The combined might of Lilo & Sтιтch and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is setting records over Memorial Day weekend. The former is a live-action remake of the 2002 Disney animated movie of the same name, following latchkey kid Lilo (Maia Kealoha) befriending the mischievous alien Sтιтch (Chris Sanders) after he escapes captivity and crash lands in Hawai’i. The latter is the eighth installment in the Mission: Impossible movie franchise, directly following the ending of 2023’s ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Reckoning as Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team continue to work to stop the rogue AI The Enтιтy from destroying the world.

Per Variety, as of Sunday morning, Lilo & Sтιтch is projected to earn a 3-day opening weekend gross of $145.5 million and a 4-day holiday weekend total of $183 million at the domestic box office, while Mission: Impossible is aiming for a 3-day of $63 million and a 4-day of $77 million. Lilo & Sтιтch will smash the record for the best Memorial Day weekend debut of all time. It has surpᴀssed the $126 million 3-day total and the $160.5 million 4-day total earned by Top Gun: Maverick (another Tom Cruise-led picture) in 2022. That film went on to gross $1.496 billion worldwide.

By the end of Monday, Lilo & Sтιтch will have already outgrossed the entire domestic run of the original movie, which earned $145.8 million in North America. Meanwhile, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning earned the best opening day of the eight-film series with $24.8 million and is still on track to break the record for the best opening weekend of the franchise, surpᴀssing Mission: Impossible – Fallout‘s $61 million 3-day debut.

Their combined might, along with the other тιтles currently running in theaters, including Final Destination Bloodlines, Thunderbolts*, and Sinners, sees the entire domestic box office for the weekend projected to earn more than $322 million, which makes it the best Memorial Day weekend in history, surpᴀssing the $314.3 million that movies such as Fast & Furious 6, The Hangover Part III, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Iron Man 3 cumulatively earned in 2013. Below, read a comment on the record from Cinema United President & CEO Michael O’Leary:

Millions of moviegoers this holiday weekend proved once again that going to the cinema is a true American pastime. Records aside, it’s clear that movie theaters are cultural and economic hubs in cities and towns of all sizes, uniting communities across the country in the singular thrill of seeing a movie on the big screen. This weekend is just the start of what will be a great summer for movie fans around the world.

See the full domestic Top 5 chart for the holiday weekend below:

With two new blockbusters topping the chart, the previous weekend’s Top 3 тιтles have all moved down two slots apiece. While the horror sequel Final Destination Bloodlines was hit with an intense sophomore weekend drop of 63.2% (which is typical for the horror genre), it still maintained its spot ahead of Marvel’s Thunderbolts and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners.

With two new releases landing on the chart, there have also been some тιтles that have fallen off completely. In its fifth weekend, the Ben Affleck action sequel The Accountant 2 fell from No. 5 to No. 9. Meanwhile, the smash hit video game adaptation A Minecraft Movie fell from No. 4 to No. 8 during its eighth weekend. Given the number of hits that are currently on the chart and blockbusters that are impending, it seems likely that neither movie will return to the Top 5 in the coming weeks.

The reason both movies have fallen so far is that they have been forced out by newer тιтles. The Angel Studios bull-riding drama The Last Rodeo is set to debut at No. 6 with a 3-day total of $5 million and a 4-day total of $6.4 million. Trailing just behind it is the wide expansion of A24’s dark comedy Friendship, which is now playing in 1,055 theaters and is set to land at No. 7 with a 3-day total of $4 million and a 4-day total of $5 million bringing its cumulative domestic haul to $7.6 million.

What This Means For Lilo & Sтιтch

It Could Become A Billion-Dollar Smash Hit

The Lilo & Sтιтch release seems well on its way toward surpᴀssing $1 billion. In fact, if it maintains its current lead ahead of Top Gun: Maverick, it could potentially reach a whopping worldwide total of $1.7 billion or more. However, it could potentially earn even more, as international markets can sometimes favor nostalgia plays for more recent properties because тιтles from the 1980s and earlier did not always receive robust worldwide distribution. This is borne out by the fact that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the highest-grossing domestic movie of all time but only the fifth highest-grossing worldwide.

However, the movie doesn’t even need to surpᴀss $1 billion in order to become a smash hit. The reported budget of Lilo & Sтιтch is $100 million, which means that its estimated break-even point is most likely somewhere around $250 million. Its projections show that it will approach that total at the domestic box office alone by the end of Memorial Day weekend. While international numbers for its debut have yet to be calculated, it will almost certainly have broken even worldwide by the end of its first full week in theaters, if not earlier.

Our Take On The Weekend Box Office

This Could Kick Off A Great Summer Movie Season

This record-breaking Memorial Day weekend is an incredible sign for the summer to come. As the runs of Lilo & Sтιтch and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning continue to blaze their way through theaters, every subsequent weekend through the end of July sees at least one more potential blockbuster hit joining their ranks, including Superman, the live-action How to Train Your Dragon, Karate Kid: Legends, F1, Jurᴀssic World Rebirth, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Ballerina, and 28 Years Later. If these тιтles build on the success of Memorial Day, this summer could potentially continue to break major box office records.

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Source: Variety