The new Star Wars film The Mandalorian and Grogu has topped the box office at the start of Memorial Day weekend, but remains on course for an opening weekend on par with the lowest opening in the sci-fi franchise's history.
The film, from Iron Man director Jon Favreau, opened with takings of $33 million in the US on Friday. It is expected to make somewhere between $80 million and $100 million across its opening weekend.
The lowest opening in Star Wars history was Solo: A Star Wars Story, which grossed $84.4 million over a three-day weekend and $103 million over the four-day Memorial Day holiday weekend in 2018.
Meanwhile, horror movie Obsession is celebrating an incredibly rare feat after posting better box office results for its second weekend than it did for its opening weekend. As Variety reports, YouTuber Curry Barker's new film made $17.2 million when it debuted and is predicted to make $19.9 million this weekend.
The Mandalorian and Grogu: A Big-Screen Spin-Off
The Mandalorian and Grogu is a big-screen spin-off of the hit Mandalorian series, with Pedro Pascal's masked bounty hunter teaming up with Grogu – aka Baby Yoda – to rescue Jabba the Hutt's estranged son Rotta the Hutt, voiced by The Bear's Jeremy Allen White.
The film was made for a reported $165 million (£121 million) price tag before marketing costs, the lowest in Star Wars movie history. It marks the first Star Wars feature to be directed by Favreau. He previously directed, wrote and produced episodes of The Mandalorian, as well as the limited series The Book of Boba Fett and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
Critical Reception
The Mandalorian and Grogu was handed a two-star review by The Independent critic Clarisse Loughrey, who wrote: “The Mandalorian and Grogu merely stitches together what is clearly three episodes of the previously planned fourth season of The Mandalorian and calls it a day. There’s not a whiff of effort here.”
“As a mid-season arc for the character of Pedro Pascal's sultry voice inside a metal bucket and his tiny, puppet son, this might have been adequate, if uninspired. As a so-called feature film event, blown up to Imax with Sigourney Weaver roped in to deliver a few lines, it's the dullest and most inconsequential Star Wars film ever made,” the review added.
Loughrey did however praise Obsession, awarding the film four stars and writing: “Obsession ultimately triumphs in how willing it is to make two monsters out of its cautionary tale.”
