• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

“Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” rocketed to a leading $102 million opening on Memorial Day weekend, according to IMDb's Box Office Mojo.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, the movie earned an 89% positive score from moviegoers and received other high audience-exit scores. CinemaScore gave it an "A" rating.

The new movie did well as a “family friendly” film for a major holiday. One slight downside was its 62 critics score from Rotten Tomatoes.

Not yet a top earner, and with a high $165 million production and marketing budget, "Mandalorian and Grogu" took in another $63 million internationally over the holiday weekend. 

The previous “Star Wars” franchise film, “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” earned $103 million in North America over the four-day holiday period in 2018 and had almost double the cost of "The Mandalorian” (at $275 million). Still, it finished with $392.9 million in global box-office revenue.

The Disney+ TV series “The Mandalorian” gave a boost to the film's marketing. With three seasons and 24 episodes and the last season released in March-April 2023, it is the most-watched original series on Disney’s streamer. 

Season Four, slotted to air on Disney+, was shifted to become a movie -- the film now showing in theatres.

National TV marketing for “The Mandalorian” was strong but not overwhelming, at $17.6 million before its opening last weekend. This came from 4,104 airings, yielding 654.4 million impressions, according to estimates from iSpot.

The top ad placement was on ABC-owned networks including ABC, ESPN, National Geographic, FX and National Geographic Wild.

Advertising on shows included NBA Basketball, “Good Morning America,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” "SportCenter" and "Celebrity Jeopardy."