'Lilo & Stitch' becomes Hollywood's first US$1bil movie of 2025
Walt Disney Co.'s live-action adaptation Lilo & Stitch has now generated more than US$1bil in worldwide box office revenue, becoming the first US film of the year to do so.
The movie, based on the 2002 animated film of the same name, made US$416.2mil in the United States and Canada and an additional US$584.8mil internationally. It is the highest-grossing Disney live-action film ever in Mexico, where it brought in US$67mil.
"We knew there was a lot of love for Lilo & Stitch with audiences around the world, yet we never take that for granted," Disney Entertainment co-Chairman Alan Bergman said in a statement. "We're proud of how this new film has connected with people."
The Burbank-based media and entertainment giant has already announced that a sequel to Lilo & Stitch is in development.
The original animated movie was only a modest box-office performer at the time, bringing in US$273mil. Yet over time, Stitch has become increasingly popular, ranking in the top 10 bestselling Disney franchises, alongside stalwarts like Mickey and Minnie Mouse, the princesses, Star Wars and Marvel, Disney has said.
Sales of Stitch-themed merchandise totaled about US$2.6bil last year. And before the new film was released, the Lilo & Stitch franchise, which includes animated series, TV films and direct-to-video movies, drove 546 million hours of global viewership on Disney+, with the original movie accounting for more than half of that.
Bergman said in May that the popularity of the little blue alien "definitely" played a role in greenlighting the live-action film.
The success of Lilo & Stitch comes as family-friendly movies have ruled the box office. The momentum began in April with Warner Bros. Pictures' A Minecraft Movie , which has now made US$955mil worldwide, and continued with Lilo & Stitch and Universal Pictures' live-action adaptation How To Train Your Dragon , which released in June and collected more than US$564mil globally.
Globally, the biggest film of the year remains Ne Zha 2 , a Chinese animated juggernaut that grossed more than US$2bil in ticket sales, the vast majority of which came from its home country. – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
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