The Mandalorian and Grogu is similar to Solo: A Star Wars Story in many ways. It’s a relatively low-stakes adventure, it doesn’t take itself too seriously and it’s not necessarily a movie fans were clamoring for. Alas, they’re also both similar in terms of box-office performance, with Jon Favreau’s cinematic extension of The Mandalorian earning $100 million in the U.S. over four days compared to Solo’s $103 million four-day opening, Deadline reports. The film did fare better, however, with overseas markets, taking in $163 million worldwide over that same period vs. Solo’s $153 million global take.
There are a few things to unpack here. The Mandalorian and Grogu’s budget of $165 million was about half that of Solo, so between return business and merchandising, it’s likely this film will ultimately be profitable for Disney in the long run. And the film performed about $20 million higher than initial projections, so this likely won’t – and shouldn’t be considered the financial disappointment that was Ron Howard’s 2018 film.
But this film is also being heralded as Star Wars’ grand return to cinemas in its marketing, being the first theatrical Star Wars project since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. It’s not quite that – this is three or four TV episodes strung together. Casual fans going in without those tempered expectations are going to be disappointed. It might have been better to save the return to the big screen for next year’s Star Wars: Starfighter and create a fourth season of The Mandalorian instead. In terms of optics, Star Wars isn’t really “back” quite yet.
That said, I enjoyed The Mandalorian and Grogu a lot more than I thought I would. It’s loaded with monsters, it’s charming where it needs to be – including plenty of tender moments featuring Grogu and the surprisingly endearing Rotta the Hutt – and Ludwig Göransson’s score absolutely slaps. It’s not the Star Wars movie I was necessarily looking for, but I’m grateful it exists.
Read my full review here.
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