‘Mandalorian’ Grosses Less Than ‘Solo’ Over Its Opening Weekend

The Mandalorian and Grogu broke a box office record. But not the good kind.

The film earned $81 million from Friday to Sunday and $100 million over the four-day Memorial Day weekend in U.S. theaters. Both of those numbers mark it as the lowest opening for a Star Wars movie since Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012 and began making their own films in the series starting with 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The previous record holder for the weakest opening for a Disney Star Wars was the entertainment giant’s Han Solo prequel film Solo: A Star Wars Story. It grossed $84.4 million in its first three days of release and $103 million over its first four days of release back in 2018 — both slightly better than The Mandalorian and Grogu.

READ MORE: A Brutally Honest Kid Reviews The Mandalorian and Grogu

The only reason The Mandalorian’s numbers are not disastrously awful is that, at least if you believe the figures that are out there online, The Mandalorian and Grogu cost far less to make than Solo: A Star Wars Story — something like $165 million versus $300-$365 million. Even on the low end of that estimate, that’s nearly half as much — so just grossing the same amount puts Mandalorian and Grogu on slightly better financial footing than it appears.

The movie also has Baby Yoda, who is a merchandising bonanza all unto himself. Nobody was excited to buy a Baby Han Solo doll or action figure. Disney stands to make millions upon millions of dollars just from the merchandising rights for this movie. When you factor all that in, Disney probably comes out ahead.

But does Star Wars? That’s tough to say. The movie got decent reviews from critics and audiences, but not rapturous ones. And these grosses are similarly okay, but not great. And after seven years without a Star Wars movie, Disney surely wanted great. (Solo came amidst a flurry of Star Wars movies in theaters, putting it at a disadvantage in terms of supply and demand.)

Maybe it was simply hard to convince people to pay for the movie version of a TV show they have watched for years. Or maybe people still feel stung by The Rise of Skywalker. Either way, Disney will test Star Wars’ theatrical viability again soon — the next movie, Star Wars: Starfighter, comes out next year on Memorial Day weekend.