Box Office Booms as ‘Lilo & Stitch’ and ‘Mission: Impossible’ Lead Historic Memorial Day Weekend

The box office came roaring back over the Memorial Day holiday, led by two juggernauts from Disney and Paramount that gave theater owners a long-overdue reason to celebrate.

Disney’s live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch shattered expectations with a colossal global haul of $341.7 million through Monday. The film opened to $145.5 million domestically over the weekend, rising to $183 million with Monday figures. The film’s $158.7 million international total pushed it well beyond industry forecasts.

“This is a sensational opening,” Franchise Entertainment Research’s David A. Gross told Variety. “It’s a crowd-pleaser, and the audience score is outstanding.”

Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp, the remake benefits from generational nostalgia and wide demographic appeal—plus a tidy $100 million production budget and an equally sizable marketing push. That’s a huge contrast to the studio’s underperforming Snow White, which didn’t reach Lilo’s four-day tally in its entire run.

Right behind it, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning launched with $204 million worldwide, including $63 million over the domestic weekend and $77 million through Monday. Paramount’s latest installment in the long-running spy series pulled in $127 million overseas, bolstered by a week-long international rollout.

“A record opening on the eighth iteration is remarkable. It speaks to the longevity of the franchise,” Paramount’s Chris Aronson told Variety. “The spectacle of what Tom and McQ put on screen is one-of-a-kind in today’s marketplace.”

Despite that strong start, the film has a long climb ahead. Its $400 million budget makes it one of the most expensive productions in Hollywood history. With that price tag, it will need to outperform Fallout’s $791 million global benchmark to break even.

In the shadow of the box office behemoths, a trio of holdovers continued to draw steady crowds. Final Destination Bloodlines took third place with $19 million weekend and $24.5 million across the four-day frame, pushing its global total to $187 million. The sixth entry in the long-running horror franchise shows no signs of slowing, delivering exactly the kind of inventive carnage fans crave.

In fourth, Marvel’s Thunderbolts scraped together $12 million over the holiday stretch, nudging its global haul to $353 million — a solid number, though still a tough climb toward profitability given its $180 million budget. Rounding out the top five, Warner Bros.’ Sinners, a bloody R-rated vampire thriller, added another $11.2 million, lifting its worldwide earnings to $339 million. Quietly, it’s become one of the biggest surprise hits of the season.

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