六年之后，《星球大战》自《天行者的崛起》以来首次重返影院，那部电影在2019年票房为11亿美元。迪士尼在2012年以41亿美元收购卢卡斯影业后，在2014年至2019年的五年里推出了五部新电影，全球票房接近60亿美元，但随后又把这个电影系列冻结了。

这种长期停摆部分源于创意失误，也部分源于战略选择。《天行者的崛起》让一些核心粉丝不满，而且没有为续集铺路；与此同时，迪士尼把重心转向电视，自2019年《曼达洛人》以来已制作七部真人《星球大战》剧集及多部动画作品，去年美国观众累计在电视上观看了330亿分钟的《星球大战》内容。

《曼达洛人与格罗古》面临把电视品牌转化为电影衍生品的逆向挑战，美国近一半家庭拥有Disney+，但其他市场对其宇宙较不熟悉，且该片据报1.65亿美元的预算虽不高，却仍需验证票房表现；若成功，将带动更多40美元的尤达玩偶销售、更多迪士尼乐园游乐项目排队，以及更多长期粉丝的延续。若重返大银幕失败，迪士尼将承受显著的品牌与财务压力。

Six years after Star Wars last left the Force on Tatooine, the franchise is returning to cinemas for the first time since The Rise of Skywalker, which grossed $1.1bn in 2019. After Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4.1bn in 2012, it released five new films in the five years to 2019, taking nearly $6bn worldwide, before freezing the movie franchise.

The hiatus reflects both creative missteps and strategy. The Rise of Skywalker angered purists and did not set up a sequel, while Disney shifted the brand to television: since The Mandalorian in 2019 it has produced seven live-action Star Wars series plus animated ones, and Americans watched 33bn minutes of Star Wars on TV last year.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is now testing the reverse path, turning a TV property into a film spin-off. With nearly half of US households on Disney+ but less familiarity elsewhere, and a reported $165m budget, its opening weekend may fall below Solo; success would boost toy sales, theme-park traffic and the wider franchise, while failure would be a setback for Disney’s plans and for Josh D’Amaro, who became boss in March.

Source: How Star Wars went from space opera to soap opera

Subtitle: Disney turned its flagship film franchise into TV fodder. Can it go back to the big screen?

Dateline: 5月 21, 2026 03:18 上午