We’re slightly less than halfway through the 2025 movie schedule, and some wild times have already been had at the box office. A pair of Marvel movies failed to make their usual explosive debut, and instead, one of the biggest movies of the year has been Sinners, an original film not connected to any franchise. The film had previously been the second highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office, but Disney’s Lilo & Stitch remake has now taken that honor.
At over $267 million at the domestic box office, Sinners had been the number two movie of 2025. Lilo & Stitch now sits at nearly $285 million. It’s going to take some doing for Disney’s little blue troublemaker to become the highest-grossing movie of the year, however. A Minecraft Movie currently sits atop the box office at $423 million.
Sinners Box Office Success Was Unprecedented
With numerous major blockbusters set to come out over the next couple of months, it’s quite likely that Sinners will continue to slide down the box office chart. Still, wherever it happens to end up, its achievement cannot be overstated. Franchise filmmaking had already been the focus of studios back when more people still went to theaters, and in an era where getting people to do that is becoming increasingly difficult, audiences aren’t leaving the house to see anything other than familiar franchises.
To be fair, the fact that it took Lilo & Stitch as long as it did to overtake Sinners at the box office is a testament to the film’s popularity and staying power. Stitch had an opening weekend that was three times that of Sinners. Sinners, however, had virtually no drop in its box office take between its first two weekends, a nearly unheard of statistic. Lilo & Stitch saw a nearly 60% drop between its first two weekends, which is fairly standard for major tentpole releases.
Lilo & Stitch Shows Disney’s Live-Action Remakes Can Still Be Box Office Gold
If Lilo & Stitch means anything in the broader box office landscape, it’s that despite the overall failure of Snow White, live-action remakes of popular animated films are still popular with fans. Lilo & Stitch is in the upper tier of the box office results for those films, only behind movies that grossed a billion dollars worldwide, like Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, and The Lion King.
Lilo & Stitch seems unlikely to reach quite those heights; it’s broken $600 million and the global box office, but with the movie having been released in all countries, save Japan, where it will open this weekend, it has certainly made most of the money it’s going to make. The major thing that may stop the momentum of Lilo & Stitch may, ironically, be another family-friendly live-action remake of a popular animated film. How to Train Your Dragon is set to hit theaters next weekend.
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