Disney is facing yet another embarrassing movie failure following the collapse of its latest Star Wars movie at the box office. The Walt Disney Company, Lucasfilm, and by extension, the future of the Star Wars franchise are reeling from the disappointing performance of The Mandalorian and Grogu.
It was just over a decade ago that The Force Awakens became the highest-grossing movie (not adjusted for inflation) in the history of domestic U.S. box office. While deeply flawed and derivative, it at least attempted to set up a cohesive storyline for a new generation of Star Wars trilogy. It has been downhill ever since, says Fox News.
As soon as The Last Jedi hit theatres several years later, it became clear that Lucasfilm, then headed by Kathleen Kennedy, had no coherent plan for the series. The Last Jedi undid much of The Force Awakens, had little explanation for plot setups in the first film, and treated the legendary heroes of the Star Wars universe with disdain. In short, it was a microcosm of the problems with modern filmmaking.
Pedro Pascal stars in the new movie. The studio scrambled and brought back J.J. Abrams to fix things with The Rise of Skywalker, which was widely panned for its unrealistic plot, laughable dialogue, and inexplicable plotting. Fast forward seven years, and The Mandalorian and Grogu hit theatres as the first Star Wars film of the 2020s.
Opening weekend ticket sales were disappointing, coming in on the low end of estimates at around $81 million, and the long Memorial Day weekend gross fell far short of Solo, the last non-trilogy film in the Star Wars universe. That seemed to set up Disney to potentially take a small loss or struggle to the theatrical break-even point.
Still, if the film had positive word of mouth, a strong second week could have put The Mandalorian and Grogu back on track financially. With this past weekend's box office results now in, unfortunately for Disney, it was the exact opposite.
According to Box Office Mojo, not only did The Mandalorian and Grogu drop out of the top spot in theatres, it fell all the way to third thanks to a whopping 70% collapse in revenues. Its opening weekend was a disappointing $81.7 million, and it fell to just $25 million from Friday to Sunday. That is not unprecedented, but it is disastrous.
It was the first Star Wars release in seven years. Even more incredible, the two movies that beat out The Mandalorian were low-budget films from essentially first-time directors. Backrooms is a $10 million horror movie from 20-year-old YouTuber Kane Parsons. It made $81.4 million in its first weekend, just slightly less than a $175 million Star Wars movie, despite not hitting theatres on a holiday weekend.
Obsession also beat out The Mandalorian, grossing an estimated $26.4 million over the weekend. That movie was directed by Curry Barker, a 26-year-old who found fame from YouTube and TikTok. The production budget on Obsession, at around $750,000, was likely lower than what The Mandalorian spent on office supplies. It outgrossed it this past weekend anyway.
These results also cement that Disney will likely lose a substantial amount of money on The Mandalorian. Reports have suggested that production and marketing costs ran around $300 million. Even if tax credits brought that down, a reasonable break-even point would be around $500 million worldwide. At $137 million domestically and a 70% drop, it is not going to come close.
The film has been a huge flop for Disney. Another 70% drop for its third weekend would be just $7.5 million in grosses, all but guaranteeing it winds up well short of $200 million domestically. With international grosses better but still underwhelming, it is possible that The Mandalorian and Grogu fails to reach even $375 million worldwide, potentially handing Disney a $100 million or more loss for a Star Wars movie.
Teenagers today do not have the same reverence for Star Wars that prior generations did because the movies they have seen have not been good enough to warrant it. Instead of checking specific boxes and satisfying targets, focus should be on quality stories and memorable characters. Does anyone care about Rey, Poe, or Finn? Of course not. But Han Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, Lando Calrissian, and Chewbacca remain beloved parts of film history. Under Disney and Kathleen Kennedy, they have forgotten what made Star Wars what it is or used to be. And as this past weekend shows, where two low-budget horror movies from YouTubers outgrossed a Star Wars movie, it might be too late to fix it.
This story originally appeared on Fox News and is republished here with permission.
