Latest news with #BillyMagnussen
Straits Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Disney's Lilo & Stitch leads record box office over US Memorial Day weekend
FILE PHOTO: Chris Sanders, Billy Magnussen, Zach Galifianakis, Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong, Courtney B. Vance, Kaipo Dudoit, Amy Hill and Stitch attend a premiere for the film \"Lilo & Stitch\" in Los Angeles, California, U.S. May 17, 2025. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo LOS ANGELES - Walt Disney's live-action remake of the animated classic Lilo & Stitch topped box office charts in the United States and Canada with $183 million in ticket sales over the U.S. Memorial Day weekend, according to estimates released on Monday. "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning," starring Tom Cruise, was on pace to bring in $77.5 million from Friday through Monday, distributor Paramount Global said. Total sales for all films are expected to set a record for the Memorial Day weekend, box office analysts said. The previous record of $314.3 million was established in 2013, when the sixth Fast & Furious movie debuted. Lilo & Stitch, the story of a mischievous blue alien taken in by two sisters in Hawaii, added $158.7 million in international markets for a global total of $314.7 million. Mission: Impossible, the eighth installment in Cruise's action franchise, racked up $205.5 million around the world. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Disney's 'Lilo & Stitch' leads record box office over US Memorial Day weekend
FILE PHOTO: Chris Sanders, Billy Magnussen, Zach Galifianakis, Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong, Courtney B. Vance, Kaipo Dudoit, Amy Hill and Stitch attend a premiere for the film \"Lilo & Stitch\" in Los Angeles, California, U.S. May 17, 2025. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo LOS ANGELES - Walt Disney's live-action remake of the animated classic "Lilo & Stitch" topped box office charts in the United States and Canada with $183 million in ticket sales over the U.S. Memorial Day weekend, according to estimates released on Monday. "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning," starring Tom Cruise, was on pace to bring in $77.5 million from Friday through Monday, distributor Paramount Global said. Total sales for all films are expected to set a record for the Memorial Day weekend, box office analysts said. The previous record of $314.3 million was established in 2013, when the sixth "Fast & Furious" movie debuted. "Lilo & Stitch," the story of a mischievous blue alien taken in by two sisters in Hawaii, added $158.7 million in international markets for a global total of $314.7 million. "Mission: Impossible," the eighth installment in Cruise's action franchise, racked up $205.5 million around the world. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘I Do Stand By The Decision': Lilo & Stitch Director Explains Why Gantu Isn't In The New Movie
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The latest of live-action Disney movie remakes is here with the release of the new Lilo & Stitch, and that means fans like myself are going to start talking about how the beloved animated version compares to it. One major change you might have already noticed is that a character named Gantu was not adapted to the 2025 movie. When CinemaBlend sat down with the filmmakers, they told us why. In the 2002 movie, Experiment 626 flees to Earth after he is sentenced to exile, but the United Galactic Federation is hot on his trail to retrieve him. We already knew Jumba and Pleakley would be back in the movie (played by Zach Galifinakis and Billy Magnussen), but Captain Gantu is not part of the equation this time. Here's what director Dean Fleischer Camp said about the revision: Gantu was one of those things that just didn't work so well in live action. We explored it a bit, but ultimately we had to make the decision. And also I do stand by the decision 'cause I feel like a lot of the things that in trying to ground these characters more and tell a story with a little more emotional depth, especially between the sisters, I feel like you have to free up real estate to allow that breathing room to do those things. When it comes to Disney remakes, there's been a varying degree of resemblance to their originals, from The Lion King's quite close reenactment to the recent Snow White movie adding a whole new batch of songs to the soundtrack. As Camp shared with us, they 'explored' having Gantu in the live-action Lilo & Stitch, but ultimately felt he was a necessary cut to make room for some of the new additions. In the case of Gantu, the character is sent by the Grand Councilwoman of the Galactic Federation to take more invasive measures to capture Stitch after Jumba and Pleakley's methods prove to be ineffective. As someone who grew up adoring the 2002 movie, I didn't necessarily miss his presence, and I can see how it might look a little odd in live-action. Still, I would be curious how it would have looked for him to be in it. I gave the remake a 3.5 out of 5 in my Lilo & Stitch review, noting how, yes, there's some aspects of the animated movie I missed from this version, Gantu included, but I overall enjoyed the added focus on its human characters, particularly through Maia Kealoha and Sydney Agudong's Lilo & Nani. As Camp continued in our interview, I think my approach to the film is to respect the fact that animation is a very different medium than live action. And I don't think it usually works when – there's a danger in just trying to port it in one-to-one. Literally just depict it in photo-real photography because I think you lose a lot of expressiveness and all these things that animation does better than live action. There are a lot of those. Lilo & Stitch does a balance of having so many recreations of original scenes we know and love, and taking some creative liberties to align better with the medium. (For example, you might have also heard about the changes to Pleakley and his affinity in the original for wigs and dresses.) As Camp continued: There's ways it can also cheat that live action can't, and live action can also do things better than animation can't, which is what we kind of tried to write a little bit more towards in recalibrating it for a live-action film. At the end of the day, we'll always have the original animated movie to return back to, but it's always interesting to see what stays and what goes when it comes to these Disney remakes. Lilo & Stitch is now playing.
UPI
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- UPI
'Lilo & Stitch' tops North American box office with $145.5M
Billy Magnussen's "Lilo & Stitch" is the No. 1 movie in North America this weekend. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo May 24 (UPI) -- Disney's live-action remake of its beloved animated movie, Lilo & Stitch, is No. 1 at the North American box office this weekend, earning $145.5 million in receipts. Coming in at No. 2 is Mission Impossible: The Last Reckoning with $63 million, followed by Final Destination: Bloodlines at No. 3 with $19.7 million, Thunderbolts at No. 4 with $9.2 million and Sinners at No. 5 with $8.8 million,according to Rounding out the top tier are The Last Rodeo at No. 6 with $5.3 million, Friendship at No. 7 with $4.6 million, A Minecraft Movie at No. 8 with $2.2 million, The Accountant 2 at No. 9 with $2 million and Hurry Up Tomorrow at No. 10 with $740,000.
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Disney's Lilo & Stitch live-action movie suffers fresh blow as devastating reviews roll in from critics
Disney's live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch has been panned by critics ahead of its theatrical release, with blistering reviews branding it a 'monstrosity' which 'deserves to be forgotten.' The new film, which is set to hit cinemas on May 23, comes over two decades after the original animation and follows an alien monster (Stitch) who accidentally ends up on Earth after escaping from his creator. Two aliens named Jumba (Zach Galifianakis) and Pleakley (Billy Magnussen) head to Earth to hunt him down, while a Hawaiian girl name Lilo (Maia Kealoha) adopts him believing that he's a dog. While Disney fans have already threatened to 'boycott' the movie after a shocking new detail emerged, reviews from critics might also cause a lull in ticket sales if they're anything to go by. In its damning one star review, The Guardian didn't mince its words as critics called 'Disney's latest unnecessary remake a monstrosity,' while the AV Club urged viewers to 'leave behind this dreadful take on Lilo & Stitch.' As the reviews continue to roll in, FEMAIL takes a closer look at what the critics are saying about Lilo & Stitch. The Guardian Folks at The Guardian claimed Disney might have gone 'too far' with its live action of Lilo & Stitch - awarding it just one star out of five. In their no-holds-barred review, they said: 'The 2002 film can stand comfortably alongside superficially similar but tonally distinct children's stories like ET, The Iron Giant, and My Neighbor Totoro. 'Now, however, Lilo & Stitch steps forward from that crowd of modern classics – as the only one whose keepers didn't bother to protect it from a cheap branded knockoff.' AV Club Similarly, AV Club pleaded with cinemagoers to 'forget and leave behind this dreadful take on Lilo & Stitch.' 'None of these imagination-limiting films have been good,' they wrote. 'Almost all of them have been terrible. The only piece of optimism one can find around this godforsaken trend is that they are, finally, making less money at the box office. 'One can only hope that they're on their way out. "Ohana'" might still mean "family," but this Lilo & Stitch deserves to be left behind — and forgotten.' The Wrap While The Wrap argued that Disney's latest live-action remake 'may be pointless,' they have insisted that it's 'also not bad.' 'Disney has produced worse live-action remakes of their beloved films,' they said. 'A lot worse. Oh God, so many of them are worse. Some of them are only slightly better than getting stabbed in the eyes. (I'm looking at you, Robert Zemeckis's "Pinocchio.") 'But this new "Lilo & Stitch" gets the job done. It's just a job nobody needed to do. 'It's like hiring a body shop to fix a brand new car, so the mechanics can only justify their paycheck by denting the fender themselves and then knocking it back in place. 'It's not the filmmakers' fault they dinged it. Disney couldn't tell what they had was perfect to begin with.' The Telegraph The Telegraph gave Lilo & Stitch a lukewarm review in which they hit out at Disney for remaking 'taming' its 'most feral character.' As they graded it three out of five stars, they said: 'Ohana means family, as the first film memorably explained, which in turn means no one gets left behind. 'This new Lilo & Stitch allows that moral to double as commercial motto: in the wake of the Snow White debacle, no prospective customers are going to feel alienated by anything here, from the aliens down. 'That makes it feel more like a product than its predecessor did, but at least it's a sturdily built one.' Hollywood Reporter Hollywood Reporter reckons that Lilo & Stitch will do well at the box office - despite not being a highly ranked Disney film. They said: 'In both incarnations, Lilo & Stitch is not in the first rank of Disney family films, as evidenced by the fact that this remake was originally slated to go direct-to-streaming. 'But that should hardly matter, with this version likely to clean up at the box-office at the start of the busy summer season.' Indie Wire – Grade C Plus Another unimpressed review came from IndieWire, who said that 'despite good intentions, this live-action remake proves why animation is better.' 'The heart of this story remains firmly intact, but there's something about seeing it rendered in live-action that takes away its inherent magic,' they said. 'It's harder to fall into, much tougher to lose yourself in. Maybe we can never quite recreate the dreaminess of an original story, but there's something to be said for remembering what it feels like to be caught inside that sort of bubble, and not crash-landed back on Earth.'
