Star Wars Just Lost IMAX Screens To Masters Of The Universe
He-Man dethrones the Mandalorian and Grogu just days before his official debut.
For the better half of the century, Disney movies have been synonymous with box office dominance. Whether it’s the latest Pixar project, a Marvel blockbuster, or a new adventure in the Star Wars galaxy, Disney is known for event pictures: they’re seen on the biggest screen possible, driven less by word-of-mouth than blind compulsion or FOMO. You see the company’s movies because that’s just what you do — and until recently, most of said movies honored that loyalty with quality storytelling, justifying a bonkers box office return. But things haven’t been right at the House of Mouse for some time now. While a few “bad apples,” like 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, were expected every once in a while, Disney’s entire harvest now feels rotted to the core.
2023 was Disney’s no-good, very-bad year, with most of its biggest swings failing to make their customary splash or recoup their exorbitant production costs. Though the studio has delivered some fine movies since, from Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot to Pixar’s Hoppers, the Disney brand doesn’t carry the same weight as it once did. Not even the first Star Wars film in seven years is getting the same reception as the billion-dollar-grossing projects that came before, resulting in a shocking theatrical shake-up.
The Mandalorian and Grogu’s disappointing box office turnout has paved the way for Masters of the Universe.
The Mandalorian and Grogu debuted to a tepid critical reception, which begot an equally middling opening weekend. It earned just around $163 million worldwide in its first week in theaters, a record low for the Disney Star Wars era. Its second week also failed to pick up the slack: the film came in third at the box office after two surprising horror juggernauts, Backrooms and Obsession. After taking in $246 million globally, its time in theaters (or, at least, in IMAX theaters) is already waning.
IMAX recently announced that Masters of the Universe — Amazon’s reboot of the He-Man property — would get a handful of IMAX showings for its opening weekend. Tickets went on sale just a week before its June 5th premiere, much to fans’ surprise. Masters of the Universe was previously slated to debut without a boost from IMAX: Mando had a stake on IMAX showings for the first several weeks of its run, leaving Masters with standard, Dolby, 4DX, and ScreenX formats. But that status quo has suddenly changed, and though IMAX HQ hasn’t disclosed why, it’s impossible to rule out Mando’s lackluster second week.
To be clear, The Mandalorian and Grogu hasn’t been pulled from IMAX completely. The film is still scheduled for multiple IMAX showings in the coming weeks, but it will now have to share those screens (in select theaters, anyway) with Masters of the Universe. It’s not a great sign for Star Wars, as this was meant to be the franchise’s big comeback after nearly a decade away from the big screen.
This last-minute switch-up also doesn’t bode well for Disney on the whole, as this is the second kerfuffle the company has faced with IMAX recently. We can’t forget the studio’s choice to push another comeback vehicle, Avengers: Doomsday, from its scheduled premiere in May — which, granted, would have forced it to compete with Mando — to a new date this December. Avengers: Doomsday is now slated for the exact same weekend as Dune: Part Three, which secured an exclusive three-week IMAX engagement. That means that the biggest Marvel film in years will premiere without any IMAX screens in the US.
Marvel is pioneering a “new” certification, Infinity Vision, to pick up the slack and “help audiences identify the best theatrical experience” — but that tactic is really just a way to redress premium formats and, most likely, sell tickets at a higher price. Whether that will offset the loss of IMAX screens, or audiences will see right through Disney’s tactics, remains to be seen. The fact that the studio has to resort to said tactics at all seems to affirm an unspoken truth: the days of Disney’s uncontested reign are over, and it’ll have to work a lot harder if it wants to stay at the top.
