A chaotic blue alien and the high-flying escapades of Tom Cruise propelled the Memorial Day weekend box office to record heights, giving relief to theater owners still struggling from a post-pandemic malaise among moviegoers.<\/p>\n
Walt Disney Co.\u2019s live-action film \u201cLilo & Stitch\u201d hauled in $183 million in its opening weekend in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates, placing it in first place. It\u2019s the biggest Memorial Day weekend opener ever, not adjusting for inflation, topping \u201cTop Gun: Maverick,\u201d which debuted with $160.5 million in 2022. <\/p>\n
Paramount Pictures and Skydance Media\u2019s \u201cMission: Impossible \u2014 The Final Reckoning\u201d brought in $77 million domestically for second place. \u201cFinal Destination Bloodlines,\u201d \u201cThunderbolts*\u201d and \u201cSinners\u201d rounded out the top five this weekend.<\/p>\n
The two new studio blockbusters were big overseas, too. Globally, \u201cLilo & Stitch\u201d collected $341.7 million including domestic ticket sales. The worldwide tally for \u201cMission: Impossible,\u201d the eighth in the series, was $190 million. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Aria Clark fills up her Lilo and Stitch cup with slushy before going into the movie with her mom, Lexi, and brother Leo at AMC Century City.<\/p>\n
Historically, the holiday has been one of the biggest moviegoing weekends of the year, serving as a springboard for the busy summer months. But since the 2020 pandemic and the dual writers\u2019 and actors\u2019 strikes in 2023, it has become a less reliable indicator of the theatrical business.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe calendar thinned out a little bit, particularly post-pandemic,\u201d said Eric Handler, media and entertainment analyst at Roth Capital. \u201cYou just didn\u2019t have the depth that you used to have. But it\u2019s good to see that there\u2019s two big event movies this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLilo & Stitch\u201d and \u201cMission: Impossible\u201d also largely catered to different audiences, lowering the risk that audiences would pick and choose between similar films. Box office grosses have typically done better with more genres in theaters.<\/p>\n
The reported budget for \u201cLilo & Stitch\u201d was $100 million, while \u201cMission: Impossible\u201d reportedly cost $300 million to $400 million to produce, placing it among the most expensive movies ever. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Movie goers attend showings of \u201cLilo & Stitch\u201d at AMC Century City.<\/p>\n
The strong showing on Memorial Day weekend adds to a solid spring at the box office. Powered by films including Warner Bros. Pictures\u2019 \u201cA Minecraft Movie\u201d and Ryan Coogler\u2019s \u201cSinners,\u201d domestic theatrical revenue for April totaled $875 million, close to the pre-pandemic average of $886 million for the same month from 2015-19, Handler said.<\/p>\n
Then in May came Disney and Marvel Studios\u2019 \u201cThunderbolts*\u201d and Warner Bros. Pictures\u2019 \u201cFinal Destination Bloodlines,\u201d which have kept up steady business at theaters<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis spring has been so good for the box office, it usually means the summer is going to be strong,\u201d said Kimberly Owczarski, associate professor in the department of film, television and digital media at Texas Christian University. \u201cLast year, we didn\u2019t have those big tentpoles in April and early May that usually start the season. Because we\u2019ve had that, people are in the moviegoing mood.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, the holiday weekend grossed just $132 million, making it the worst Memorial Day weekend box office in nearly 30 years<\/a>. Films like \u201cFuriosa: A Mad Max Saga\u201d and \u201cThe Garfield Movie\u201d brought in about $30 million each that weekend, a distinct difference from the mega-hauls that blockbusters traditionally gross during Memorial Day weekend.<\/p>\n KK McDermott attends a showing of \u201cMission: Impossible\u201d at AMC Century City.<\/p>\n The slow start last year to the all-important summer movie season made distributors and exhibitors anxious. It wasn\u2019t until Disney-Pixar\u2019s \u201cInside Out 2\u201d debuted in mid-June<\/a> that the box office started to turn around.<\/p>\n This year, however, a seemingly strong lineup of familiar blockbusters for most of the summer has given industry insiders optimism.<\/p>\n Sony Pictures\u2019 \u201cKarate Kid: Legends\u201d comes out at the end of the month, followed by Lionsgate\u2019s \u201cJohn Wick\u201d spin-off \u201cBallerina\u201d in early June. Other anticipated releases include Universal Pictures\u2019 live action \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon\u201d and \u201cJurassic World Rebirth,\u201d Disney-Pixar\u2019s original animated film \u201cElio,\u201d Warner Bros.\u2019 \u201cSuperman\u201d and Disney and Marvel Studios\u2019 \u201cThe Fantastic Four: First Steps.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s boosted hopes for a stronger overall theatrical business this year.<\/p>\n Analysts say the 2025 domestic box office could gross an estimated $9.2 billion to $9.5 billion, which would be an improvement on last year\u2019s $8.7 billion. More importantly, it\u2019s higher than the 2023 box office total of $9 billion, which would indicate continued growth and a \u201ctrue recovery,\u201d Handler said.<\/p>\n However, those numbers still pale in comparison with pre-pandemic box office totals, including $11.4 billion in 2019 and $11.9 billion in 2018.<\/p>\n Moviegoers head to showings of \u201cLilo & Stitch,\u201d one of this Memorial Day weekend\u2019s biggest films at AMC Century City.<\/p>\n Even before the pandemic, theaters were starting to see declines in attendance, a trend that accelerated during COVID-19 when people got used to staying at home and watching movies on streaming platforms. As the pandemic and the strikes decreased the number of movies in theaters, and the length of time between a movie\u2019s theatrical debut and its availability for home viewing shortened, theaters lost more of the crucial business of the casual moviegoer<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the content is good, people show up,\u201d Handler said. \u201cThe content cycle is favorable right now, and hopefully we\u2019ll see that continue through the next two years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A chaotic blue alien and the high-flying escapades of Tom Cruise propelled the Memorial Day weekend box office…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[57917,77,57919,57918,57914,16636,57912,57916,4516,24345,3943,2887,57913,57915,15763,16,15,57920,3118],"class_list":{"0":"post-131391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-box-office-gross","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-eric-handler","11":"tag-expensive-movie","12":"tag-impossible","13":"tag-last-year","14":"tag-lilo","15":"tag-live-action-film","16":"tag-marvel-studios","17":"tag-mission","18":"tag-movies","19":"tag-pandemic","20":"tag-stitch","21":"tag-theater-owner","22":"tag-tom-cruise","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom","25":"tag-warner-bros-pictures","26":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114570083995935165","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/p>\n
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