If the numbers stick, this lands below Solo: A Star Wars Story. That 2018 flop opened to $84.4 million over four days. Solo even hit $80 million in its first three days alone. Disney took a surefire cash machine and made it a gamble.
This marks Star Wars‘ first big-screen swing since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker stumbled out in 2019. No triumphant comeback here. The franchise just looks tired and lost. Hits like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi cleared $200 million easy back then. Now the bar sinks lower each time.
Disney suits will tout the cheap budget and shrug. At $166.4 million, The Mandalorian and Grogu beats Solo‘s bloated $300 million tab. Fine for the bean counters maybe. It ignores the real rot. Crowds aren’t rushing in anymore. Jon Favreau just admitted Disney forced him to ditch his season four Mandalorian vision for a watered-down movie. No wonder it might flop hard after opening weekend.
Blame the creative mess. Disney chased identity obsessions with trash like The Acolyte. Fans laughed it off as lesbian witch propaganda over actual space opera. Then they axed Gina Carano’s Cara Dune for wrongthink. She actually clicked with viewers. Pedro Pascal’s helmet-hiding act? Crickets from HR on his antics.
Pascal may kill it on streaming. Moviegoers demand more. Disney peddles him like Harrison Ford 2.0. Good luck with that. Bringing Cara Dune back for a cameo could fix some fan rage. Instead, they settled her lawsuit out of court and pretended it never happened. That stench lingers. Disney is squandering a great opportunity at sowing good will with disenchanted fans by bringing Cara Dune back for a cameo in this movie.
Even today’s kids prefer the classic material era films over the Disney era.
Tough focus group for Star Wars, as five 17 and 18 year-olds show no interest in The Mandalorian and Grogu https://t.co/IkLzWPiq7T pic.twitter.com/BdoHHbeVQb
— Nick Field (@nick_field90) May 1, 2026
Here’s the ugly truth. Star Wars once ruled as the ultimate boy brand. Pure adventure, heroes, straight stories. Disney has twisted it into a woke girl-brand disaster. Weak openings like this will prove their greatest feat will be that they turned a money-making blockbuster factory into a fan-repelling mess.
For context, here are the opening weekend numbers for past Star Wars films, not adjusted for inflation.
|
Title |
Reported Frame |
Opening Gross |
Release Date |
|
Star Wars: The Force Awakens |
Three-day opening (Thu-Sun) |
$247.9 million |
Dec. 18, 2015 |
|
Star Wars: The Last Jedi |
Three-day opening (Fri-Sun) |
$220 million |
Dec. 15, 2017 |
|
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker |
Three-day opening (Fri-Sun) |
$177.3 million |
Dec. 19, 2019 |
|
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story |
Three-day opening (Thu-Sun) |
$155 million |
Dec. 16, 2016 |
|
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith |
Four-day holiday (Thu-Sun) |
$108.4 million |
May 19, 2005 |
|
Solo: A Star Wars Story |
Four-day holiday (Thu-Mon) |
$84.4 million |
May 25, 2018 |
|
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones |
Three-day opening (Fri-Sun) |
$80 million |
May 16, 2002 |
|
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace |
Three-day opening (Fri-Sun) |
$64.8 million |
May 19, 1999 |
|
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi |
Three-day opening (Fri-Sun) |
$23 million |
May 25, 1983 |
|
Star Wars: The Clone Wars |
Three-day opening (Fri-Sun) |
$14.6 million |
August 15, 2008 |
|
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back |
Three-day opening (Fri-Sun) |
$4.9 million |
May 21, 1980 |
|
Star Wars: A New Hope |
Three-day opening (Fri-Sun) |
$1.5 million |
May 25, 1977 |
Disney will try to flood the market with promos, toys, and fast food tie ins ahead of release, include a $600 Grogu statue. That’s the playbook that used to guarantee a hit. Now it feels like overcompensating. The Force may still be out there somewhere, but the audience is no longer responding to it the way it used to, and Disney is to blame.
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English (US) · 