Still from Disney’s “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu.”
Disney
Walt Disney’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu” jettisoned into theaters Friday, marking the first time in seven years that a new Star Wars film has launched on the big screen.
Sunday estimates indicated that the film, based on the hit Disney+ show “The Mandalorian,” surpassed initial box office projections, tallying $82 million in domestic ticket sales through its first three days in theaters. Official numbers will be released on Monday.
While “The Mandalorian and Grogu” outpaced the $80 million that most box office analysts predicted, it has so far tallied less than 2018’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” which at $84 million was the previous lowest-opening Star Wars project in the era of Disney Star Wars releases, according to data from Comscore.
Analysts foresee the film exceeding $100 million domestically for the four-day Memorial Day holiday weekend. Internationally, “The Mandalorian and Grogu” snapped up around $63 million in ticket sales.
The film benefited from premium large format screenings like IMAX and Dolby Cinema, as 41% of tickets were sold for these upgraded, more expensive showings, according to data from EntTelligence. Standard tickets for the film averaged $16.01 apiece, while premium tickets cost an average of $19.43 each, the data company reported.
However, the film’s box office isn’t the only metric that Disney will be keeping an eye on. The company’s strategy doesn’t just rely on ticket sales — it has other avenues for revenue growth, including merchandise, its streaming service and theme parks.
Star Wars generates more than $1 billion in retail sales each year, even without a new title arriving in theaters.
Additionally, “The Mandalorian” series is the most-watched original show on Disney+, with more than 1.3 billion hours watched globally. Viewership of the series and other Star Wars titles have gotten a bump on the platform in recent weeks because of the release of “The Mandalorian and Grogu.”
At its domestic theme parks, the company updated its “Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run” ride to feature a new mission featuring Grogu in the cockpit. At the same time the BDX droids featured in the film have reappeared in Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge themed area. Also, through its close partnership with developer Epic Games, Fortnite has introduced new environments, characters, vehicles and purchasable cosmetics for gamers.
