Lilo & Stitch just secured the biggest global box office revenue ever seen on Memorial Day weekend, outpacing previous record-holder Fast & Furious 6. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney’s new live-action remake exceeded all expectations, earning $361.3 million in its first weekend. That shatters the previous record, which was $117 million, set all the way back in 2013. It’s all the more impressive considering that Lilo & Stitch is not as old and legendary a franchise as some of Disney’s other remakes, and it did not get the same aggressive marketing push. However, any reason ascribed to this performance is speculation at this point.
Lilo & Stitch earned $192.7 million at the domestic box office alone, beating Fast & Furious 6‘s global revenue here in the U.S. It didn’t take long for fans to relate Lilo & Stitch‘s famous refrain “‘Ohana means family” to Fast & Furious‘ infamous, memetic use of the term “family” in all kinds of ways. As for the actual reason behind this quantum leap in sales, many chalked it up to unanticipated nostalgia and love for Lilo & Stitch, especially among young parents.
The original, animated Lilo & Stitch was released in 2002, making it the newest Disney movie to get the live-action remake treatment. The movie was a commercial success and a critical hit, though it still stands out from other Disney classics. It ignored tropes like princesses and romance, meaning that it does not get brought up in comparisons within the Disney catalog, such as the parody scene in Wreck It Ralph.
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Still, the movie has some incredibly poignant messages to share about family, responsibility, and loyalty. It also presents some situations that children’s media often ignores, such as child protective service’s intervention in family affairs. All of this may have helped endear it to the children who saw it when it first came out, and it just so happens that those people are now at the right age to have young children of their own. Doubtless, many of them were eager to bring their kids to the movies on this long weekend.
On top of that, weather in much of the U.S. did not cooperate with the holiday weekend, with rain and unseasonable cold cancelling or abbreviating many plans. The cinema likely looked like a refuge to some families, and the Hawaiian climate of Lilo & Stitch may have seemed like a respite from the cold.
Lilo & Stitch is still in theaters now, so its box office draw is just getting started. The original movie is streaming now on Disney+.
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