Disney’s Star Wars reboot flops as ‘Mandalorian and Grogu’ crashes at box office
It’s almost doubled now. The Star Wars-related property has disappointed in relation to the expectations of previous releases.
Seven years after the release of “The Rise of Skywalker,” Disney and Lucasfilm were hoping to reboot the iconic franchise with “The Mandalorian and Grogu.” And in doing so, they also revealed that they understood very little about the audience they were trying to serve.
When “The Force Awakens” hit theaters under the leadership of then-Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy, it was a huge financial success. While it may not be possible to reinvent the wheel creatively, it at least provided a solid foundation for the franchise to build from. But the next release in the “main” trilogy within the Star Wars universe saw a gradual decline as it became clear that the studio did not have a cohesive plan or a sense of what the audience liked, or liked, about the series.
Pedro Pascal attends the premiere of Disney’s “Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu” at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California, on May 14, 2026. (Brianna Bryson/GA/The Hollywood Reporter)
Ancient heroes like Luke Skywalker or Han Solo were underestimated at every opportunity. “The Last Jedi” included a strange episode and a political story that had little to do with the plot in each of those films, and was quickly dismissed as a plot within the trilogy later. The “program,” such as it was, was to make the audience care about clues simply because they exist. It didn’t work.
DISNEY’S FIRST ‘STAR WARS’ MOVIE IN SEVEN YEARS FOLLOWS UP TO BE ANOTHER HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT.
Fast forward to 2026, and Disney’s apparent hope for the Star Wars series was that their streaming service would provide a theatrical release structure. “The Mandalorian” was popular in its first season as a novel, episodic adventure in the “western” style. That momentum quickly changed, but in a few other ways, they rushed the story together into theaters anyway.
Not only did it fail, the recent box office returns show just how far Disney and Lucasfilm have to go to regain the trust of audiences.
The opening weekend of “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” despite coming over the long Memorial Day holiday, was just $80 million. After that, the film dropped 70% in its second weekend in theaters to $24.4 million.
‘THE MANDALORIAN AND THE GROUGH’ FAILS FOR SECOND TIME AT BOX OFFICE, ENHANCED DISNEY’S BIGGEST LOSS
Well, the news didn’t get any better this past weekend. If anything, it got worse. Sunday’s estimate is that “The Mandalorian” will bring in about $10 million or less, all but solidifying its fate at the domestic box office. And leading to disastrous financial losses for Disney.
With its production budget and marketing costs factored in, “The Mandalorian” needed to bring in $450-500 million to break even. And as its box office continues to dwindle, it currently sits at just $293 million worldwide. Thanks in large part to a whopping $155 million from US theaters.
Sigourney Weaver, Pedro Pascal, Jon Favreau, and Dave Filoni, president and chief artistic officer of Lucasfilm, attended the world premiere of The Mandalorian and Grogu Los Angeles on May 14, 2026. (Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for Disney)
The picture worsens when compared to previous Star Wars films and adjusts for inflation. Here’s a list of the latest releases in the franchise, and where “The Mandalorian” equals the domestic box office.
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- “The Force Awakens” – $1.27 billion
- “The Last Jedi” – $780 million
- “Rogue One” – $700 million
- “The Rise of Skywalker” – $620 million
- “Solo” – $265 million
- “The Mandalorian and Grogu” – $ 155 million
“Solo” was considered such a flop that it ended plans for a standalone trilogy focusing on Han Solo. “The Mandalorian” is tracking to come in at $70-80 million below that, adjusted for inflation. There’s no other way to put it, that’s failure.
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“The Mandalorian” may not have been “political,” or directly divisive, however, the star Pedro Pascal worked hard to distinguish himself. It’s that the cumulative effect of their decisions has grown over the years to the point that the audience no longer cares.
Pedro Pascal attends The Mandalorian and Grogu Los Angeles World Premiere in Los Angeles, Calif., on May 14, 2026. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Disney)
Disney and Kathleen Kennedy’s version of Lucasfilm managed to lose the trust of the audience despite owning the most successful and popular movie franchise in the history of Hollywood. Books will be written about this. Film school classes will be taught about this. And it was completely avoidable, if they had just focused on the quality, story, plot and character development instead of filling out every conceivable belief. Now they are about to lose $100+ million on a Star Wars movie. You have to give it to them, it’s amazing, if nothing else.
