![\"mando\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779462129_389_0x0.jpg\")
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The Mandalorian and Grogu<\/p>\n
Star Wars<\/p>\n
This article was published on 5\/22 and republished on 5\/24.<\/p>\n
While The Mandalorian and Grogu has one of the lowest Rotten Tomatoes critic scores<\/a> in Star Wars history, and the second-lowest of the Disney era, that is not true for its audience scores. At least so far.<\/p>\n In early viewings, The Mandalorian and Grogu is proving to be a crowd-pleaser, racking up an 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes<\/a>. That sets a record as the highest audience score for a Star Wars film in the Disney era, and unsurprisingly, above the prequel trilogy as well. The only movies to beat it, you may guess, are the original three. Here\u2019s the breakdown of the list<\/p>\n The Empire Strikes Back \u2013 97% audience score, 93% critic scoreA New Hope \u2013 96% audience score, 94% critic scoreReturn of the Jedi \u2013 94% audience score, 83% critic scoreThe Mandalorian and Grogu \u2013 88% audience score, 61% critic scoreRogue One (Disney) \u2013 87% audience score, 84% critic scoreRise of Skywalker (Disney) \u2013 86% audience score, 51% critic scoreThe Force Awakens (Disney) \u2013 84% audience score, 93% critic scoreSolo (Disney) \u2013 63% audience score, 69% critic scoreRevenge of the Sith \u2013 66% audience score, 79% critic scoreThe Phantom Menace \u2013 59% audience score, 54% critic scoreAttack of the Clones \u2013 56% audience score, 62% critic scoreThe Last Jedi (Disney) \u2013 41% audience score, 91% critic score<\/p>\n The Mandalorian and Grogu<\/p>\n RT<\/p>\n The caveat here is that the score could change and knock down The Mandalorian and Grogu quite a few places quickly. At an 88%, even a 7% drop would put it below Rogue One, The Force Awakens and Rise of Skywalker. It would then only be above the underperforming (underrated) Solo and the (very much review-bombed) Last Jedi.<\/p>\n Critic reviews mean little when box office is all Disney cares about. Rise of Skywalker was panned, but still made a billion dollars. The opposite can be true as well, where the fan-hate Last Jedi made $1.3 billion. Though The Mandalorian and Grogu does not seem as \u201cmust see\u201d as those did.<\/p>\n Box office tracking is somewhere around $80-100 million domestically and $160 globally, the movie having a relatively low $165 million budget. It stands to reason that The Mandalorian and Grogu is neither going to be a massive hit nor an epic failure, and it may just be \u201cgood enough\u201d for Disney\u2019s return to Star Wars movies after seven years. Obviously, I think they\u2019d want to arrive with a bang, but given how things have gone, it\u2019s amazing they finally even got a movie out at all. And this could have gone worse, it seems.<\/p>\n Update (5\/24): Checking back to see if the score had in fact dropped as more reviews came in, I was surprised to see that the audience score for the movie had actually gone up another point, securing its top spot among the Disney Star Wars entries. This is now with a full 5,000+ reviews in rather than a few hundred, and it\u2019s possible it creeps up to a 90% over the holiday weekend here.<\/p>\n I still have yet to see the film, but I suspect what\u2019s happened here is that by ditching the baggage of the underwhelming season 3 of The Mandalorian and starting at least somewhat fresh, the movie managed to recapture the relatively basic magic of season 1. A bounty-hunting Mando and his little sidekick, without getting deep in the weeds of Star Wars lore pulled from the Clone Wars\/Rebels days, which is where things went in season 3. Critics may have grown tired of the schtick here, but audiences have not.<\/p>\n I also think it\u2019s important to realize this is still fundamentally a Jon Favreau movie, where this is a man who has directed pretty much nothing anyone would consider bad or unsuccessful. He did the recent live action Lion King, which made $1.6 billion. He did the amazing small-scale Chef, he did an all-time Christmas Classic, Elf, and he kicked off the MCU with the original Iron Man. <\/p>\n Follow me on Twitter<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>,<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series<\/a> and The Earthborn Trilogy<\/a>.<\/p>\n