After nearly seven years away from the big screen, a new Star Wars movie drew healthy but not record-breaking crowds to global theatres this weekend.
According to studio estimates on Sunday (May 24), Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu made US$82 million (S$104.7 million) in ticket sales from 4,300 theatres in the US and Canada.
By the end of Monday’s Memorial Day holiday, it’s expected to have earned US$102 million domestically and US$165 million globally.
It exceeded opening weekend expectations for the movie, a continuation of Disney+ spinoff series The Mandalorian, but it’s also on the low end of Disney-era Star Wars releases, closer to Solo: A Star Wars Story, which made US$103 million over the four-day Memorial Day frame in 2018.
While Solo was considered a disaster, the metrics around The Mandalorian and Grogu are a little different.
The production budget for Solo was in the US$300 million range, while The Mandalorian and Grogu was made for significantly less — a reported US$165 million, not accounting for marketing and promotion costs.
It makes the journey to profitability more likely, especially when factoring in positive audience scores.
Although critics were mixed to negative on the movie (it currently carries a 63 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes), ticket buyers overall gave it an A- CinemaScore. Boys under the age of 13 are especially high on the movie: They gave it an A CinemaScore and a perfect five on PostTrak. Parents also gave it a five out of five.
The Jon Favreau-directed movie stars Pedro Pascal as the titular bounty hunter and puts him and his tiny green companion on a mission to save Jabba’s son Rotta the Hutt, who is voiced by Jeremy Allen White.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu could also be graded on a bit of a curve because of the streaming component, both that it started as a series, and that it will eventually end up as a value add on Disney+, which was only about a month old when the last Star Wars movie, The Rise of Skywalker, debuted in December 2019.
Star Wars as a brand is in a time of transition under its new leadership team of Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan; Earlier this year it was announced that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who produced Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, was stepping down after 13 years.
The question for the industry is whether audience interest in Star Wars on the big screen might have cooled slightly, and if next year’s Star Wars: Starfighter, starring Ryan Gosling, will provide a definitive answer.
Until then, the hope is that strong audience and exit scores will propel word-of-mouth generated enthusiasm in the coming weeks.
“The moviegoers rule,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the head of marketplace trends for Comscore. “I think given the audience reaction and the scores that are coming from parents and kids, this is going to be in it for the long haul.”
Word-of-mouth certainly helped Curry Barker’s relationship horror movie Obsession defy the standard box office trajectory and do better business in its second weekend.
The Focus Features had an astonishing 30 per cent uptick in ticket sales, earning US$22.4 million from 2,655 theatres.
“That’s really unheard of,” Dergarabedian said. “And it is a testament to how this social media buzz from younger viewers is fuelling the FOMO factor.”
The studio, which acquired the microbudget movie for some US$15 million, is projecting that it will have made US$28.2 million by the end of Monday, bringing its running total to US$58.5 million.
It snagged the second-place spot, while Michael landed in third place with US$20 million for the three-day weekend. The Michael Jackson biopic has now earned US$782.4 million.
Obsession also did better than the new horror movie Passenger, a Paramount Pictures release with Melissa Leo, which grossed an estimated US$8.7 million from 2,534 locations.
It’s expected to earn US$10.5 million over its first four days. The movie received poor reviews from both critics (44 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences (B- Cinema Score).
Boots Riley’s colourful shoplifting caper meets surreal social satire I Love Boosters also opened this weekend to US$3.7 million. The Neon release stars Keke Palmer and Demi Moore.
The mix of movies this year didn’t hold a candle to last year’s record Memorial Day weekend, which was led by Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch and Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.
The overall four-day frame this year will net out around US$211 million, down about 36 per cent from last year’s US$330 million.
It’s also far from the disastrous 2024 Memorial Day weekend box office, a 30-year low, when Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga opened.
Top 10 movies by domestic box office
With final domestic figures being released Tuesday, this list factors in estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theatres, according to Comscore:
1. Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, US$82 million.
2. Obsession, US$22.4 million.
3. Michael, US$20 million.
4. The Devil Wears Prada 2, US$12.6 million.
5. The Sheep Detectives, US$9 million.
6. Passenger, US$8.7 million.
7. Mortal Kombat II, US$6.2 million.
8. I Love Boosters, US$3.7 million.
9. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, US$3.2 million.
10. Project Hail Mary, US$2.7 million.
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