Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu’s box office woes are continuing after the film dives another 61% in business and drops out of the domestic top five in its third weekend in theaters.
Directed by Jon Favreau, the feature film continuation of the hit Disney+ TV series had a soft opening at the box office over the four-day Memorial Day weekend May 22-25, debuting with the lowest opening of any Disney-backed Star Wars movie since the release of the blockbuster first chapter of the sequel trilogy, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens in 2015.
As such, The Mandalorian and Grogu earned $98 million domestically over Memorial Day weekend, falling $5 million short of the $103 million Solo: A Star Wars Story earned over the same four-day weekend period eight years ago. In the film’s second weekend, The Mandalorian and Grogu suffered a catastrophic drop of 69% in business from its opening three-day frame.
Unfortunately for Disney, things are going from bad to worse in the Mando and Grogu movie’s third weekend in theaters. Deadline projects that the film is heading for a $9.5 million take in its third weekend frame, a 61% drop in business from its disastrous second weekend dive for a sixth place finish at this weekend’s domestic box office.
Should the projection hold, it will boost The Mandalorian and Grogu’s running domestic tally to $155.3 million.
The latest Star Wars feature film — starring Pedro Pascal as the Mandalorian and Sigourney Weaver as a new character, Col. Ward — had a production budget of $165 million, with a global marketing budget of “at least $100 million,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Three YouTube Films Keep ‘The Mandalorian And Grogu’ Out Of The Box Office Top 5
Two new movies — the Wayans Bros.’ Scary Movie (from Paramount Pictures) and director Travis Knight’s He-Man movie Masters of the Universe (from Amazon MGM Studios) — are projected by Deadline to finish at No. 1 and No. 2 at the box office this week with domestic takes of $56 million and $30.1 million, respectively.
However, the biggest achievements, once again, belong to YouTube directors Kane Parsons and Curry Barker, whose indie horror features Backrooms and Obsession continue to bring in big money in North American theaters.
Deadline is projecting that A24’s Backrooms will earn $25.7 million to up its domestic tally to $134.8 million. Ironically, Backrooms is suffering nearly the same massive drop in its second frame at the box office (68%) that The Mandalorian and Grogu did (69%), but A24 can rest easy knowing its film was produced for $10 million before marketing.
Focus Features’ Obsession, on the other hand, continues to be the biggest success story of the year in the movie business. The $750,000 Obsession undoubtedly has the best weekend-to-weekend hold of any movie released during the summer movie season with a 39% leap in business from its first to second-weekend frame, which was followed by a 14% jump in business from its second to third weekends.
Now, Deadline projects Obsession will fall a mere 9% from its weekend three business to earn $24.8 million in its fourth weekend frame. Should the projection hold, Obsession’s domestic earnings will shoot up to $151.3 million by Friday.
As if the one-two punches from Parsons and Barker weren’t enough to damage The Mandalorian and Grogu, a third YouTube filmmaker, Gooseworx, delivered another massive blow to Star Wars this weekend with The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act, which is being distributed in theaters by Fathom Events.
The feature film version of Episodes 8 and 9 of the viral YouTube viral series, The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act, is projected by Deadline to earn $22.1 million from 2,221 North American theaters in its debut.
Note: This box office report will be updated throughout the weekend with the most current numbers available. The final numbers for this weekend’s box office will be released on Monday.
