Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch held the top domestic slot for a second frame with an estimated $63 million, a 59 percent slide that analysts label “typical for front-loaded family titles” and enough to lift its North American tally to about $280 million. The sophomore haul follows last weekend’s record $183 million four-day Memorial Day launch, the best holiday opening on record, and propels the global total past $450 million after just eleven days in release.
Disney’s studio ledger now tops $2 billion for the calendar year, a threshold reached largely on the strength of the hybrid remake’s $341.7 million worldwide bow. Domestic receipts already eclipse the studio’s prior live-action high as Lilo & Stitch races toward the $300 million mark that insiders say would triple its reported $100 million production outlay before marketing.
The film’s staying power arrives despite fan blowback over a revised ending that sees Nani cede guardianship of Lilo, a change some critics argue dilutes the original’s “ohana” ethos. Director Dean Fleischer Camp defended the update as a “realistic expansion of family,” a stance reflected in social-media sentiment that skews positive even as culture writers debate the message.
Competition proved mild: Sony’s Karate Kid: Legends bowed to an under-powered $7.5 million opening day and is tracking for roughly $20 million domestic across the three-day, well below pre-release hopes and light years behind Disney’s second-week figure. Early overseas rollout added a modest $4 million from a dozen markets, leaving the martial-arts reboot little chance of unseating the Hawaiian juggernaut.
Trade outlets forecast that Lilo & Stitch will overtake Lionsgate’s Sinners to become 2025’s second-highest domestic grosser before the weekend is out, positioning it behind only Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and ahead of summer tentpoles yet to arrive. Exhibitor Relations analyst Jeff Bock notes that robust weekday matinee business “suggests the picture could leg out beyond typical remake multiples,” giving Disney a cushion as Pixar’s Elio and Marvel’s Nova prepare to enter the market later this month.
