Lilo & Stich Propels Big Holiday Weekend

Newest Mission: Impossible trails but sets franchise record
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 25, 2025 3:15 PM CDT
Lilo & Stich , Mission Impossible Draw Crowds
This image shows the character Stitch in a still from the film "Lilo & Stitch."   (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures via AP)

Lilo & Stich teamed with Tom Cruise for a monster Memorial Day box office weekend. Disney's live action version of Lilo & Stich earned a staggering $145.5 million in North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday, the second-biggest domestic opening of the year after A Minecraft Movie. The movie is a faithful remake of the 2002 original's story of a six-legged alien and a Hawaiian girl that has created a big cult following in the decades since. But the duo was no little brother and sister to the better-known figures in Disney's parade of live-action remakes. It was second only to the $185 million opening of The Lion King in 2019 and outshot all projections, wowing box office observers.

Lilo & Stich surpassed Cruise's 2022 Top Gun: Maverick as the biggest domestic Memorial Day weekend earner ever, and global estimates put it past $300 million. Paramount Pictures' Mission: Impossible–The Final Reckoning, the eighth and (probably) last appearance of Cruise as Ethan Hunt in a nearly three-decade run, was a distant second, but still brought in a franchise record $63 million through Sunday, outearning Mission: ImpossibleFallout, which opened domestically to $61 million in 2018. And the spy thriller was the top global earner, with $127 million. The holiday weekend as a whole zoomed past last year's, when the Memorial Day box office saw just $132 million for all films in the Friday-through-Monday span. And it appears that it will top 2013 as the best Memorial Day the industry has had, with an estimated overall total of $325 million.

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

  1. Lilo & Stich, $145.5 million.
  2. Mission: Impossible–The Final Reckoning, $63 million.
  3. Final Destination: Bloodlines, $19.7 million.
  4. Thunderbolts, $9.2 million.
  5. Sinners, $8.8 million.
  6. The Last Rodeo, $5.3 million.
  7. Friendship, $4.6 million.
  8. A Minecraft Movie, $2.2 million.
  9. The Accountant 2, $2 million.
  10. Hurry Up Tomorrow, $740,000.
(More box office stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X