"The Mandalorian and Grogu" Opens to $163 Million Worldwide at the Box Office

The first Star Wars movie in seven years, "The Mandalorian and Grogu," opened at number one worldwide, though it's too early to tell whether it will be considered a box office success in the long run.

What's Happening:

• The Mandalorian and Grogu is the number one movie worldwide, bringing in $163 million for its first days in release, per Variety.
• That includes $100 million over the four-day Memorial Day holiday weekend domestically, or $81 million for Friday-Sunday if you're looking at a regular weekend.
• That means it brought in $63 million in international markets, which is decent, albeit not a standout number for a movie of this size (it's worth noting Star Wars has usually tended to bring in more of its audience percentage from domestic grosses than other major franchises).
• There are a lot of eyes on how The Mandalorian and Grogu does, because it arrives after a notably long break between Star Wars movies and in the wake of several Star Wars streaming series launching -- beginning with The Mandalorian in 2019 -- as the series tries to reposition itself back to a theatrical experience.
• The opening weekend numbers for the new movie are just below 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story, which opened to $103 million over Memorial Day and $168 worldwide.
• Solo was ultimately deemed a notable box office disappointment, but there are important factors that help The Mandalorian and Grogu have more breathing room.
• A big one is that the film cost far less than Solo -- a reported $165 million budget vs. Solo's $300 million -- so it doesn't need to make as much to be considered profitable.
• The other talking point is the audience reaction seems stronger. Though Solo has a slightly better 69% on Rotten Tomatoes' critics Tomatometer (vs. The Mandalorian and Gorgu's current 62%), the new movie's 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is much higher than Solo's 63%. The opening night cinemascore polling is less conclusive though, with both movies getting an A-.
• The hope is that The Mandalorian and Grogu is likely to have better box office legs than Solo, which ultimately ended its run with $392.9 million, making it the lowest grossing live-action Star Wars feature film.
• You can check out Mike Celestino's review of The Mandalorian and Grogu for Laughing Place, in which he called it "a pleasantly low-stakes escapade that zooms in on the working and father/adopted-son relationship between Din Djarin and Grogu."