Mandalorian and Grogu opens with $33 million, eyes $94 million weekend

Disney and Lucasfilm’s return of Star Wars to theaters opened with $33 million on Friday, a solid start that still left room for doubt about how far franchise nostalgia can carry a movie in the streaming era. At the same time, Focus Features’ horror breakout Obsession surged 16% in its second weekend, a sharper signal that smaller originals with strong word of mouth can sometimes hold better than giant brand-name launches.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu reached theaters May 22 in 4,300 North American locations, the franchise’s first theatrical release since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. Jon Favreau directed the film, with Pedro Pascal back as Din Djarin and Grogu again at the center of the story. Disney’s setup puts the pair in service of the New Republic, which has enlisted them to confront scattered Imperial warlords, while Sigourney Weaver joins the cast and Rotta the Hutt, Jabba’s son, factors into the plot.

The opening was strong enough to keep holiday-weekend projections high, with early tracking pointing to a four-day Memorial Day total of $91 million to $94 million after about $12 million in Thursday previews. The film also posted an A- CinemaScore and a 71 percent definite recommend on PostTrak, signs that audiences who showed up largely liked what they saw. The Hollywood Reporter said the movie’s audience score was a series high, an important counterweight to the franchise-low Friday gross. Variety also drew a comparison to Solo: A Star Wars Story, underscoring how carefully Disney will be watching whether this launch looks like a durable theatrical comeback or just a respectable one-off from a once-dominant property.

Obsession offered the weekend’s clearest contrast. Directed by Curry Barker and starring Inde Navarrette and Michael Johnston, the horror title opened May 15 and was pacing 16 percent ahead of its first weekend as of Friday. The Numbers put its domestic total at $36.45 million by May 22, including $6.07 million on Friday alone, an unusually strong hold for a genre release.

That endurance matters. Focus Features bought Obsession out of the Toronto International Film Festival in a deal sources put at $15 million-plus, with Blumhouse later boarding, and its second-week strength suggests that disciplined budgets and audience traction can now look more reliable than massive franchise machinery. The weekend turned into a test of what still moves moviegoers in the United States: a legacy galactic brand trying to prove it can still fill theaters, and a modest horror hit showing that fresh stories can still outlast the spectacle.