This Monday was Memorial Day, a legal holiday in the United States, so this past weekend has always been an important period for Hollywood film companies to compete with each other in the North American film market. It is not surprising that two Hollywood blockbusters, the live-action version of "Lilo & Stitch" and "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning", were both released this year.
Last weekend, two Hollywood blockbusters, "Lilo and Stitch" (above) and "Mission: Impossible 8", were released at the same time.
"Lilo & Stitch" more than doubled the box office of "Mission: Impossible 8"
The live-action version of "Lilo & Stitch," produced by Disney and starring Maya Kealoha and Sidney Agton, was released in 4,410 theaters in North America, earning a staggering $145 million at the opening, becoming the undisputed weekend box office champion.
Without taking inflation into account, this is still the highest weekend box office in the "Memorial Day" period in history. The second place in history is "Top Gun 2" released three years ago (with a weekend box office of 126 million US dollars) - however, if only the actual number of admissions is counted, the box office champion of this period is still "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" in 2007.
Stills from Lilo & Stitch
Even though the rating of "Lilo & Stitch" on the film review website Rotten Tomatoes is only 69%, it did not prevent the audience from being attracted by the cute and funny polar fleece alien baby Stitch. In addition to the North American box office, the film's overseas box office is also very good, including the opening box office of 62.21 million yuan in the Chinese mainland market, and the global box office in the first weekend has exceeded 300 million US dollars.
"Mission: Impossible 8" is the final film in the series and its cost is reportedly as high as $400 million.
Mission: Impossible 8: Final Reckoning, starring Tom Cruise, is the final film in the action film franchise. The film opened in 3,857 theaters in North America over the weekend and earned $63 million at the box office, setting a new record for the series. However, the production cost of Mission: Impossible 8 is said to be as high as $400 million, making it one of the most expensive films ever made in Hollywood. Judging from this opening performance, it will be a lot of pressure to recover the cost.
In "Mission Impossible 8", the 62-year-old Tom Cruise goes to the sky and into the sea as usual.
Mission: Impossible 8 has a freshness rating of 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is better than the first three films in the series. Currently, the global box office of the film has exceeded 200 million US dollars. It is scheduled to be released in mainland China on May 30, during the Dragon Boat Festival.
"Mission: Impossible 8"'s freshness on Rotten Tomatoes is only better than the first three films in the series.
Compared with the two Hollywood blockbusters that topped the weekend box office chart, the box office data of Mission: Impossible 8 is less than half of that of Lilo & Stitch. Moreover, the production cost of the latter was $100 million, only a quarter of the cost of Mission: Impossible 8, plus the global publicity and promotion costs of nearly $100 million. It is not difficult for Disney to recover all costs just by box office revenue, not to mention the income from various derivative products.
"Mission: Impossible 8" is scheduled to be released in mainland China on May 30.
This budget is relatively low in this series of Disney remakes of classics, because the project of "Lilo & Stitch" was originally to be directly released on the streaming platform Disney+, not offline. After that, Bob Iger, a retired Disney hero, returned to the stage and completely revised his predecessor's strategy of focusing on streaming media development, and changed "Lilo & Stitch" and other works to theatrical release. Judging from the box office results this time, it is true that old people are still the best.
Animation version of planting trees, real-life version of enjoying the shade
The good box office success of "Lilo & Stitch" this time is due, on the one hand, to the high production standards, and on the other hand, the foundation laid by the animated version is also indispensable. After all, the signature feature of the live-action version is "faithful restoration."
The live-action version aims to faithfully restore the animated version.
Back in 2002, Disney launched the original animated film "Lilo & Stitch", created by two new directors and screenwriters Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois. The story takes place on a small island in Hawaii. Lilo, a lonely little girl, lives with her sister Nani. Due to family changes, social worker Cobb believes that Nani cannot take good care of Lilo and threatens to send Lilo to a welfare institution. At the same time, Stitch, an experimental creature with super destructive power and learning ability invented by outer space scientist Dr. Jumbo, appeared out of nowhere. After Stitch escaped to Earth, Lilo mistakenly thought he was a stray dog and adopted him. Under her influence, Stitch, who only knew how to destroy, realized love and responsibility and truly became a member of the family.
The laughs created by Stitch and Lilo are the biggest selling point of the animated version.
Different from the dreamlike atmosphere deliberately created in Disney's movies adapted from traditional fairy tales, the watercolor style and rough lines of "Lilo & Stitch" are closer to real scenes. The beautiful scenery, unique culture and art of Hawaii shown in the film also make the audience intoxicated. And the various laughs created by the two funny people, Stitch and Lilo, make people feel childish.
The animated version shows Hawaii's beautiful scenery and unique culture and art.
In the end, Lilo & Stitch grossed $273 million worldwide, making it one of Disney's most successful animations in the early 2000s. At the Academy Awards the following year, the film was shortlisted for Best Animated Feature Film, and although it lost to Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, it was still a good result for a newcomer's new work.
Since then, the spin-off series of "Lilo & Stitch" came into being, and Stitch became a permanent character in Disneyland. The two directors, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, later collaborated to create another successful animated series, "How to Train Your Dragon". Today, both of them have become independent. Sanders' "Wild Robots" was nominated for this year's Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. This time he also returned in the live-action version and voiced Stitch again; the live-action version of "New How to Train Your Dragon" directed by DeBlois will be unveiled in June.
Interestingly, 23 years ago, on June 21, 2002, the weekend when the animated version of Lilo & Stitch was released in North America, Tom Cruise also had a commercial action blockbuster opening at the same time. However, it was not a work in the Mission: Impossible series, but Minority Report directed by Spielberg. At that time, Minority Report earned $35.6 million at the opening, while Lilo & Stitch, which ranked second, earned $35.2 million at the opening, only $400,000 behind. Of course, Minority Report eventually earned a global total box office of $358 million, which is still a big win compared to Lilo & Stitch's $273 million.
As an original animation, when it was released that year, Disney had to bring in other classic animation characters to help out.
However, 23 years later, the situation is reversed. The live-action version of "Lilo & Stitch" for family audiences won a lot of box office in the opening box office, which is aimed at adult and middle-aged audiences. Mission: Impossible 8 is expected to surpass it by a large margin in total box office. This is also indicative of the general trend of the current film market. As the North American box office data in 2024 showed: among all the films released that year, the total box office of PG-rated films suitable for family viewing reached 2.8 billion US dollars, which is 700 million US dollars more than in 2023. This fully demonstrates that family movies play a stabilizing role in the market under the uncertain economic situation.
Together, the two blockbusters "Lilo & Stitch" and "Mission: Impossible 8" brought the North American total box office this weekend to about $262 million, the best result since the Thanksgiving weekend in the United States last November, and the fourth highest weekend total box office since 2020. Especially compared with the $102 million in the same period last year, it has more than doubled. At that time, the lack of appeal of new films such as "Mad Max: Fury of the Gods" and "Garfield and the Family" led to a serious decline in the North American weekend total box office, setting a record low in 30 years. Today, a year later, the North American annual total box office has increased by 21% year-on-year. The recovery that began in April does not seem to be a flash in the pan.
