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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. All movies for the three-day weekend stand around $260M, which is still rich, but it’s not as high as Barbenheimer July 21-23, 2023 weekend ($310.9M), however, it’s higher than the Wicked/Gladiator II frame ($202.4M). Still, it pays to book two mega tentpoles aimed at two different demos — Lilo & Stitch pulling in 62% women, and Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning lassoing 63% men– against each other. It’s the (not-so) secret to success at the box office post Covid.
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.
Lilo & Stitch is playing best in the South, South Central and West with a massive Latino and Hispanic pull of 41%, Caucasian at 34%, and Asian American and Black moviegoers at 10% each. Highest grossing location so far is AMC Disney Springs (FL) with a whopping $188.7K. The 25-34 year old set at 33% is the biggest demo, with a massive millennial turnout with 79% under 35.
Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning‘s biggest demo is the over 55 club at 29% (wow), 62% over 35. Broken out that’s men over 25 at 52%, women over 25 at 32%, guys under 25 at 11% and women under 25 turning out the least 5% (but oddly giving the eighth-quel its best demo score of 97%).
Walk-up business is strong for both movies with 45% of the audience respectively buying tickets same day.
RelishMix reports that Lilo & Stitch‘s social media universe had a reach of 552M across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X, which is on par with Little Mermaid and 43% above live-action family movies. Positive word of mouth on social per the analytics corp with many raving about the design of Stitch, as well as the casting of this live action feature take of the 2002 animated title.
Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning has a mindboggling, massive social media reach of 847M, propped heavily by social media influencers. That blows away the social media universe of Dead Reckoning (530M) and it’s well ahead of Fast X‘s 798.5M. “Super social pioneer Tom Cruise has his 47.2M fans fully activated as well as Angele Basset’s 8.6M, Hannah Waddingham (also in Lilo & Stitch this weekend) at 1.5M, with more cast at Cannes after parties, on Fallon and more — with over 100M views throttled views on Tom Cruise’s Instagram and other social channels,” says RelishMix.
The social media measurement firm adds, “Convo on Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning is solidly positive as fans of almost 30 years of action spectacles are preparing for one last promised cinematic venture. Cruise’s dependable stardom is powering this film yet again, as is the premium theatrical experience. Fans declare, ‘Tom Cruise never fails to deliver cinematic marvels. Something about the scenes when Tom is running, it’s so damn cool! You can really feel the intensity,’ and ‘We’ve trusted him since 1996, and 2025 nothing has changed. Looking forward to watching this in IMAX.’ The variety of cool and intense action set pieces are enticing many, sharing, ‘hanging by an airplane is a crazy stunt,’ and, ‘man this is going to be a treat to watch in cinema… those set pieces!’”
chart coming..
1.) Lilo & Stitch (Dis) 4,410 theaters, Fri $55M, 3-day $142M-$144M, 4-day $175M-$180M/Wk 1
2.) Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning (Par) 3,857 theaters, Fri $24.8M, 3-day $77M/Wk 1
3.) Final Destination: Bloodlines (NL) 3,523 theaters, Fri $5.5M (-74%), 3-day $19M (-63%), 4-day $24M, Total $94.1M/Wk 2
4.) Thunderbolts* (Dis) 3,180 (-780) theaters, Fri $2.4M (-42%), 3-day $9M (-46%) 4-day $11.5M, Total $173.7M/Wk 4
5.) Sinners (WB) 2,632 (-886) theaters, Fri $2.4M (-45%) 3-day $8.7M (-43%) 4-day $11M Total $258.8M/Wk 6
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.
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