Impossible’ Fuel Record Memorial Day Picnic

Stichin: Mission!

Disney’s live-action redo of Lilo & Stitch and Tom Cruise’s final Mission: Impossible movie, from Paramount and Skydance, fueled the biggest Memorial Day weekend of all time as attendance skyrocketed across all demos.

Lilo & Stitch blew away all expectations with a record-smashing, four-day domestic debut of $92.7 million, and a jaw-dropping $361.3 million globally, while Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning opened to a series-best $79 million domestically and nearly $200 million worldwide, according to final weekend actuals (M:I’s tally was up from Sunday’s estimate of $77.5 million). The numbers include a three-day weekend gross of $145 million for Lilo and $64 million for Final Reckoning. On Memorial Day itself, Lilo earned a near-record $37 million.

The previous best Memorial Day in terms of overall revenue belonged to the $306 million in ticket sales collected in 2013 when Fast & Furious 6 zoomed to $117 million, followed by The Hangover Part III with $50 million. This year also marked the best showing for two Memorial Day titles going up against each other. In 2007, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End opened to $140 million over the holiday frame, followed by Shrek the Third with $67 million.

While the mashup isn’t quite the same cultural phenomenon that Barbenheimer was in July 2023, the potent combo of the two movies can’t be ignored in terms of conquering and dividing.

The female-fueled Lilo was always expected to beat the latest male-driven M:I title, but no one imagined it would hit these heights and, in an ironic twist, see Lilo & Stitch supplant Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick ($160 million) to rank as the biggest Memorial Day opener of all time, not adjusted for inflation. That’s not the only irony: Cruise-starrer Minority Report barely beat the original animated Lilo & Stitch when they opened opposite each other in June 2002. In North America, Lilo also zoomed to the second-biggest gross of all time for any four-day holiday weekend behind the $242 million opening of Marvel and Disney’s Black Panther ($242 million) and the third biggest debut ever for a Disney live-action title, both domestically and globally, behind Beauty and the Beast and crown-holder The Lion King, not adjusted for inflation. The film also saw Disney become the first studio of the year to cross $2 billion in worldwide ticket sales

Three weeks ago, Lilo & Stitch was tracking to open to $120 million. On Thursday, that number had grown to $165 million. Then it came in even higher. The reason? Thank members of the Gen Z generation and younger Millenials.

Stitch isn’t just drawing interest from families; to the contrary, 60 percent of ticket buyers were non-parents and kids, far higher than the norm. Interest exploded among teenage girls and younger women adults who grew up on the first movie and resulting TV show about a Hawaiian girl with a fraught family life who adopts an adorable, albeit trouble-making, dog-like alien. Box office pundits say the nostalgic factor ran red-hot, just as it did among millennials and Gen Z’ers for Disney’s live-action Aladdin, which made $1.1 billion in global ticket sales after getting non-families. Rideback produced both Lilo and 2019’s Aladdin.

It is also playing to a notably diverse audience. Latinos, the most frequent moviegoers in the U.S., made up 33 percent of ticket buyers, while the film scored the biggest opening ever for a live-action Disney reimagining across Latin America.

Both films benefited from strong scores from critics and glowing audience exits, including five-out-of-five stars from moviegoers polled by industry-leading service PostTrak. Lilo has a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 70 percent and nabbed an A CinemaScore from audiences.

Final Reckoning — which had a lock on Imax screens — more than made up for the lackluster $54.7 million five-day bow of Dead Reckoning, as well as supplanting the $61.2 million three-day launch of Fallout to set a new franchise opening record. M:I movies have never been big openers since diehard fans are usually older adults, and particularly older males. Ticket buyers over the age of 55 made up the largest chunk of the audience (or a whopping 58 percent), followed by the coveted 18 to 24 demo, according to PostTrak. Cruise’s film, directed by his go-to partner Christopher McQuarrie, boasts a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 80 percent and earned an A- CinemaScore.

“Mission accomplished,” says Paramount domestic chief of distribution Chris Aronson. “This is a remarkable result for the eighth title in a franchise that’s 30 years in the making.”

A major challenge in terms of Final Reckoning‘s financial success is its $400 million net budget before marketing — making it one of the most expensive films ever made — although Paramount insiders note that each new installment increases the value of the entire library, including a spike in home entertainment sales and rentals of previous titles. Lilo & Stitch cost a modest net $100 million to make.

Overseas, Lilo & Stitch likewise went up against Final Reckoning nearly everywhere, although the M:I movie began rolling out in a handful of major markets last weekend via previews.

More to come.