UPDATED, AFTER EXCLUSIVE: Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu came in at $12M on the nose in Thursday previews.
In addition to 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, the pic is comping to such 4-day openers and their previews as Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World ($12M previews, $100M opening last year) and 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ($17.5M previews, $120.4M 4-day).
André Øvredal’s Paramount horror pic Passenger starring Melissa Leo grossed $1.1M from Thursday paid previews across roughly 2,125 locations. The pic is expected to do $9M-$10M over 4 days. Critics are low on it at 46%, and audiences aren’t wowed at 50%. The R-rated movie’s blurb: A young couple witness a horrific accident that leaves the driver dead. They soon encounter a demonic stalker who’s impossible to outrun and follows them wherever they go.
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The week’s top 5:
1) Michael (LG) 3,560 theaters, Wk $37.5M (-29%), Total $294.1M/Wk 4
2) Obsession (Focus) 2,615 theaters, Wk $30.3M/Wk 1
The Curry Barker-directed horror romance was No. 1 for a fourth straight day with $3.3M, ahead of Michael‘s $2.4M.
3) The Devil Wears Prada 2 (20th) 3,830 theaters, Wk $25.6M (-54%), Total $183.5M/Wk 3
4) Mortal Kombat II (NL) 3,534 theaters, Wk $17.7M (-64%), Total $66.6M/Wk 2
5) The Sheep Detectives (AMZ) 3,554 theaters, Wk $14.1M (-31%), Total $34.5M/Wk 2
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EXCLUSIVE: Lucasfilm/Disney’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu is pulling in around $12 million in North American Thursday night previews. It could be slightly lighter when the sun comes up in L.A. Shows began Thursday at 2 p.m.
That preview figure is slightly less than the Thursday cash made by 2018’s origin story Solo: A Star Wars Story, which was $14.1M. That turned into an $84.4M three-day and $103M four-day Memorial Day opening, not considered a starry start at all for the George Lucas-born, Disney-owned franchise.
Since its acquisition of Lucasfilm, Disney has hit it out of the park with 2015’s Star Wars, Episode VII: The Force Awakens, which at point charted the highest opening at the domestic box office ever with $247.9M before Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame came along in 2018 and 2019, respectively. In addition, Disney did spectacular with the 2016 Episode 4 prequel Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which opened to $155M stateside. Mandalorian and Grogu in pre-weekend tracking is hoping to clear $80M-$100M over the four days.
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The Jon Favreau-directed movie is playing at 4,300 theaters, including 425 Imax, with the full suite of PLF, 4DX, 3D and ScreenX. Presales were at $25M on Tuesday, ahead of Project Hail Mary (which opened to an $80.5M 3-day).
The wait-and-see of it all with the PG-13 Mandalorian and Grogu is whether the movie expands to families on Saturday and Sunday. At every step of the way in the marketing campaign, Disney has been targeting them, emphasizing the cute-cute of Grogu, i.e., that saccharine Super Bowl commercial where Pedro Pascal’s tough dude and Baby Yoda are in a sleigh, dashing through the snow. At the same time, they’ve tried to speak to the faithful with images of Empire Strikes Back‘s snowy AT-AT scenes and wrestler Rotta the Hutt.
On the positive side, the Rotten Tomatoes audience score for Mandalorian and Grogu is higher than Solo: A Star Wars Story, 88%-63% (realize Thursday night fans are far more gentle in reactions than non-core Star Wars audiences will be). On the downside, critics are a bit more sour on Mandalorian and Grogu than Solo, 61% fresh to 69%.
Last year, Disney led the Memorial Day box office to an all-time record with $326.7M for all movies, and the best opening the holiday has ever seen, with the live-action take of Lilo & Stitch with its $182.6M 4-day in the U.S. and Canada.
Shoutout to Focus Features’ Obsession, which has been ruling the box office in its weekdays, beating Michael on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The Curry Barker-directed romance horror pic inched out Michael on Tuesday with $3.6M.
Through Wednesday, Obsession was up to $27M at the domestic B.O. Look for a great hold on the Blumhouse co-branded pic heading into the holiday.