Movies

Lilo & Stitch Just Beat One of the MCU’s Best Movies at the Box Office

Videos by ComicBook.com

The next MCU title in Lilo & Stitch‘s sights is 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, which earned $540.2 million internationally during its theatrical run. After that, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness grossed $544.4 million internationally, and Spider-Man: Homecoming earned $545.9 million.

Lilo & Stitch has emerged as one of the year’s biggest box office hits so far. Opening alongside action sequel Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning over Memorial Day weekend, the remake helped fuel a record-breaking holiday frame and has shown no signs of slowing down. Lilo & Stitch stayed in the top position on the box office charts for three consecutive weeks before the live-action How to Train Your Dragon remake topped it with its own record-breaking weekend.

It is expected that Lilo & Stitch will pass the $1 billion mark before it ends its theatrical run. It would be the first North American release of 2025 to hit that threshold. Lilo & Stitch is currently only behind A Minecraft Movie ($953.2 million) and Ne Zha 2 ($1.8 billion) on the global charts.

With an international gross of nearly $500 million, it’s possible Lilo & Stitch will pass some other notable MCU blockbusters on its way to $1 billion. Whether it does or not will depend heavily on how it holds over the next couple of weeks. How to Train Your Dragon obviously took a lot of business away from Lilo & Stitch, and now Pixar’s Elio is opening as another family-friendly option. Unlike the early part of its run, when Lilo & Stitch was the lone high-profile title specifically targeting families, it’s facing stiff competition for that demographic now. Still, Lilo & Stitch only needs to make approximately $53.9 million more to leap over Spider-Man: Homecoming, a figure that seems doable — even if Elio proves to be a hit.

After Snow White bombed at the box office, there were some questions about the long-term viability of Disney’s live-action remake strategy. Lilo & Stitch proved this initiative hasn’t run its course yet, and as long as the Mouse House is careful about which titles they remake and iron out the best approach, they’ll have hits on their hands. Lilo & Stitch‘s performance is an encouraging sign for the live-action Moana remake, which offers a fresh spin on another one of Disney’s more modern animated classics. Perhaps that one will overtake some MCU blockbusters during its respective run.