‘Lilo & Stitch’ and ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ break box office records during Memorial Day weekend
LOS ANGELES (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - A record-breaking weekend at the box office with two huge hits, one from Disney and the other from Paramount.
Stitch and his best friend, Lilo, are back as Disney's live-action remake, which was originally planned as a straight-to-streaming release, jumped to the top of the holiday box office, grossing $183 million in the U.S. alone.
Meanwhile, Tom Cruise dropped in on theatergoers in Dallas this past weekend while the eighth and final installment, confirmed by Cruise, in the "Mission: Impossible" film series, "The Final Reckoning," set a franchise record for CBS parent company, Paramount, in second place with $77 million.
Both films fueled the biggest box office takeover for the crucial Memorial Day weekend.
"What happened here is you have two huge movies and they're appealing to very different demographics, and that really hasn't happened that often since the [COVID-19] pandemic," said Brent Lang, Executive Editor for Variety.
Lang says the industry has been slow to recover, but success among big budget films could lead to a profitable summer.
When asked if there were any movies coming soon to theaters that are expected to continue this momentum, Lang said, "You know, there are several movies that at least on paper it looked very promising. One is the fantastic four movie which Marvel and Disney seem very high on…and the other is James Gunn's Superman. If those two films do very well, that will be very important for the overall health of the industry."
