From “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu”.
“Star Wars” returns to screens this weekend for the first time in seven years aboard the jetpack contrail of The Mandalorian.
disney’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu’s Thursday night preview sales reached $12 million, the lowest advance ticket collection in the series’ history, according to ComScore data. Solo: A Star Wars Story had its lowest pre-show ticket sales ever in 2018, at $14.1 million.
Box office analysts expect the film, based on the popular Disney+ show “The Mandalorian,” to gross about $80 million in its opening three-day weekend and $95 million in four-day Memorial Day weekend. Some less conservative experts estimate that three-day sales could be $95 million, and $115 million for the weekend.
This is one of the lowest opening box office grosses for a Star Wars movie in modern film history. “Han Solo” opened with $84.4 million eight years ago, according to ComScore data. Since 2015, “Solo” is the only movie with a domestic opening gross of less than $100 million.
“The Mandalorian & Grogu” is likely to benefit from the popularity of the TV show, the long Memorial Day weekend, and limited competition from new titles, especially on premium big screens.
It will also serve as a stress test for future Star Wars theatrical releases amid lackluster box office performances for Star Wars and Marvel, the dominant franchises that helped Disney dominate the global box office in the 2010s. The studio plans to release “Starfighter,” starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Shawn Levy, in theaters in 2027.
No new Star Wars movie has been released in theaters since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. The final film in the Skywalker Saga, and the third in what is known as the Sequel Trilogy, grossed more than $1 billion at the box office, but was widely panned by critics and fans. Disney and its Lucasfilm Studios have paused theatrical productions in favor of resuming the series on its streaming service Disney+.
Released just a month before The Rise of Skywalker, The Mandalorian was a huge hit for the company and inspired many live-action Star Wars projects to become series rather than theatrical. These include “Andor”, “Obi-Wan Kenobi”, “Ahsoka”, “Skeleton Crew”, “Acolyte”, and “The Book of Boba Fett”.
Lucasfilm has named director Jon Favreau, who worked with new studio head Dave Filoni to bring The Mandalorian to Disney+, to direct The Mandalorian and Grogu. The budget for this feature film is slightly lower than a typical Star Wars film, with an estimated production cost of approximately $165 million. Other Star Wars projects released in theaters in the past decade cost more than $250 million to make, according to Numbers data.
This means that The Mandalorian and Grogu’s profitability standards are lower than previous titles in the series. Of course, these production budgets do not include marketing costs.
Box office revenue isn’t the only thing that matters to parent company Disney. The film has also seen a flurry of consumer product launches to coincide with its release.
The Star Wars series has consistently sold well at retail stores, even without a theatrical release. Therefore, the introduction of new products across different categories and brands could be a huge boon for the company. Especially after Grogu, the character known as “Baby Yoda,” became a huge hit with fans.
Especially after the 2015 release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the first film in Lucasfilm’s latest Star Wars trilogy. hasbro Sales of Star Wars products alone reached nearly $500 million.
Not to mention, Disney already has partnerships at theme park properties, including special merchandise and a revamped Smuggler’s Run ride featuring Grogu.
