I went to see The Mandalorian & Grogu hoping, maybe foolishly, that this would be the moment Star Wars found its footing again. I did not hate the movie. In fact, I enjoyed parts of it. But that is almost beside the point now. What happened in its second weekend tells a much bigger story.
The latest entry in Disney’s Star Wars era opened to about $81.67 million over the three day Memorial Day weekend from May 22 to May 25, 2026. Its four day total reached roughly $98 million. Despite that start, the steep decline in its second weekend ranks among the worst for a Star Wars film, even surpassing the drop seen by Solo: A Star Wars Story.
A 70 percent drop is not just a bad box office trend. It is a warning sign. When a Star Wars film falls that hard and ends up in third place behind two horror movies, one of them a small A24 project from a YouTube creator, something is clearly broken. This is not about one film failing. This is about a brand losing its grip on the audience that made it powerful in the first place.
Disney opened The Mandalorian & Grogu to about $81 million over three days, close to $98 million over four. Those are not terrible numbers on paper. But the collapse right after that puts it among the worst second weekend drops in franchise history, even worse than Solo: A Star Wars Story. That should not be possible for a brand like Star Wars.
What we are seeing is not a quality problem. It is a trust problem.
Fans like me did not suddenly turn on Star Wars overnight. This has been building for years. Each confusing decision, each divisive story choice, each moment where it felt like the people in charge did not understand what made Star Wars work in the first place. It adds up. Eventually people stop showing up.
I keep hearing that the fans are the problem. That we are too negative or too demanding. That argument does not hold up when the box office numbers are right there in front of everyone. People are not angry because they hate Star Wars. We’re frustrated because we loved it and feel like it has been mishandled.
At some point, Lucasfilm has to look inward. Better trailers will not fix this. Better release dates will not fix this. You cannot market your way out of a credibility issue with your own audience. This is a rotting corporate culture issue.
The hard truth is that rebuilding Star Wars is going to take more than surface level changes. It means taking a serious look at who is making the creative calls and asking whether they are the right people to carry this franchise forward. That is not an easy conversation, but it is a necessary one.
Right now, The Mandalorian & Grogu feels far less like a fresh start and more like proof of how far things have slipped. Star Wars used to be the safest bet in entertainment. Now it’s struggling to compete with smaller horror films that simply understand their audience better.
That should concern anyone who cares about the future of this franchise.
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English (US) · 