Talk about the underdog — I mean, Stitch is technically an alien dog, right? Disney’s longstanding franchise Lilo & Stitch is back in a big way with an entirely new live-action film about to hit theaters. But it seems as though not only does Disney have a lot of faith in this revival, but the movie is currently projected to open ahead of the early summer blockbuster Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.
Lilo & Stitch, which is an update on the 2002 animated film, was positioned as the family-friendly alternative against Tom Cruise’s last impossible mission during Memorial Day weekend. According to the Wall Street Journal, the film will open to over $150 million in both the United States and Canada in the Thursday night through Monday run. Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning is expected to open to about $80 million. Lilo & Stitch also seemingly has the Cruise vehicle beat in the international markets, where it is expected to hit No. 1 in most of them.
Disney is so confident in the reboot that it is already thinking of sequel ideas. “It feels like it’s going to work very well, and it’s the kind of property that lends itself to more,” Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman, who oversees the company’s film business, told WSJ. Bergman also noted that “we’ve seen the thing explode from a Disney+ and consumer-products perspective” since the announcement of the remake back in 2018.
Disney said retail sales of Stitch products — of which there are many, you name it and they have it — grew $2.6 billion in the 2024 fiscal year from $200 million five years earlier. It’s that kind of vertical rise that made Disney want to go full-steam ahead with the live-action film, and it’s clearly about to pay off for them.
The original film grossed $273 million back in 2002, but its popularity continued to grow over the years and well into the streaming era. Nowadays, Lilo & Stitch content streams amount to a whopping 546 million hours (which is neck-and-neck with The Little Mermaid, according to WSJ) and the franchise is considered one of Disney’s top 10 best-selling properties.
The new Lilo & Stitch cost just over $100 million to produce, so if Disney gets this box office win this weekend, it will surely put some smiles on faces after the box office bomb that was Snow White. Either way, it’s always nice to see folks getting excited about movies, especially ones with cute little alien dog things.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
