By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES, May 24 (Reuters) – New “Star Wars” film “The Mandalorian and Grogu” is expected to end the U.S. Memorial Day weekend with roughly $165 million in worldwide ticket sales, distributor Walt Disney said on Sunday.
About $102 million of that total will come from the United States and Canada, Disney said. The domestic total exceeds pre-weekend forecasts but is the lowest opening for any “Star Wars” movie released by Disney.
The first “Star Wars” movie in seven years tells the story of a helmeted bounty hunter and his sidekick, nicknamed Baby Yoda by fans. The duo debuted on the small screen in the Disney+ streaming series “The Mandalorian” in 2019.
Disney’s lowest-grossing “Star Wars” film, “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” brought in $103 million over Memorial Day weekend in 2018 and was considered a flop. The “Grogu” movie, however, had a smaller budget than most other “Star Wars” movies, of about $165 million.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine, editing by Deepa Babington)
