‘Lilo & Stitch’ Surfs Toward Possible Disney Record with $14M Preview Night

Disney’s live-action reimagining of 2002 animated hit Lilo & Stitch turned on the E.T. charm for its Thursday preview night, taking in an estimated $14 million Thursday night. B.O. watchers are saying that the Hawaiian adventure might set a new Disney previews record for Memorial Day weekend, and are expecting the movie to hang 10 all the way to $150M.

The previous Memorial Day Disney preview record is held by Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), which scored $14.1M on its Thursday and went on to a $103M four-day weekend. Despite the start-up boost, Solo is one of the lowest-grossing films in the Star Wars franchise.

Lilo & Stitch is Fandango’s biggest pre-seller of the year so far, and was the second-most-watched Disney live-action trailer in its first 24 hours. The pic currently has  a 72% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an audience score of 93%, and is set to open on 900 premium large format screens, 300 D-Box/4D motion screens and 2,500-plus 3-D locations.

Lilo & Stitch is directed by award-winning filmmaker Dean Fleischer Camp (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On), with a screenplay by Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes, and stars Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Billy Magnussen, Tia Carrere, Hannah Waddingham, Chris Sanders, with Courtney B. Vance and Zach Galifianakis, and introducing Maia Kealoha.

Friday afternoon update: The movie is now expected to score a $170 million to $180 million four-day opening. Its Friday numbers are estimated to land somewhere between $56 million and $59 million at the U.S. box office, beating the Memorial Day weekend Friday record of $52 million held by Top Gun 2 in 2022.

[Source: Deadline]