature film adaptation of his Disney+ series is already making headlines around the world for likely scoring the lowest box office opening of any title in the storied Star Wars franchise since Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012. On Friday, Mando topped the domestic box office chart with a series-low $33 million from 4,300 theaters across North America. That\u2019s behind the $35.4 million grossed by the ill-fated Solo: A Star Wars Story in 2018, not adjusted for inflation. Actual tickets sold on Friday for each are in the $21 million range when taking out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[83,112,2,214,27,60,1082,1262,218],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-box-office","category-curry-barker","category-hollywood","category-jon-favreau","category-movie-news","category-movies","category-obsession","category-solo-a-star-wars-story","category-star-wars-the-mandalorian-grogu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}