By Mallory Mattingly
Redemptive movies LILO & STITCH and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING have been making a big splash at the box office following their Memorial Day weekend release.
Last weekend, LILO & STITCH garnered a total of $63 million from 4,410 theaters across the US, helping it surpass SINNERS to become the second highest-grossing film of 2025.
According to AP News, LILO & STITCH has earned $280.1 million in domestic ticket sales. Globally, it’s at $610.8 million.
It isn’t surprising the live-action remake found success. Themes of family and redemption abound, as Movieguide® points out in its review:
LILO & STITCH is a live-action remake of the 2002 animated science fiction comedy. Lilo is a sad, lonely and sometimes angry 6-year-old orphaned girl in Hawaii. Her parents died, so her older adult sister tries to take care of her. Lilo prays for a friend and finds a small, escaped alien creature whose spaceship crashed on Earth and pretends to be a dog. Lilo takes him home and renames him Stitch, but Stitch causes all sorts of trouble for Lilo and her sister. Meanwhile, the Galactic Federation sends two bumbling aliens to capture Stitch and return him.
The live action LILO & STITCH is lots of fun, with touching moments of rescue and redemption. Sometimes, however, the comical action is awkwardly shot. Eventually, Lilo’s love and devotion change Stitch’s heart, allowing him to feel love and want to be part of her family. Lilo won’t quit loving Stitch no matter how much trouble he causes. The live action LILO & STITCH has lots of comical action violence, however, and very brief light foul language. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children.
LILO & STITCH star Maia Kealoha (Lilo) couldn’t wait for fans to see it.
“On May 23rd, we’re going to make you cry your eyeballs out,” Kealoha wrote on Instagram a few weeks before its release. “To Sydney @sydneyagudong thank you for loving me from day 1. You are my forever movie sister and now a part of my ohana. I can’t wait for the world to see the bond that we created and hear your beautiful voice. Love you boo.”
Kealoha loved the opportunity to “play a character that is just like me” and wants everyone to know how hard she “worked to bring this cute and beautiful character to life.”
Similarly, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING brought in huge ticket sales over the holiday weekend, and the eighth installment of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE films scored $27.3 million from 3,861 locations during its second weekend in theaters.
Overall, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING has pulled $122.6 million domestically.
“Over 30 years ago, I began the journey of producing my first film, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE,” Cruise wrote on Instagram last week. “Since then, these eight films have taken me on the adventure of a lifetime. To the incredible directors, actors, artists, and crews across the globe that have helped bring these stories to life, I thank you. It has been a privilege to work alongside you all.
“Most importantly, I want to thank the audience, for whom it is our great pleasure to create these films, and for whom we all serve. We’re thrilled to share THE FINAL RECKONING with you,” he added.
Like LILO & STITCH, FINAL RECKONING’s redemptive themes make it a can’t-miss action flick for older audiences. Part of Movieguide®’s review reads:
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING is a terrific spy thriller starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, a heroic American spy. The Entity, a powerful Artificial Intelligence, has infiltrated all electronic devices. Now, it’s taking over the biggest nuclear arsenals to kill the human race. Ethan must overcome doubts and convince the President to let him lead his team one more time to stop “The Entity.” Ethan’s team faces a major obstacle, a mad assassin who wants to co-opt The Entity and control the world himself.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING is an exhilarating, patriotic, stirring, and profound thriller. It goes from exciting one action setpiece to another while always developing the characters, including supporting characters. It has lots of drama in tense scenes featuring the President. FINAL RECKONING has many Christian allusions. Ethan Hunt is overtly depicted as a compassionate messianic hero. He undergoes a symbolic death and resurrection, and, at one point he’s saved by Grace, the romantic female lead. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING has some intense violence and seven mostly light obscenities. So, it merits caution for older children.
Both films are available to watch in theaters across the United States.
Read Next: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING
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