After a seven-year hiatus, Disney successfully brought “Star Wars” back to the big screen with “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” which dominated the box office heading into the Memorial Day weekend. The intergalactic western garnered $33 million on Friday from 4,300 North American theaters and is projected to achieve between $80 million and $100 million through the extended holiday period. While a $100 million ceiling positions its opening on par with 2018’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” which was considered a significant financial misstep, the metrics for “The Mandalorian and Grogu” are being interpreted as a modest success.

Discussions around its performance often revolve around factors like franchise fatigue and the “small-screenification” of “Star Wars” content through Disney+ shows such as “Andor,” “Ahsoka,” and “The Mandalorian,” the latter serving as the source material for the new film. Directed by Jon Favreau, “The Mandalorian and Grogu” continues the saga of the titular bounty hunter and his young companion as they endeavor to rescue Rotta the Hutt, Jabba’s muscular son, from a formidable warlord gangster. The film features a cast including Pedro Pascal, Jeremy Allen White, Sigourney Weaver, and Jonny Coyne.

Composer Ludwig Göransson played a pivotal role in shaping the distinct sonic landscape of the modern “Star Wars” universe. When first asked by Jon Favreau in 2019 to score “The Mandalorian” TV series for Disney+, Göransson introduced a fresh sound, notably the lonely bass recorder theme for the helmet-wearing bounty hunter, Din Djarin (a.k.a. Mando), and a four-note motif for Grogu. Building upon this foundational work, Göransson’s score for “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” goes even bigger, utilizing a 70-piece orchestra to intricately weave in elements from the film’s sound design, delivering an epic cinematic experience as Din Djarin and Grogu navigate a galaxy still recovering from the fall of the Galactic Empire, grappling with scattered Imperial warlords while assisting the fledgling New Republic.

Göransson’s innovative approach is evident from the film’s opening, with the eight-minute cue “This Is the Way,” which integrates alarm-like sounds with percussion and synths, specifically timed with the alarms going off in the building where Mando is first seen. When Rotta the Hutt (voiced by Jeremy Allen White) is kidnapped and taken to the new planet Shakari, Göransson intensified the electronic synths, marrying them with orchestral elements and Mando’s signature bass recorder. This blend harks back to his days as a producer for Childish Gambino (Donald Glover), a side of his artistry that Jon Favreau was keen to incorporate into “Star Wars.” Göransson noted that Shakari’s neon visuals immediately evoked the kind of synths he used, highlighting the freedom in exploring diverse musical interpretations across the varied visual worlds of “Star Wars.”

Further showcasing his versatility, Rotta the Hutt received a theme characterized by electric guitars and chanting vocals, designed to match his larger-than-life energy. In a memorable scene where Din Djarin and Rotta find themselves in a gladiator arena during a “dejarik match,” Göransson crafted the cue “The Pit Fight,” blending crowd chanting with pounding drums and electronic synths, drawing inspiration from the 1990s show “American Gladiators.” His most significant musical challenge came with the third act, which heavily centered on Grogu, particularly after Din Djarin is poisoned by a deadly Dragonsnake, forcing Grogu to independently fend for himself. Despite the sequence having minimal dialogue, Göransson painstakingly developed the scene’s score, ultimately leveraging Grogu’s four-note theme and expanding it to convey the character’s thoughts, feelings, and the progression of his adventure, even incorporating woodwinds for bird sounds in a “Peter and the Wolf” moment.

The scoring process was a special experience, with many musicians who played on the original series score seven years prior returning, unaware at the time that “The Mandalorian” theme would become canon. Göransson also enjoyed creating a Django Reinhardt-style jazz guitar version of the “Mandalorian” theme with his old guitar teacher, Andreas Öberg. He finds deep satisfaction in his work, especially now that his children are old enough to be obsessed with his scores, learning the themes on piano and following the film’s story purely through the soundtrack, a testament to its narrative power.

In other box office news, Focus Features’ horror hit “Obsession” delivered a surprising second-weekend performance, increasing 16% from its $17.2 million opening to post $19.9 million. It is projected to earn $24.8 million over the extended Memorial Day frame, pushing its domestic total to $55.1 million. Lionsgate’s musical biopic “Michael” secured third place, adding $5.1 million on Friday and crossing the $300 million mark domestically. With projections of $23.6 million for the long holiday weekend, “Michael” is estimated to reach $788.8 million globally after five weekends, positioning it to potentially surpass 2018’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” ($911 million worldwide) as the highest-grossing musical biopic of all time. “The Devil Wears Prada 2” landed at No. 4, adding $3.2 million on Friday, and is expected to earn around $14 million through the four-day weekend, bringing its domestic total to nearly $200 million after four weeks. This weekend also saw new releases: Neon’s surreal comedy “I Love Boosters” and Paramount’s hitch-hiking horror “Passenger.” “Passenger,” directed by André Øvredal and starring Melissa Leo, Lou Llobell, Jacob Scipio, and Joseph Lopez, made approximately $3.5 million on opening day and is projected to scare up between $9 million and $10 million over the long weekend. Boots Riley’s “I Love Boosters,” starring Keke Palmer, Taylour Paige, Naomi Ackie, Demi Moore, and LaKeith Stanfield, came in with about $1.5 million on Friday and is expected to make between $4 million and $5 million through the holiday frame. Looking ahead, Göransson will reunite with Christopher Nolan for “The Odyssey,” a project for which Nolan instructed him to forgo an orchestra, prompting Göransson to experiment with 35 bronze gongs and synths to create a unique sound. He also expressed his love for producing and collaborating with other artists, seeing it as a crucial way to continually learn and expand his craft.