'Lilo & Stitch' passes 'Sinners' to become 2nd highest grossing film of 2025

San Francisco Chronicle​

3 days ago

'Lilo & Stich' and 'Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning' dominated the box office charts again after fueling a record-breaking Memorial Day weekend. Theaters in the U.S. and Canada had several new films to offer this weekend as well, including Sony's family friendly 'Karate Kid: Legends' and the A24 horror movie 'Bring Her Back. ' According to studio estimates Sunday, it added up to a robust $145 million post-holiday weekend that's up over 115% from the same timeframe last year.
Disney's live-action hybrid 'Lilo & Stitch' took first place again with $63 million from 4,410 locations in North America. It was enough to pass 'Sinners' to become the second-highest grossing movie of the year with $280.1 million in domestic ticket sales. Globally, it's running total is $610.8 million. 'Sinners,' meanwhile, is still going strong in its seventh weekend with another $5.2 million, bumping it to $267.1 million domestically and $350.1 million globally.
The eighth 'Mission: Impossible' movie also repeated in second place, with $27.3 million from 3,861 locations. As with 'Lilo & Stitch,' that's down 57% from its opening. With $122.6 million in domestic tickets sold, it's performing in line with the two previous installments. But with a reported production budget of $400 million, profitability is a ways off. Internationally, it added $76.1 million (including $25.2 million from China where it just opened), bringing its global total to $353.8 million.
Leading the newcomers was Sony's 'Karate Kid: Legends,' with an estimated $21 million from 3,809 locations. The movie brings Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio together to train a new kid, the kung fu prodigy Li Fong ( Ben Wang ). Chan starred in a 2010 reboot of the 1984 original, while Macchio has found a new generation of fans in the series 'Cobra Kai,' which just concluded a six-season run.
Reviews might have been mixed, but opening weekend audiences gave the PG-13 rated film a strong A- CinemaScore and 4.5 stars on PostTrak. It also only cost a reported $45 million to produce and has several weeks until a new family-friendly film arrives.
Fourth place went 'Final Destination: Bloodlines,' which earned $10.8 million in its third weekend. The movie is the highest-grossing in the franchise, not accounting for inflation, with $229.3 million globally.
The weekend's other big newcomer, 'Bring Her Back' rounded out the top five with $7.1 million from 2,449 screens. Starring Sally Hawkins as a foster mother with some disturbing plans, the film is the sophomore feature of twin filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou, who made the 2023 horror breakout 'Talk to Me.' It earned a rare-for-horror B+ CinemaScore and is essentially the only new film in the genre until '28 Years Later' opens on June 20.
A new Wes Anderson movie, 'The Phoenician Scheme,' also debuted in New York and Los Angeles this weekend, where it made $270,000. It expands nationwide next weekend.
The summer box office forecast remains promising, though there's a long way to go to get to the $4 billion target (a pre-pandemic norm that only the 'Barbenheimer' summer has surpassed). The month of May is expected to close out with $973 million – up 75% from May 2024, according to data from Comscore.