New streaming data paints a shockingly bad picture for Disney’s “Star Wars” sequel

Happy “Stars Wars” Day to all celebrants! And, according to Nielsen data released this morning, most of you.

And I mean a lot.

Celebrating May 4th, known in Star Wars circles as Fourthly, the well-known data keeper of all things TV has published some very surprising data related to how viewers will watch Star Wars in 2026. Obviously, this is all streaming now, mostly on Disney+, which owns the rights to the franchise.

As a result, we can easily get a gauge on what moves the needle, and, more importantly, what doesn’t.

For over a decade now, Disney has owned Star Wars. And, for over a decade now, fans have vilified them for ruining a beloved franchise. Ironically, this new data — all courtesy of Disney+ — paints a grim picture:

Not only are people not watching the next three movies – “The Force Awakens,” “The Last Jedi” and “The Rise of Skywalker” – people are not even acknowledging their existence.

Disney’s biggest Star Wars blunder is now etched in history

Check out that graphic, courtesy of Nielsen. It’s surprising. We already knew it was bad, but I’m not sure we knew it was this bad.

Nielsen tracked down the 10 best Star Wars movies that aired last May 4, and Disney’s three new installments didn’t even make the list. Now, to be fair, “Andor” was No. 1, and that’s obviously a Disney product.

But, there’s a big caveat: “Andor” was in the middle of its second and final season this time last year. So, naturally, it would make big numbers. Still, “Andor” has received universal acclaim from fans, old and new, which is something we’ll get into here shortly.

Tony Gilroy attends the Andor Season 2 CAA Q&A Screening in Los Angeles, California, on June 1, 2025.

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The main takeaway, though? We knew the sequel saga was a disaster. The last two movies were a train wreck, with “The Rise of Skywalker” being universally hated and a box office disaster for the Star Wars universe. Sadly, the three prequel films all made the list easily.

As someone who grew up during the prequel era, I love those movies. However, when they were released, fans were lukewarm towards them. I’d say they weren’t really appreciated until this latest batch of movies came out, mostly because people saw how good we were with George Lucas.

Here’s another hot take: “Revenge of the Sith” is the best Star Wars movie ever made. But, that’s a story for another time.

Anyway, back to the great photos!

Star Wars fans agree on one thing

That’s interesting too. And it’s a huge wake-up call for Disney in terms of the future of Star Wars. “Andor,” again, resonates with a large portion of the fan base. Millennials and Gen X both stream “Andor” more than anything else. That’s a huge chunk of the audience. Over 30 years of fandom!

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Now it’s Disney’s job to figure out what they did right with “Andor,” and why it resonated with so many Star Wars fans.

Better storytelling? Of course.

Did fans use it as a bridge to the original saga? Maybe. That’s kind of the point. It goes back to what Star Wars was, at its core, back in the day: Rebellion against the Empire.

Maybe changing the tone back to that is the key?

I don’t know the answer. I’m a huge Star Wars fan, and the recent arc of three movies has been beyond disappointing, it’s hard for me to get excited about anything related to the franchise.

I’m not alone either. Disney will release its first Star Wars game since “The Rise of Skywalker” later this month in “The Mandalorian and Grogu.” It’s a big deal for Disney as it looks to be breaking out of this Star Wars funk they’ve been in for the better part of a decade.

Comedian Jamie Kennedy has criticized Disney for firing Star Wars actress Gina Carano over her social media posts. (Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic)

At the end of last month, the industrial website Box Office Theory reported that the opening weekend box office forecast for the upcoming film based on pre-release ticket sales is only $71 million. In terms of the Star Wars movies, that’s scary.

Even the opening weekend of “Solo,” considered one of the weakest films of the Disney era, would be about $110.5 million in today’s dollars, adjusted for inflation.

It’s not good!

Is Disney taking this new data and using it? I don’t see. They gave us no reason to believe they would.

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But it’s clear, and it confirms what we’ve all known for a while now: The Star Wars sequels were an unmitigated disaster for Disney.

Mostly, people now pretend they don’t exist.