The Mandalorian & Grogu suffers steep box‑office drop as indie horror Backrooms tops chart

Disney’s Star Wars theatrical entry *The Mandalorian & Grogu* opened with a respectable $81 million domestic haul, but its second weekend saw a 70 % decline, earning only $25 million and slipping to third place behind low‑budget horror titles. The film’s worldwide total now sits at about $246 million, far short of the $300‑$500 million needed to recoup its estimated $300 million production and marketing spend, prompting analysts to project losses exceeding $100 million for Disney.

Indie horror *Backrooms*, directed by 20‑year‑old YouTuber Kane Parsons, debuted in over 3 400 US and Canadian theatres and earned $81.4 million domestically and $118 million globally on a $10 million budget, shattering box‑office expectations and overtaking the Star Wars film. A second low‑budget genre film, *Obsession*, earned $26.4 million in its second weekend, also out‑grossing the franchise entry.

The unexpected performance has spurred internal Disney discussions about reviving the franchise, with reports of an emergency meeting among Disney and Lucasfilm executives to devise a recovery strategy. The weekend’s results underscore a shift in audience preferences toward original, low‑budget content and raise questions about the future commercial viability of legacy franchises on the big screen.