The Mandalorian and Grogu tops box office despite mixed reviews from critics

The first Star Wars movie in seven years has topped the box office on its opening weekend despite mixed reviews from critics ahead of release.

According to studio estimates, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu earned $82 million across 4,300 theatres in the U.S. and Canada during its opening weekend. By the end of Monday’s Memorial Day holiday, Disney expects the film to reach $102 million domestically and around $165 million globally.

This gives both Disney and the LEGO Group reasons to feel optimistic about the franchise’s future. Those numbers already exceed earlier projections, which estimated the movie would make roughly $80 million across the four-day Memorial Day frame.

While that still places it on the lower end of Disney-era Star Wars openings, it compares more closely to Solo: A Star Wars Story, which earned $103 million over the same holiday period in 2018.

Unlike Solo, however, The Mandalorian and Grogu carries a far smaller reported production budget of around $165 million before marketing, compared to Solo’s famously troubled $300 million production. That lower budget gives Disney a much clearer path to profitability, especially as audience reactions have been significantly stronger than critics’ reviews.

At the time of writing, the movie sits at 62% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, but audiences have responded far more positively, giving it an 89% Popcornmeter score. CinemaScore audiences also awarded the film an A- grade, with particularly strong reactions from younger viewers and families.

That audience response could matter just as much for the LEGO Group as it does for Disney. LEGO Star Wars has leaned heavily into The Mandalorian in recent years, with Din Djarin and Grogu becoming some of the theme’s most recognisable modern characters. A strong box office performance now gives the LEGO Group more confidence to continue producing sets based on the film and its wider Disney+ storyline.

The movie also benefits from its streaming-first origins. Unlike Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which released only a month or so after Disney+ launched in 2019, The Mandalorian and Grogu arrives after years of Disney+ growth and a massive audience built through the original streaming series. That creates a built-in fanbase already heavily invested in the characters, something the LEGO Group has already capitalised on with multiple successful sets.

If the film continues to perform well, LEGO Star Wars could continue with The Mandalorian over the next few years. Disney has already shown how closely LEGO releases can align with major Star Wars projects, and a successful theatrical run may encourage the LEGO Group to continue giving us sets from the series and now the movie.

Crossing the $100 million mark over Memorial Day weekend would place The Mandalorian and Grogu among the stronger post-pandemic holiday openings, alongside films such as Top Gun: Maverick, the live-action The Little Mermaid, and 2025’s Lilo & Stitch.

For Disney, that would represent a welcome return for Star Wars on the big screen. For the LEGO Group, it could mean a continued focus on Din Djarin and Grogu in future LEGO Star Wars releases.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is out in cinemas now, and the first wave of tie-in LEGO Star Wars sets are already on shelves.

LEGO The Mandalorian and Grogu sets

Featured image: Disney/Lucasfilm

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