โLilo & Stichโย andย โMission: ImpossibleโThe Final Reckoningโย dominated the box office charts again after fueling aย record-breaking Memorial Day weekend. Theaters in the U.S. and Canada had several new films to offer this weekend as well, including Sonyโs family friendlyย โKarate Kid: Legendsโย and the A24 horror movieย โBring Her Back.ย โ According to studio estimates Sunday, it added up to a robust $149 million post-holiday weekend thatโs up over 120% from the same timeframe last year.
Disneyโs live-action hybrid โLilo & Stitchโ took first place again with $63 million from 4,410 locations in North America. It was enough to passย โSinnersโย to become the second-highest grossing movie of the year with $280.1 million in domestic ticket sales. Globally, its running total is $610.8 million. โSinners,โ meanwhile, is still going strong in its seventh weekend with another $5.2 million, bumping it to $267.1 million domestically and $350.1 million globally.
The eighth โMission: Impossibleโ movie also repeated in second place, with $27.3 million from 3,861 locations. As with โLilo & Stitch,โ that’s down 57% from its opening. With $122.6 million in domestic tickets sold, itโs performing in line with the two previous installments. But with a reported production budget of $400 million, profitability is a ways off. Internationally, it added $76.1 million (including $25.2 million from China where it just opened), bringing its global total to $353.8 million.
โThis is the year of longterm playability,โ said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscoreโs senior media analyst. โThe currency of word of mouth and the strong hold is more important than opening weekend dollars.โ
Leading the newcomers was Sonyโs โKarate Kid: Legends,โ with an estimated $21 million from 3,809 locations. The movie brings Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio together to train a new kid, the kung fu prodigy Li Fong (ย Ben Wangย ). Chan starred in a 2010 reboot of the 1984 original, while Macchio has found a new generation of fans in the series โCobra Kai,โ which just concluded a six-season run.
Reviews might have been mixed, but opening weekend audiences gave the PG-13 rated film a strong A- CinemaScore and 4.5 stars on PostTrak. It also only cost a reported $45 million to produce and has several weeks until a new family-friendly film arrives. โKarate Kid: Legendsโ opened earlier internationally and has a worldwide total of $47 million.
Fourth place went โFinal Destination: Bloodlines,โ which earned $10.8 million in its third weekend. The movie is the highest-grossing in the franchise, not accounting for inflation, with $229.3 million globally.
The weekendโs other big newcomer, โBring Her Backโ rounded out the top five with $7.1 million from 2,449 screens. Starring Sally Hawkins as a foster mother with some disturbing plans, the film is the sophomore feature of twin filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou, who made the 2023 horror breakoutย โTalk to Me.โย It earned a rare-for-horror B+ CinemaScore and is essentially the only new film in the genre until โ28 Years Laterโ opens on June 20.
A new Wes Anderson movie,ย โThe Phoenician Scheme,โย also debuted in New York and Los Angeles this weekend, where it made $270,000. It expands nationwide next weekend.
The summer box office forecast remains promising, though thereโs a long way to go to get toย the $4 billion targetย (a pre-pandemic norm that only the โBarbenheimerโ summer has surpassed). The month of May is expected to close out with $973 million โ up 75% from May 2024, according to data from Comscore.
Top 10 movies by domestic box office
With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:
1. โLilo & Stitch,โ $63 million.
2. โMission: Impossible โ The Final Reckoning,โ $27.3 million.
3. โKarate Kid: Legends,โ 21 million.
4. โFinal Destination: Bloodlines,โ $10.8 million.
5. โBring Her Back,โ $7.1 million.
6. โSinners,โ $5.2 million.
7. โThunderbolts,โ $4.8 million.
8. โFriendship,โ $2.6 million.
9. โThe Last Rodeo,โ $2.1 million.
10. โj-hope Tour โHOPE ON THE STAGEโ in JAPAN: LIVE VIEWING,โ $939,173.
