Disney has a lot riding on a little alien child. The Mandalorian and Grogu officially hit theaters yesterday, and the entertainment giant desperately needs Baby Yoda to revive the famous franchise’s fading box-office appeal.

But the Force may not be strong with this one. The film is at risk of having the worst opening for any Star Wars movie ever:

• The Mandalorian and Grogu is projected to make $80 million to $100 million domestically this weekend. That would be less than Solo: A Star Wars Story, which is the franchise’s only film to lose money (so far).
• In revenue from preview viewings, The Mandalorian and Grogu is already behind Solo, which also premiered over Memorial Day weekend (in 2018).

Potential obstacles: The film is a continuation of a Disney+ series that first endeared viewers to Baby Yoda in 2019. Potential audiences might assume the show is a prerequisite for understanding the movie. And some series fans may not be interested in the flick, either—reviews for the show had soured by its third and final season, which aired in 2023.

So, why send Grogu to the big screen? Possibly because his adventures with Pedro Pascal’s Mando are the most family-friendly Star Wars content around, and Memorial Day weekend is prime time for casual movie theater walk-ins. Plus, if the film disappoints at the box office, some analysts say it could still spur a Grogu merch resurgence.

High stakes, these are

Disney could use a win with Star Wars fans who were concerned with the company’s 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm, the franchise’s production company.

The first rebooted Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, smashed the box office in 2015 and became the highest-grossing film domestically in US history, but momentum has since slowed. The 2019 film The Rise of Skywalker—the most recent Star Wars movie—earned mixed reviews and half as much money as The Force Awakens.

Meanwhile…Disney’s superhero movies are also struggling at the box office. Warner Bros.-owned DC’s Superman outgrossed every Marvel release last year, breaking a 17-year winning streak for the MCU.—ML

Kevin Warsh sworn in as Fed chair. It’s official: Warsh was sworn in as the new head of the central bank in a ceremony at the White House yesterday. “We want to stop inflation,” President Trump—an outspoken advocate for interest rate cuts and a critic of Warsh’s predecessor’s reticence to make them—said at the ceremony, adding “but we don’t want to stop greatness.” Taking over for Jerome Powell as the one tasked with saying as little as possible at press conferences to avoid freaking out the markets, Warsh has his work cut out for him in trying to tame the impact of rising oil prices amid the Iran war. That has the market speculating that far from delivering rate cuts right away, Warsh might be coming into a Fed that’s poised to hike rates instead.—AR

Tulsi Gabbard resigns as the US’ top spy. Gabbard announced yesterday that she will step down as director of national intelligence, saying she was leaving President Trump’s Cabinet to help her husband, who was recently diagnosed with “an extremely rare form of bone cancer.” President Trump said on social media that Gabbard had “done an incredible job.” But the former Democratic lawmaker who broke with her party has had a tense tenure overseeing 18 spy agencies, and she was reportedly left out of major national security decisions, including military actions in Venezuela and Iran.—AR

SpaceX achieves a mostly successful Starship test flight. The rocket took off right as its launch window opened yesterday at 6:30pm ET, a day after its initial attempt was scrubbed due to a ground equipment problem. One of the 33 engines on the Super Heavy-Starship’s booster failed during ascent, but the upper-stage spacecraft made it to space despite one of its six engines malfunctioning, after the flight computer kept the others burning longer than originally planned. Starship V3’s test flight was SpaceX’s first test flight in seven months, and a major event ahead of the company’s anticipated debut on the Nasdaq in June.—HVL

Waymo and its self-driving cars are used to making waves, but this isn’t what they had in mind. After several incidents of its robotaxis driving into floodwaters, the company announced on Thursday that it’s temporarily halting its service in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, and Houston due to inclement weather.

So, what happened? During a bout of heavy rain in Atlanta on Wednesday, an empty Waymo car Leeroy Jenkins’d into a flooded street and got stuck. Elsewhere in the city, a different Waymo vehicle with a journalist inside also repeatedly tried its hand at self-boating.

There were precipitating events: Waymo had already halted service in San Antonio last month over a similar incident. And last week, the company issued a recall on thousands of its vehicles to perform a software update aimed at solving the problem. According to Waymo:

• The update—meant to be a temporary fix—instructed vehicles not to drive when there’s an elevated risk of flooding.
• But that didn’t work in Atlanta, because the flooding started before emergency alerts were sent out.

Waymo said it’s working on additional software changes and will monitor conditions to decide when it can safely lift the service suspensions.

Big picture: Waymo says data proves its vehicles are safer drivers than humans when it comes to avoiding collisions that result in injuries. But its robotaxis are under federal investigation for failing to stop for school buses and for striking a child in California, causing minor injuries, the company told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.—BC