STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU | PASSENGER | I LOVE BOOSTERS movie openings

The current weekend: May 22 to 24, 2026 Memorial Day weekend 1) Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu opening - This is an outstanding opening for a spinoff story. It's not on the level of the primary Star Wars films, including the last release in 2019, The Rise of Skywalker, but these are big numbers and this is how spinoffs perform: The movie is a piece of the story, and it's earning a piece of the business. Critics' reviews are fair and similar to the most recent Star Wars pictures, but audiences like the film - they gave it an A- CinemaScore, better than the last movie, Skywalker (B+). For all of its originality and fame, Star Wars has never been especially strong overseas; you can see it here: - Much of the current online chatter and most of the reviews include comparisons with the Mandalorian Disney+ streaming series. This opening doesn't appear to be affected by the three Mandalorian seasons on streaming; the BO numbers do not look out of line as a result. For Star Wars not to be hurt in any obvious way by its long detour onto streaming is good news for the franchise. The reported production cost was $165 million, and there were California tax credits on top of that, bringing the net cost down to $144m. That's an extremely reasonable figure for this movie. - Overall, the film is performing in line with expectations, no better or worse. It's going to make a lot of money in digital rental and sales, in streaming, in merchandise and at the theme parks - that's where Disney franchises excel. The only spinoff to maintain the BO success of its primary series is Logan from X-Men. The next time you're at a superhero convention, ask someone dressed as their favorite character what their favorite superhero movie is. You'll hear Logan a lot, and some of them will add it's their favorite film of all time (co-written & directed by James Mangold, co-written by Scott Frank & Michael Green, and starring Hugh Jackman). 2) Passenger opening - This is a good opening for an original horror film. The weekend number is a bit above average for a single episode. Critics' reviews are weak, but the audience score is not bad for a horror movie (a B- CinemaScore). The film cost under $10 million to produce. It's another inexpensive horror pic that's going to be profitable, even without big overseas business: - In a recent post, Entertainment Strategy Guy wrote that, relatively speaking, horror films are under-performing on streaming compared with in theaters. We've pointed out that the big screen, not at home, is where the scares are the loudest and most shocking, and where it's the most fun to be with a group of friends. ESG's excellent post is here. Publisher's note We're testing several new campaigns to promote our paid subscriptions. This is campaign #1: Boss: "Didn't I ask you to upgrade the FranchiseRe subscription? I'm still getting the free version and I'm better than that. Is this what they taught you in the Peter Stark Producing Program? Upgrade, and get back to me." ...one hour later... Assistant: "I upgraded the newsletter. I reported you to human resources. They told me you're gonna be fired in next week's reorganization - that's confidential. I've accepted a job as a junior creative executive at Disney. This is goodbye." 3) I Love Boosters opening - This is a fair opening for a Black comedy, a bit below average for the genre. Critics' reviews are outstanding and the audience score is good (a B CinemaScore). The story line is: In a futuristic vision of the San Francisco Bay Area, a group of shoplifters, known as "boosters," target a cutthroat fashion maven after she steals their designs: - There are very few Black comedy wide releases now. The industry is missing the Black comedic superstars who once crossed over to audiences around the world, the way that Eddie Murphy and Will Smith did in the past. 4) Where we are now - This is a very good Memorial Day weekend, equal to pre-pandemic box office levels. It doesn't look good compared with last year because that weekend had the biggest Memorial Day opening of all time - Disney's Lilo & Stitch live-action/animation hybrid - plus Mission: Impossible 8 on top of that. But these are very good numbers: - Along with the Mandalorian opening, several movies are holding up terrifically well: Obsession's 2nd weekend is going to be up around +15% over of its opening weekend; that's sensational for a horror movie. Great word-of-mouth is driving this $750,000 micro-budget production (that A- CinemaScore from audiences); The Sheep Detectives is going to be down around -15% in weekend #3 - excellent; And Michael and Devil Wears Prada continue to draw good crowds well into their long runs. - Moviegoing has momentum right now. The broad lineup includes something for every demographic segment, and audiences are enjoying themselves. Business is healthy heading into the heart of summer. Our last two posts were: OBSESSION | IN THE GREY | IS GOD IS openings | Where we are now | May 15 to 17, 2026 weekend here MORTAL KOMBAT II | THE SHEEP DETECTIVES | BILLIE EILISH - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR openings | Where we are now | May 8 to 10, 2026 weekend here To see all of our work, be sure to upgrade: Upgrade Source: https://franchisere.substack.com/p/star-wars-the-mandalorian-and-grogu-yoda-pedro-pascal-passenger-i-love-boosters-keke-palmer-taylour-paige-boots-riley-movie-openings