After a nearly seven-year absence from theaters, Star Wars proved it still has the Force, as the latest installment, “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” is on track to earn an estimated $102 million in the U.S. and Canada for the Memorial Day weekend.

The movie, which is a continuation of “The Mandalorian” streaming show that debuted on Disney+ in 2019, met studio expectations for its opening weekend results.

Globally, the film was on track to pull in $165 million for the four-day holiday weekend.

Director Jon Favreau’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu” now ranks as the year’s third-highest grossing domestic opening, based on its Friday-Sunday ticket sales of $82 million, according to ticket tracker Comscore.

The results are likely a relief to Walt Disney Co.-owned Lucasfilm, which had not released a theatrical Star Wars film since 2019’s “Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker.”

Since then, the San Francisco-based studio has largely focused on its Star Wars streaming shows, which have included both live-action and animated series. Some of those shows received mixed reviews, though “The Mandalorian” and “Rogue One” spin-off “Andor” were breakout hits, praised by critics and largely revered by fans.

The movie — starring Pedro Pascal, Sigourney Weaver and Jeremy Allen White — benefited from positive reviews from moviegoers, but it stopped short of shattering expectations. Its initial financial performance was on par with the disappointing 2018 opening weekend for “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” That film notched $103 million in its opening weekend.

Still, as cinemas struggle to recover from pandemic-era shutdowns, a film that generates more than $100 million in its the opening weekend is typically seen as a success.

Box office revenue for “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” which played in 4,300 theaters, will be just one indicator of the movie’s success.

The Burbank entertainment giant is counting on the film to boost other parts of its business, including views of Star Wars shows on the Disney+ streaming service, its gaming collaboration with Fortnite and its all-important theme parks sector. The main characters are present in the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge-themed land, and the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run ride has been overlaid with a new “Mandalorian and Grogu” storyline at Disney parks in Anaheim and Orlando.

The weekend ticket sales underscore the enduring appeal of Star Wars, which remains among Disney’s top five franchises, producing more than $1 billion in annual retail sales.

Reception for the film was seen as critical to keeping the franchise fresh in moviegoers’ minds, particularly as Disney prepares for the upcoming 50th anniversary of Star Wars and a new movie starring Ryan Gosling set for next year.

Locally, “The Mandalorian and Grogu” is the first Star Wars movie to be made entirely in Los Angeles.

The film received a state tax credit to film in the Golden State, Favreau said at the premiere last week.

“The Mandalorian and Grogu” faced little new competition at the box office this Memorial Day weekend. Rival studios largely stayed on the sidelines, with no other potential blockbuster debuting at the same time.

Focus Films’ horror hit “Obsession” came in second at the box office with $22.4 million for its three-day total, according to Comscore.

Lionsgate’s blockbuster Michael Jackson documentary, “Michael,” snared $20 million, bringing its total to $314 million. “The Devil Wears Prada 2” came in fourth with $12.6 million, bringing its purse to $196 million since it opened earlier this month.

Amazon’s MGM studio’s “The Sheep Detectives” rounded out the top five with nearly $9 million.

“I’d like to be under the sea in an octopus’s garden…”

Remarkably Bright Creature
Directed by Olivia Newman – 2026
Reviewed by Garrett Rowlan

Whenever you have a lyric from a C-list Beatle song running through your head while watching a movie, it’s not a good sign.

But halfway through Remarkably Bright Creatures, a new film starring Sally Fields, those words earwormed their way into my head, replacing, I fear, the heartwarming sentiment I was expected to feel.

Based on a popular novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures—or RBC hereafter—is narrated by a captive octopus named Marcellus, who makes observations from his tank in a seaside Washington town.

The digitally animated creature, voiced by Alfred Molina in a flat tone that itself sounds half-submerged, spends his days hiding from the grasping eyes and fingerprints of schoolchildren on field trips. By night, he communicates through touch and glance with the janitor, Tova Sullivan, played by Sally Fields, a widow with a tragic past. She hobbles around on a sprained ankle and debates whether to move into a retirement facility.

As you might guess, RBC is slight on dramatic material, relying instead on the commentary of Marcellus, the aging octopus; Tova’s interactions with her octogenarian friends; and the arrival in town of a struggling musician seeking the father he never knew.

The film reminded me of those BBC-produced cozy mysteries I’ve become fond of renting from the Pasadena Public Library: small-town atmospheres filled with chumminess and colorful characters. Those mysteries, however, have an unsolved crime to propel the plot. Aside from the struggling musician’s attempt to locate his wealthy, incognito biological father, RBC leaves the viewer with little to chew on—or, I suppose, suck on. Marcellus’s eight arms and clinging suckers not only allow him to move in unique ways, but also to comment on the other characters from the vantage of his tank, a POV oddity that becomes one of the film’s more troubling anomalies.

As usual with this geezer genre, there’s the sobering apprehension of familiar faces, Kathy Baker and Joan Chen in this case, whose wrinkles and tissue breakdown reminded me of my own softening jawline. Colm Meaney, playing a former Grateful Dead fanatic turned coffee-shop owner, serves as Sally Fields’s love interest; his Irish brogue further evokes those BBC cozies.

“She lives in a larger tank than me,” observes Marcellus of the fussy attendant. His periodic comments sprinkle the plot, easing along our understanding of the characters until the metaphorical enclosure around Sally Fields dissolves as she takes the aging Marcellus to the seashore and returns him to his own octopus’s garden.

What the ultimate public reception of RBC will be, I don’t know. I wouldn’t have thought Project Hail Mary, with its spidery co-star in a beach-ball enclosure, would be popular either, so I suppose there’s hope yet for the movie and its slithering protagonist.

> Streaming on Netflix.

In a squeaker race for Cannes’ top prize, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu prevailed on Saturday, taking the Palme d’Or for his tense community drama “Fjord.”

The movie, a widely admired conversation-starter at the festival, stars Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve as religious parents who come into conflict with the child protection services of their tiny Norwegian town where they have relocated with their family.

Mungiu, a previous winner of the Palme for his controversial 2007 abortion drama “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” now joins an exclusive group of 10 filmmakers who have won the Palme twice — an achievement shared by Francis Ford Coppola (1974’s “The Conversation” and 1979’s “Apocalypse Now”) and Ruben Östlund (2017’s “The Square” and 2022’s “Triangle of Sadness”), among others. No one has ever won a third Palme d’Or.

Another record, maybe even more impressive, was set by distributor Neon, which, with “Fjord,” extends its streak of Palme wins to an unprecedented seven in a row. Those previous six Neon winners, many of which eventually claimed Oscars, are “Parasite,” “Titane,” “Triangle of Sadness,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Anora” and last year’s “It Was Just an Accident.”

Neon will release “Fjord” in the fall, with an extensive awards campaign to follow.

This year’s nine-member main competition jury, led by Korean director Park Chan-wook and studded with notables including “The Substance” star Demi Moore, Stellan Skarsgård and “Hamnet” director Chloé Zhao, seemed intent on spreading the wealth among as many winners as possible. There were three ties at Saturday’s awards ceremony.

The award for actress was shared by Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto, co-stars of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden,” a movie pegged by many to potentially go all the way. Similarly, the prize for actor was bestowed on both Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne, co-stars of Lukas Dhont’s World War I romantic drama “Coward.”

The prize for directing went to three people — and two movies — with a joint win for Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi (better known as Los Javis) for their century-spanning queer historical drama “The Black Ball,” as well as to director Paweł Pawlikowski for his exquisite post-World War II psychodrama “Fatherland.” (Pawlikowski half-joked at the podium, “This was a disastrous piece of mise-en-scène” after the awkward award presentation had him waiting in the wings.)

Claiming this year’s Grand Prize (essentially second place) was “Minotaur,” the rapturously received comeback film of Andrey Zvyagintsev, a Russian director who had been sidelined with a near-fatal bout of long COVID that put him in a coma. His new movie, about a wealthy Moscow family, is both an erotic thriller and an indictment of amoral oligarchy detached from the war with Ukraine.

The festival’s third-place Jury Prize went to the borderland German drama “The Dreamed Adventure,” directed by Valeska Grisebach.