Well, at least Disney has $183M to show for its live-action ‘Lilo & Stitch’ remake
The studio’s latest cash grab capitalized on Millennial nostalgia and Memorial Day weekend — but would a real animated movie have done just as well?
Hello! Welcome to The Box Office Report for the weekend of May 23-26, 2025.
1. Lilo & Stitch
Weekend gross: $145.5M ($183M four-day)
Total domestic gross: $183M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA
In classic Stitch fashion, Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch remake went wild over Memorial Day weekend. The film grossed $145.5 million over the standard three-day weekend and expanded to $183 million when Monday was added in.
This was the best debut for a Disney live-action remake since Jon Favreau’s The Lion King (which, ugh, was not actually live action) grossed $191.8 million its opening weekend back in July 2019. And the new Lilo & Stitch blew away the openings for recent Disney remakes like Snow White ($42.2 million) and Mufasa: The Lion King ($35.4 million).
I would love to know what exactly drove the Lilo & Stitch remake to this level of box office success. When I saw Friendship on Thursday night, there were full families dressed up in Lilo & Stitch gear. The connection the original animated film has with fans has grown since the film premiered to $35.3 million back in 2002. (In a fun coincidence, it actually came in just over $400,000 behind Tom Cruise’s Minority Report that weekend.)
Would a legit animated Lilo & Stitch movie had done just as well this past weekend? Or was there an honest desire for a critically panned live-action remake?
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2. Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning
Weekend gross: $64M ($77.5M four-day)
Total domestic gross: $77.5M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning accepted the best opening weekend for the franchise, with it’s $64 million three-day weekend topping the previous record set by Mission: Impossible — Fallout ($61.2 million) back in 2018.
Will The Final Reckoning be able to keep this up at the box office? Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, the previous film in Cruise’s franchise, opened with $54.9 million two years ago but failed to break $175 million in North America. Maybe The Final Reckoning will do better without having to worry about a Christopher Nolan film taking all the IMAX screens from it.
