Lilo & Stitch has shown that people are still interested in Disney's live-action remakes, despite the performance of Snow White earlier this year.
The new remake grossed an incredible $341.7 million worldwide on its opening weekend, with its $183 million US debut marking the biggest Memorial Day opening of all time ahead of Top Gun: Maverick's $160 million debut. It trounced Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, despite that movie recording a series best too.
Its Rotten Tomatoes rating of 68% is decent for a remake, if not the kind of critical consensus that screams 'must-watch'. So how exactly did Lilo & Stitch turn into a box office sensation?
1. It's a 'newer' Disney movie
A common theme between the Disney live-action remakes that have succeeded at the box office is that the original movie is, relatively speaking, not that old.
The Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King remakes all made over $1 billion, and they were remakes of '90s Disney movies. Lilo & Stitch is newer than those, released in 2002, but it's likely a similar generation that have it as one of their Disney favourites.
That same generation now have children of their own, so would be more inclined to go and see the remake due to their fondness for the original. This would likely be the same even if they didn't have children to take. In the US, the audience statistics bear this out with 79% of the audience under-35 (via Deadline).
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The older the Disney movie, the riskier the chances of box office success for the remake. There were other reasons behind Snow White only making $205 million worldwide, but the fact it was based on a 1937 movie likely didn't help. As an additional example, the Dumbo remake grossed $353 million worldwide.
As ever, there are exceptions to the rule, such as The Jungle Book remake taking nearly $1 billion worldwide, despite being based on a 1967 movie. But it stands to reason that if today's audience has a fondness of the original movie, linked to their childhood, they might be more willing to give the remake a try.
Of course that could also lead to issues with remakes changing up the original movie, such as Lilo & Stitch not bringing back Gantu. It doesn't seem to have affected it too much though as it holds a strong 93% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an A CinemaScore.
2. Stitch is massive
The original Lilo & Stitch might have grown into a beloved modern Disney favourite, but it didn't do massive numbers at the box office with $273 million worldwide. That's already been surpassed by the remake, but the box-office numbers don't tell the whole story.
Go to any Disneyland park and you'll start to get a sense of just how big Lilo & Stitch, or more specifically Stitch, has become. You won't be able to turn a corner without seeing some sort of Stitch merchandise and for good reason: Lilo & Stitch consumer products reportedly generated more than $2.5 billion last year (via Deadline).
It's a similar story on Disney+ as the franchise – which has expanded to include three sequels, not including the remake, and three TV shows – has been watched for more than 500 million hours, including 280 million views for the first movie (a figure that has likely grown bigger with the remake out in cinemas).
Taking all of those figures into account, it's no wonder that a large part of the marketing campaign was focused on Stitch. The loveable scamp took over marketing materials for other 2025 releases, including Thunderbolts* and Snow White, and also invaded the field at the Super Bowl.
Naturally, Stitch also took part in the press junkets for the movie to round off the entire marketing campaign.
3. The family effect
Studios should underestimate the family market at their peril. There hasn't been a major family offering since A Minecraft Movie landed in cinemas in early April, and both movies have shown just how powerful a family crowd can be.
A Minecraft Movie has built up $940 million worldwide and, in a boost for Lilo & Stitch, any audience showing up to Minecraft will likely have been treated to trailers for the new Disney remake.
Releasing over a major weekend such as Memorial Day certainly didn't hurt Lilo & Stitch either, especially as it served as clever counter-programming with the release of the new Mission: Impossible movie too.
But the fact that Disney were serving up the first major new release for the family market in nearly two months was an undeniable factor in just how Lilo & Stitch was able to open as big as it did.
Lilo & Stitch is out now in cinemas.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
