It’s a Memorial Day weekend for the box office record books.
Movie theaters across the country were jamming as “Lilo & Stitch” and Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” fueled the largest Memorial Day holiday in history — and established several other benchmarks in the process.
Families turned out in force for Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch” remake, which collected a blockbuster $145.5 million in its opening weekend and estimated $183 million through Monday. Those ticket sales defied projections and cemented a Memorial Day opening weekend record, overtaking a different Cruise tentpole, 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” with $126 million over the weekend and $160 million through the four days. “Lilo & Stitch” also secured the second-largest start across any four-day holiday weekend, behind only 2018’s “Black Panther,” which amassed $242 million over Presidents’ Day.
Meanwhile older audiences showed up to watch Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” which earned a series-best $63 million over the weekend and an estimated $77 million through Monday’s holiday. This eighth installment just narrowly beat 2018’s “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” ($61 million) to score the top debut of the 29-year-old franchise.
Thanks to effective counterprogramming — and a huge assist by holdovers like “Final Destination Bloodlines,” “Thunderbolts” and “Sinners” — this weekend delivered the best collective Memorial Day weekend haul with $322 million across all films. It’s been more than a decade since this many people went to the movies over the holiday frame; the prior record was established in 2013 with $314 million across all films, led by “Fast & Furious 6,” “The Hangover Part III” and “Star Trek Into Darkness.”
Cinema operators are rejoicing because Memorial Day is the official launch to summer movie season, which is the most profitable stretch for the movie business. (Historically, the four-month period has accounted for $4 billion, or around 40% of the annual box office.) It’s a huge improvement from last year, which started with a whimper rather than a bang as “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and “Garfield” led the holiday’s worst showing in three decades with $132 million collectively.
“Lilo & Stitch” also ignited to $158.7 million at the international box office for a staggering $341.7 million global start. Disney spent $100 million to produce and another $100 million on marketing efforts for the kid friendly adventure about a chaotic alien who crash-lands in Hawaii and gets adapted by a young girl and her older sister. Dean Fleischer Camp directed the film, which is benefitting from generation-spanning appeal a short two decades after the original 2002 animated film.
“Lilo & Stitch” ranks as one of the top debuts for Disney’s live-action remakes, just behind 2019’s “The Lion King” ($191 million over three days) and 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast” ($174 million over three days). It’s an encouraging reversal for Disney after March’s “Snow White” remake had flatlined with $204 million globally against a $250 million budget. That’s right — “Lilo & Stitch” earned more in four days than “Snow White” did during its entire box office run. It helps that “Lilo & Stitch” was embraced by moviegoers with an “A” grade on CinemaScore exit polls.
“This is a sensational opening,” says David A. Gross of movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research of the “Lilo & Stitch” reboot. “It’s a crowd-pleaser, and the audience score is outstanding.”
“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” added another $127 million overseas for a worldwide start of $190 million. Paramount began rolling out the film internationally a week ago and folded those grosses into this initial number. It’s a muscular start for the action epic, which needs an equally epic box office run to justify its eye-popping budget. “The Final Reckoning” is one of the most expensive films of all time. It cost a staggering $400 million, a figure that skyrocketed as Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie worked through a pandemic and two strikes all while grappling with inflation. So the tentpole needs to become the highest-grossing of the series — that’s currently “Fallout” with $791 million worldwide — to climb out of the red.
Reviews aren’t as strong as its predecessor, 2023’s “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” which fell short of box office expectations in the wake of “Barbenheimer.” However, “The Final Reckoning” has been embraced with an “A-” grade on CinemaScore. The story, which features plenty of death-defying stunts from the 62-year-old Cruise, picks up as spy operative Ethan Hunt continues his race against time to find a rogue artificial intelligence known as the Entity.
“With this opening, and with excellent business overseas, ‘The Final Reckoning’ is going to make a lot of money,” Gross says. “But the costs are enormous, and it’ll be lucky to break-even. The delays were uncontrollable and unfortunate.”
In a distant third place, “Final Destination Bloodlines” earned a huge $19 million over the weekend and an estimated $24.5 million through Monday. The sixth installment in Warner Bros. and New Line’s long-running horror property, in which people die in increasingly insane incidents, has generated a healthy $94.6 million in North America and $187 million worldwide after just two weekends.
At No. 4, “Thunderbolts” brought in $9.5 million over the weekend and an estimated $12 million through Monday. Disney and Marvel’s comic book adventure has grossed $171 million domestically and $353 million globally after four weeks in theaters. Because theater owners get to keep half of ticket sales, “Thunderbolts” will struggle at this rate to turn a profit theatrically against its $180 million production budget.
“Sinners” rounded out the top five with $9.1 million over the weekend and an estimated $11.2 million through Monday. The Warner Bros. R-rated vampire thriller has been a box office juggernaut with $339 million globally, including $259 million domestically and $80 million internationally.
Meanwhile “Minecraft,” another Warner Bros. blockbuster, looks like it’ll fall just short of the $1 billion mark as the PG video game adaptation slows down with a remarkable $940 million globally after two months of release. It’s currently the biggest Hollywood movie of the year — though “Lilo & Stitch” could be coming for its box office crown.
