Disney's 'Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu' tallies lowest Thursday preview sales in franchise history

Key points

• "Star Wars" returns to the big screen for the first time in seven years this weekend, riding the contrails of a Mandalorian's jetpack.
• Disney's "Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu" tallied $12 million in Thursday night preview sales, the lowest collection of advance tickets in the franchise's history, according to data from Comscore.
• "Solo: A Star Wars Story" was the previous low bar, with $14.1 million in preshow tickets back in 2018. Box office analysts expect the film, based on the hit Disney+ show "The Mandalorian," to generate around $80 million for its three-day opening weekend and around $95 million for the four-day Memorial Day holiday weekend.
• Some less conservative experts have estimated the three-day haul could be $95 million and the holiday weekend could draw $115 million.
• That would be one of the smallest openings of a Star Wars film in modern cinematic history.