Disney’s hopes of restoring Star Wars to its former box office glory with The Mandalorian and Grogu appear to be fading rapidly.
Just one day after losing the No. 1 spot to the surprise horror hit Obsession, The Mandalorian and Grogu slipped even further on Thursday, falling all the way to third place at the domestic box office. Even more concerning for Disney, the film wasn’t merely edged out by competing blockbuster releases—it was thoroughly outperformed by two horror movies carrying a fraction of its budget.
According to daily box office figures for Thursday, May 28th, newcomer Backrooms debuted in first place with an impressive $10.4 million. Meanwhile, Obsession continued its remarkable run, bringing in another $4.83 million. Disney’s latest trip to a galaxy far, far away finished in third place with just $3.54 million.
For a franchise that once dominated theaters for weeks on end, the optics are difficult to ignore.
Obsession Didn’t Just Beat Star Wars — It Crushed It
The most alarming development for Disney may not be the rise of Backrooms. New releases often claim the top spot during their opening days.
Instead, the bigger story is what Obsession continues to do.
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On Wednesday, the low-budget horror film reclaimed the No. 1 position from The Mandalorian and Grogu. Some observers dismissed the result as a one-day anomaly, but Thursday’s numbers suggest otherwise.
Not only did Obsession remain ahead of Disney’s latest Star Wars film, it widened the gap significantly.
The horror movie earned approximately $4.83 million on Thursday compared to just $3.54 million for The Mandalorian and Grogu. Despite operating with a budget that reportedly represents only a tiny fraction of Disney’s spending, Obsession continues to generate stronger daily audience interest.
At this point, the film isn’t merely competing with Star Wars. It’s becoming the box office story audiences are talking about while Disney’s latest blockbuster struggles to maintain momentum.
Backrooms Delivers Another Blow
As if losing to Obsession wasn’t bad enough, Thursday introduced an entirely new problem for Disney.
Backrooms exploded onto the scene with a $10.4 million opening day, nearly tripling the daily earnings of The Mandalorian and Grogu.
Disney spent years positioning The Mandalorian as the flagship series of its Disney+ strategy. Grogu became one of the company’s most marketable characters. The film was intended to signal that Star Wars was ready to return to theaters as a major cinematic force.
Instead, a horror film inspired by an internet phenomenon generated almost three times as much business on Thursday.
That’s not the kind of comparison Disney executives were hoping to see just days after opening weekend.
Questions Continue to Grow About Star Wars’ Future in Theaters
The Thursday numbers arrive on top of a growing list of concerns surrounding the film’s performance.
The Mandalorian and Grogu already delivered the lowest opening weekend of Disney’s theatrical Star Wars era. Revised figures later revealed the film failed to reach the $100 million domestic opening many had initially reported.
A piece of the Mandalorian and Grogu movie poster – Disney
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Internationally, the movie has also struggled to generate the kind of excitement Disney likely expected from the franchise’s first theatrical release in years.
Then the film found itself trailing not one but two horror movies before its second weekend had even begun.
That reality raises uncomfortable questions about whether Disney’s streaming-first strategy has fundamentally changed how audiences view Star Wars. After years of training viewers to expect new adventures on Disney+, convincing those same audiences to purchase movie tickets may be proving far more difficult than anticipated.
A Stunning Decline for Hollywood’s Most Dominant Franchise
There was a time when the arrival of a new Star Wars movie effectively cleared the field.
Competitors avoided opening against the franchise. Studios shifted release dates. The conversation belonged almost entirely to Lucasfilm.
Today, the situation looks dramatically different.
Grogu eating a cookie – Star Wars, YouTube
A low-budget horror sensation is outperforming Disney’s latest Star Wars release. A second horror movie just opened and immediately surged past it. Instead of dominating the cultural conversation, The Mandalorian and Grogu is watching smaller films seize the spotlight.
For Disney, that’s perhaps the most troubling takeaway from Thursday’s numbers.
The issue isn’t simply that The Mandalorian and Grogu lost the box office crown.
It’s that audiences appear far more excited about what comes next for Obsession and Backrooms than what comes next for Star Wars.
Are you surprised that The Mandalorian and Grogu has fallen to third place at the box office?
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