Audiences choose scares over Star Wars, as Obsession and Backrooms soar at the box office while The Mandalorian And Grogu splutters. A little over a decade ago, a new Star Wars film was still considered a major pop culture event. In 2026, Lucasfilm’s spin-off The Mandalorian And Grogu has found itself well and truly upstaged ... The Mandalorian And Grogu drowned out by low-budget horror on its second weekend
Audiences choose scares over Star Wars, as Obsession and Backrooms soar at the box office while The Mandalorian And Grogu splutters.
A little over a decade ago, a new Star Wars film was still considered a major pop culture event. In 2026, Lucasfilm’s spin-off The Mandalorian And Grogu has found itself well and truly upstaged by a pair of low-budget horror movies.
Director Jon Favreau’s big-screen outing for the Disney+ action adventure series was released on the 22nd May and made $165m worldwide. There was some debate over what that number meant (more on this in a moment), but it’s The Mandalorian And Grogu's second weekend at the box office that shows something more ominous for Disney-Lucasfilm: the big-budget romp was knocked off its perch by A24’s horror, Backrooms.
Adapted from his own viral YouTube series, director Kane Parsons’ eerily minimalist creepshow was made for a comparatively cheap $10m; it’s now at the top of the US box office, having made a staggering $81m on its opening weekend according to Variety.
There’s another big success story for the horror genre, too: director Curry Barker’s Obsession, now on its third weekend, is only gaining momentum. Bolstered by strong reviews and word of mouth, its ticket sales increased over the past few days; its worldwide gross now stands at $148m and counting. For a movie that cost less than $1m, that’s an extraordinary return on investment for its creators.
Read more: The Mandalorian And Grogu review | Star Wars for shareholders
Ticket sales for The Mandalorian And Grogu, by contrast, dropped 70 percent in the US, suggesting that interest in the film is declining rather than building. Its second-week take was around $23m in the US – putting in third place behind Obsession, which made a shade over $26m.
In financial terms, The Mandalorian And Grogu is unlikely to lose money. It made its reported budget of $165m back early, and while Disney clearly spent a fortune trying to advertise it, there’s more money to be made from merchandise and other tie-in deals. Plus it’ll serve as a handy calling card for Disney+ once it starts streaming there.
There’s still a question mark hanging over Star Wars as a whole, however. The TV spin-off was Lucasfilm’s first Star Wars feature in six years, with the company having put its cinema plans on pause following the general sense of disappointment engulfing Solo: A Star Wars Story and The Rise Of Skywalker.
The past weekend might suggest that absence from cinema screens hasn’t made audiences’ hearts grow fonder. Or it could simply be that movie-goers, choosy about where they put their money, decided that the new Star Wars sounded fairly disposable and was better viewed at home.
An acid test will arrive next year: Star Wars: Starfighter, starring Ryan Gosling.
There’s a positive side to this story, of course: people are going to cinemas and supporting low-budget, original films. Even Backrooms, connected to a well-known creepypasta thing off the internet, represented something of a risk for its studio: Kane Parsons is just 20 years old, and had never directed a feature before. Terminally online people knew about his web series, but there was no guarantee this would translate into a hit.
It’s fair to say the gamble paid off.
