SATURDAY AM UPDATE: As anticipated, this will be the best Memorial Day weekend ever for the motion picture industry at the domestic box office with all movies grossing around $322M+, burying the previous benchmark held in 2013 when Fast & Furious 6 led the frame, all titles then grossing $314.3M per Comscore.
As we told you yesterday, Disney and Rideback’s Lilo & Stitch was bound to post the best Friday for a movie opening over Memorial Day, and it’s settling at $55M, which of course translates to the best opening ever for a movie over the 4-day holiday with $175M-$180M. The Dean Fleischer Camp directed movie gets a solid A CinemaScore, 5 stars and 90% positive on Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak and an 81% definite recommend. Forty-four percent said they went because it looked fun and entertaining and 35% said it’s part of a franchise they love. Already, 61% want a sequel.
Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning gets an A- CinemaScore, a half grade down from Dead Reckoning’s A with 5 stars and 89% positive on PostTrak and great 79% definite recommend. Yesterday was $24.8M (including previews) on its way to a $77M 4-day. Fifty-five percent went per PostTrak because it’s party of a franchise they love, while 47% went for Tom Cruise.
More..
UPDATED AFTER EXCLUSIVE: It’s a Memorial Day opening record: Disney and Rideback’s Lilo & Stitch is heading to a $170M-$180M 4-day opening, easily unseating the holiday record previously held by Paramount’s Top Gun Maverick at $160.5M.
Friday for Lilo & Stitch is between $56M-$59M, which also bests the Memorial Day weekend Friday record of $52M held by Top Gun 2. It’s funny, when the first Lilo & Stitch opened back in 2002 at $35.2M, it wasn’t considered that great, particularly when comped against 1999’s Toy Story 2 (which had a 3-day of $57.3M out of a five-day of $80.4M). Variety’s headline at the time was “‘Report’ squelches Stitch bitch”. (Could you imagine using that headline nowadays? We would get hanged). It doesn’t take a five-year old to figure out Disney’s brilliance here. There was a pent-up demand among millennials for a live-action take of this highly prized home entertainment fave. Lilo & Stitch is booked at 4,410 theaters. Thursday previews came in at $14.5M, the best Memorial Day weekend preview ever for Disney beating Solo: A Star Wars Story, and the largest preview YTD for 2025 ahead of Captain America: Brave New World.
Meanwhile, Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning at 2 hours and 49 minutes, the longest Mission ever, is coming in at $25M today, a 3-day of $64M, and 4-day of $78M at 3,857 theaters. That’s the best opening day for a Mission: Impossible movie ahead of 2018’s Fallout ($22.8M). Remember, given the length of this movie, moviegoers want the best seats. It’s scheduled viewing. The fourth Christopher McQuarrie directed Mission: Impossible movie owns the 400 Imax auditoriums for the next three weeks. Skydance kicked in 25% of the $300M-$400M production cost (before global P&A spend). New Republic additionally co-financed another 25% of the pic. Final Reckoning‘s final preview figure was $8.3M, best ever for a Mission movie.
New Line/Warner Bros’ second weekend of Final Destination: Bloodlines is coming in at $6M today, $23M (-55%, a great hold for horror) 3-day and $26M 4-day at 3,523 for a running cume Sunday of $96M. Wow. Far and away, a record total that beats the final grosses of all other Final Destination titles.
Fourth is Disney/MCU’s Thunderbolts* with an estimated $2M today, $9M fourth weekend (-46%) at 3,180 theaters and 4-day of $11M. Cume by Sunday $173.2M. Warner Bros.’ Sinners at 2,632 locations is seeing a sixth weekend of $8.6M (-43%), 4-day of $11M as well for a running cume by Sunday of $258.8M.
EXCLUSIVE: Thursday night was beyond cute for Disney: Their live action take of 2002 toon classic Lilo & Stitch is grabbing around $14M in previews that started at 2PM, which is possibly a Disney record as far as previews go over Memorial Day weekend.
Lilo & Stitch would need to unseat 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story which, though one of the lowest grossing movies in the Star Wars franchise, racked up $14.1M in its Thursday before a $35.3M Friday and $103M 4-day. As we always say, don’t be surprised if Lilo & Stitch‘s cash is substantially higher by the time Hollywood wakes up. Many are expecting this $100M Rideback co-production to come in at $150M.
Disney’s biggest opening for Memorial Day weekend is 2007’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End which did $139.8M if you don’t include its $13.2M Thursday preview (Disney rolled that money up in the first week gross, not the opening weekend. It was at a time when the whole notion of Thursday previews were new. Including the opening weekend, the first five days of At World’s End made $153M). Already, Lilo & Stitch is tap-dancing on top of previous Disney previews, i.e. Moana 2‘s Tuesday ($13.8M), Memorial Day weekend’s Little Mermaid ($10.3M), and Aladdin ($7M). The Dean Fleischer Camp directed movie is 72% fresh with Rotten Tomatoes critics and winning with audiences at 93%. Lilo & Stitch is rich in 900 PLFs and 2,500+ 3D locations and 300 D-Box/4D motion screens.
In the second face-off for Tom Cruise with Lilo & Stitch (his Minority Report inched out the blue alien at the June 21-23, 2002 weekend box office, $35.6M to $35.2M). However, Lilo & Stitch, will have the last laugh. Still, Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning is deepening the marketplace, appealing to adults over 25. On Thursday we hear that Final Reckoning grossed around $8M. If that number holds, well, then it’s a record preview night for a Mission: Impossible movie ahead of 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning ($7M Tuesday) and 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout ($6M). Outlook heading into the weekend with Imax and 900 PLFs is $75M-$85M over four days. Critics love it at 80% certified fresh and audiences do too at 93%. Biggest 3-day for a Mission: Impossible movie goes to Fallout with $61M. The last Mission movie to open over Memorial Day weekend was John Woo’s Mission: Impossible II in 2000 with a $91.8M six-day opening from Wednesday, and a $70.8M four-day. Mission 8‘s Thursday is just under that of Lionsgate’s John Wick: Chapter 4 which did $8.9M before a $29.4M Friday and 3-day of $73.8M. Remember, numbers can fluctuate by the AM as previous night ticket sales pour into Comscore by sunrise.
Numbers tonight are per industry sources.
