‘Lilo & Stitch’ Targeting $170M-$180M Box Office Bow..

‘Lilo & Stitch’ Targeting $170M-$180M Box Office Bow, ‘Mission: Impossible’ Eyes Series-Best $77M

The Memorial Day box office is on fire.

Disney’s live-action redo of Lilo & Stitch and Tom Cruise‘s final Mission: Impossible movie, from Paramount and Skydance, are fueling the biggest start-of-summer holiday weekend of all time, based on Friday returns. Those returns also show Lilo & Stitch blowing away all expectations with a record-smashing domestic debut of $170 million to $180 million, while Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning is on course for a series-best domestic opening of $77 million.

Lilo & Stitch was always expected to beat the latest M:I title, but no one imagined it would hit these heights and, in an ironic twist, see Lilo & Stitch supplant Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick ($160 million) to rank as the biggest Memorial Day opener of all time, not adjusted for inflation. That’s not the only irony: Cruise-starrer Minority Report barely beat the original animated Lilo & Stitch when they opened opposite each other in June 2002.

Three weeks ago, Lilo & Stitch was tracking to open to $120 million. On Thursday, that number had grown to $165 million. Now, it’s coming in even higher. The reason?

Stitch isn’t just drawing interest from families; it’s popping big time among teenage girls and younger women — i.e., Gen Z and younger Millennials — who grew up on the first movie and resulting TV show about a Hawaiian girl with a fraught family life who adopts an adorable, albeit trouble-making, dog-like alien. Box office pundits say the nostalgic factor is running high, just as it did among Millennials and Gen Z’ers for Disney’s live-action Aladdin, which made $1.1 billion in global ticket sales after getting families, teens and younger adults. Rideback produced both Lilo and 2019’s Aladdin.

The live-action Lilo & Stitch was originally intended to go straight to Disney+, helping to explain its modest $100 million production budget. It has a current Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 70 percent and an A CinemaScore from audiences. Both Memorial Day event pics were graced with five out of five stars on PostTrak.

The Disney pic grossed a huge $55 million on Friday from 4,410 theaters, including a record $14.5 million in Thursday previews, the largest preview gross of the year to date and a Memorial Day record for Disney’s live-action studio after besting The Little Mermaid ($10.3 million) and Aladdin ($7 million), not adjusted for inflation. Regarding Disney’s larger film empire, Thursday’s previews also beat Memorial Day entry Solo: A Star Wars Story ($14.1 million). Overall, it is the seventh-biggest preview gross of any PG title, including Disney’s recent animated blockbuster Moana 2 ($13.8 million).

Final Reckoning grossed $24.8 on Friday from 3,857 theaters, including Thursday previews. The film set its own preview record in earning a franchise-best $8.3 million, ahead of Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One ($7 million) and Mission: Impossible — Fallout ($6 million).

The film is expected to more than make up for the lackluster $54.7 million bow of Dead Reckoning, as well as supplant the $61.2 million three-day launch of Fallout to set a new franchise opening record with a three-day gross of $63 million. M:I movies have never been big openers since diehard fans are usually older adults. Ticket buyers over the age of 55 made up the largest chunk of Friday’s audience, followed by the coveted 18 to 25 demo. It boasts a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 80 percent and earned an A- CinemaScore.

A major challenge in terms of Final Reckoning‘s financial success is its $400 million net budget before marketing — making it one of the most expensive films ever made — although Paramount insiders note that each new installment increases the value of the entire library, including a spike in home entertainment sales and rentals of previous titles.

Thanks to the might of the two films, overall ticket sales for the holiday weekend look to clock in north of $320 million. The current Memorial Day revenue crown currently belongs to the $306 million in ticket sales collected in 2013 when Fast & Furious 6 zoomed to $117 million, followed by The Hangover Part III with $50 million. It would also mark the best showing for two Memorial Day titles going up against each other. In 2007, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End opened to $140 million over the holiday frame, followed by Shrek the Third with $67 million.

While the mash-up isn’t expected to be quite the same cultural phenomenon that Barbenheimer was in July 2023, the potent combo of the two movies can’t be ignored (as for a moniker, how about “Stitchin: Impossible”?)

Overseas, Lilo & Stitch is likewise going up against Final Reckoning.

Lilo earned $29.6 million on Friday for a three-day international total of $56.3 million from 50 markets after beginning to rollout midweek. In a number of territories, it has scored the highest opening day of the year so far, including in China, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, France and Italy.

Final Reckoning began rolling out last weekend in select markets and sports an international total of $75.9 million from 64 markets through Friday. It’s Friday haul was $16.6 million. The movie doesn’t open in China until May 30.