The Mandalorian and Grogu, the first new live-action Star Wars movie in seven years, is set to have a tough future at the box office.
Deadline reports that the Jon Favreau directed flick is going to have a tough second weekend at the box office. Even though there is not a whole lot of kid movies to go and see plus IMAX screens all to itself, Star Wars The Mandalorian and Grogu will come in 3rd place this weekend at the box office behind Obsession and Backrooms; two films made on a small budget by 20-something year old YouTubers.
The Mandalorian and Grogu was projected to earn $30-35m in the US this weekend but it has missed that target. It should now earn $25m. That is a 69% decrease over opening weekend last week; a bigger drop than Solo: A Star Wars Story (65%) had during the same period in 2018. For a storied pop culture franchise of nearly a half a century, this is a real bad look for Lucasfilm and Disney. It is currently tracking to be 8% behind Solo by the end of Sunday.
According to industry sources speaking with Deadline, cinemagoers did not pick to see Obsession or Backrooms over The Mandalorian and Grogu. Instead, it has reached its potential with current Star Wars fans.
Disney tell The Hollywood Reporter box office performance is not the only thing they’re factoring in. Merch, park tickets and Disney+ all add to the film generating money back.
Earlier this week, we covered how The Mandalorian and Grogu’s budget including marketing is $300m. With this huge drop domestically, it has a lot of catch up to be doing which seems highly unlikely at this moment in time. Sources tell Deadline both Obsession and Backrooms could be both ahead within a few weeks. We’ll be keeping you up to date on how the box office battle plays out in over the course of the next few weeks.
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