Hello everyone,
BOX OFFICE: The unofficial start of summer kicked off with a record-breaking weekend – although not the records people were expecting. Prior to the weekend, some people predicted that “Lilo and Stitch” and “Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning” would be racing for first place. Instead, it was apparent on Friday that “Lilo and Stitch” DECIMATED the competition by making OVER TWICE AS MUCH as “Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning”. “Lilo and Stitch had the highest opening day for Memorial Day weekend ever with $55 million (including Thursday night previews) and went on to make $146 million (3-day) and $182.6 million (4-day) while “Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning” was a distant second making $24.8 opening day (including Thursday night previews) and ended up making $64 million (3-day) and $79 million (4-day) which makes it the highest opening weekend (3-day) of any Mission Impossible movie. Meanwhile, “Final Destination Bloodlines” went down approx. 63% to make $19.4 million (3-day) and $24 million (40-day) for 3rd place.
Overall, the total domestic weekend was $264 million (3-day) and $330 million (4-day). The 3-day is the highest 3-day of 2025 (so far) and 152% higher than the previous weekend total domestic weekend. There has only been 1 other weekend so far this year where the domestic total was more than what “Lilo and Stitch” made in 4-days (“A Minecraft Movie” opening weekend made a domestic total of $202 million).
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: Both movies did very week internationally too although, again, “Lilo and Stitch” had a commanding lead. Internationally (3-day) it made $159 million for a worldwide total (including Monday domestically) of almost $342 million. “Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning” made $127 million (3-day) in foreign countries and slightly over $200 million global total for the movie including Monday domestically. Once again, the global total of “Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning” was the best of any “Mission Impossible” opening 3-day weekend.
RELEASE DATE CHANGES:
A few days ago, Marvel/Disney announced that “Avengers: Doomsday” moves from about a year from now (May 1, 2026) to about a year and a half from now (Dec 18, 2026) and “Avengers Secret Wars” moves from about 2 years from now (May 7, 2027) to about 2.5 years from now (Dec 17, 2027). That means that Marvel movies will be a year apart. “Fantastic Four: First Steps” is July 2025, “Spiderman Brand New Day” (actually a Sony/Marvel movie) is July 2026, then there’s “Avengers: Doomsday” Dec 2026 and then a year until “Avengers Secret Wars” in Dec 2027 (unless Marvel announces another movie coming out between them).
Also, Disney announced “The Devil Wears Prada 2” takes the “Avengers” release date of May 1, 2026, and Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic thriller “The Dog Stars” will be released March 27, 2026.
Supposedly, the Michael Jackson biopic directed by Antoine Fuqua needs to do some reshoots so the Oct 3 release date will be postponed to 2026 probably and there are rumors that the movie may be released as two separate movies because Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said on an earning call that “Michaels movie would boast a strong 2027 fiscal slate”. Possibly suggesting the 2nd movie will be released in 2027.
OTHER NEWS:
Cannes film festival just ended and the winners were:
Palme d’Or – “It Was Just an Accident” (dir: Jafar Panahi) – Neon just got the distribution rights to the movie marking the 6th winner in a row that Neon released.
Grand Prize – “Sentimental Value”, (dir: Joachim Trier) – Neon also got the distribution for this movie.
Best Actress – Nadia Melliti, “La Petite Dernière”
Best Actor – Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent”
Best Director – Kleber Mendonça Filho, “The Secret Agent”
Jury Prize – tie – “Sirat” (dir: Oliver Laxe) and “The Sound of Falling” (dir: Mascha Schilinski)
Best Screenplay – Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, “Young Mothers”
LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR:
I’m NOT mocking Tom Cruise for posting this message (although it’s kind of weird to thank everyone for being the 2nd biggest movie in the world)……
However, I think it’s weird that he posted it. Could you imagine anyone else posting something like this? Can you see Steven Spielberg, or James Cameron, or Brad Pitt, or anyone else posting this? Also, this message is getting a couple replies from people who DID work on the movie but have since been laid off by Paramount or other companies.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 