‘Lilo & Stitch’ Passes ‘Sinners’ to Become 2nd Highest Grossing Film of 2025

Chris Sanders, Billy Magnussen, Zach Galifianakis, Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong, Courtney B. Vance, Kaipo Dudoit, Amy Hill and Stitch attend a premiere for the film "Lilo & Stitch" in Los Angeles, California, US, May 17, 2025. (Reuters)

17:10-1 June 2025 AD ـ 05 Thul-Hijjah 1446 AH

‘Lilo & Stitch’ Passes ‘Sinners’ to Become 2nd Highest Grossing Film of 2025

“Lilo & Stich” and “Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning” dominated the box office charts again after fueling a record-breaking Memorial Day weekend. Theaters in the US and Canada had several new films to offer this weekend as well, including Sony’s family friendly “Karate Kid: Legends” and the A24 horror movie “Bring Her Back.” According to studio estimates Sunday, it added up to a robust $145 million post-holiday weekend that’s up over 115% from the same timeframe last year.

Disney’s live-action hybrid “Lilo & Stitch” took first place again with $63 million from 4,410 locations in North America. It was enough to pass “Sinners” to become the second-highest grossing movie of the year with $280.1 million in domestic ticket sales. Globally, it's running total is $610.8 million. “Sinners,” meanwhile, is still going strong in its seventh weekend with another $5.2 million, bumping it to $267.1 million domestically and $350.1 million globally.

The eighth “Mission: Impossible” movie also repeated in second place, with $27.3 million from 3,861 locations. As with “Lilo & Stitch,” that's down 57% from its opening. With $122.6 million in domestic tickets sold, it’s performing in line with the two previous installments. But with a reported production budget of $400 million, profitability is a ways off. Internationally, it added $76.1 million (including $25.2 million from China where it just opened), bringing its global total to $353.8 million.

Leading the newcomers was Sony’s “Karate Kid: Legends,” with an estimated $21 million from 3,809 locations. The movie brings Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio together to train a new kid, the kung fu prodigy Li Fong (Ben Wang). Chan starred in a 2010 reboot of the 1984 original, while Macchio has found a new generation of fans in the series “Cobra Kai,” which just concluded a six-season run.

Reviews might have been mixed, but opening weekend audiences gave the PG-13 rated film a strong A- CinemaScore and 4.5 stars on PostTrak. It also only cost a reported $45 million to produce and has several weeks until a new family-friendly film arrives.

Fourth place went “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” which earned $10.8 million in its third weekend. The movie is the highest-grossing in the franchise, not accounting for inflation, with $229.3 million globally.

The weekend’s other big newcomer, “Bring Her Back” rounded out the top five with $7.1 million from 2,449 screens. Starring Sally Hawkins as a foster mother with some disturbing plans, the film is the sophomore feature of twin filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou, who made the 2023 horror breakout “Talk to Me.” It earned a rare-for-horror B+ CinemaScore and is essentially the only new film in the genre until “28 Years Later” opens on June 20.

A new Wes Anderson movie, “The Phoenician Scheme,” also debuted in New York and Los Angeles this weekend, where it made $270,000. It expands nationwide next weekend.

The summer box office forecast remains promising, though there’s a long way to go to get to the $4 billion target (a pre-pandemic norm that only the “Barbenheimer” summer has surpassed). The month of May is expected to close out with $973 million – up 75% from May 2024, according to data from Comscore.

Studio Ghibli Marks 40 Years, but Future Looks Uncertain

This file photo taken on June 29, 2023 shows a man sitting next to the character No Face from the Studio Ghibli film "Spirited Away" during a media preview for "The World of Studio Ghibli's Animation Exhibition Bangkok" before the public opening on July 1, in Central World shopping mall in Bangkok.(AFP)

08:42-6 June 2025 AD ـ 10 Thul-Hijjah 1446 AH

Studio Ghibli Marks 40 Years, but Future Looks Uncertain

Japan's Studio Ghibli turns 40 this month with two Oscars and legions of fans young and old won over by its complex plots and fantastical hand-drawn animation.

But the future is uncertain, with latest hit "The Boy and the Heron" likely -- but not certainly -- the final feature from celebrated co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, now 84.

The studio behind the Oscar-winning "Spirited Away" has become a cultural phenomenon since Miyazaki and the late Isao Takahata established it in 1985.

Its popularity has been fueled of late by a second Academy Award in 2024 for "The Boy and the Heron", starring Robert Pattinson, and by Netflix streaming Ghibli movies around the world.

In March, the internet was flooded with pictures in its distinctively nostalgic style after the release of OpenAI's newest image generator, raising questions over copyright.

The newly opened Ghibli Park has also become a major tourist draw for central Japan's Aichi region.

Julia Santilli, a 26-year-old from Britain living in northern Japan, "fell in love with Ghibli" after watching the 2001 classic "Spirited Away" as a child.

"I started collecting all the DVDs," she told AFP.

Ghibli stories are "very engaging and the artwork is stunning", said another fan, Margot Divall, 26.

"I probably watch 'Spirited Away' about 10 times a year still."

- 'Whiff of death' -

Before Ghibli, most cartoons in Japan, known as anime, were made for children.

But Miyazaki and Takahata, both from "the generation that knew war", included darker elements that appeal to adults, Miyazaki's son Goro told AFP.

"It's not all sweet -- there's also a bitterness and things like that which are beautifully intertwined in the work," he said, describing a "whiff of death" in the films.

For younger people who grew up in peacetime, "it is impossible to create something with the same sense, approach and attitude," Goro said.

Even "My Neighbor Totoro," with its cuddly forest creatures, is in some ways a "scary" movie that explores the fear of losing a sick mother, he explained.

Susan Napier, a professor at Tufts University in the United States and author of "Miyazakiworld: A Life in Art", agrees.

"In Ghibli, you have ambiguity, complexity and also a willingness to see that the darkness and light often go together" unlike good-versus-evil US cartoons, she said.

The post-apocalyptic "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" -- considered the first Ghibli film despite its release in 1984 -- has no obvious villain, for example.

The movie featuring an independent princess curious about giant insects and a poisonous forest felt "so fresh" and a change from "a passive woman... having to be rescued," Napier said.

- Natural world -

Studio Ghibli films also depict a universe where humans connect deeply with nature and the spirit world.

A case in point was 1997's "Princess Mononoke", distributed internationally by Disney.

The tale of a girl raised by a wolf goddess in a forest threatened by humans is "a masterpiece -- but a hard movie," Napier said.

It's a "serious, dark and violent" film appreciated more by adults, which "was not what US audiences had anticipated with a movie about a princess."

Ghibli films "have an environmentalist and animistic side, which I think is very appropriate for the contemporary world with climate change," she added.

Miyuki Yonemura, a professor at Japan's Senshu University who studies cultural theories on animation, said watching Ghibli movies is like reading literature.

"That's why some children watch Totoro 40 times," she said, adding that audiences "discover something new every time."

- French connection -

Miyazaki and Takahata, who died in 2018, could create imaginative worlds because of their openness to other cultures, Yonemura said.

Foreign influences included writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery and animator Paul Grimault, both French, and Canadian artist Frederic Back, who won an Oscar for his animation "The Man Who Planted Trees".

Takahata studying French literature at university "was a big factor," Yonemura said.

"Both Miyazaki and Takahata read a lot," she said. "That's a big reason why they excel at writing scripts and creating stories."

Miyazaki has said he was inspired by several books for "Nausicaa", including the 12th-century Japanese tale "The Lady who Loved Insects", and Greek mythology.

Studio Ghibli will not be the same after Miyazaki stops creating animation, "unless similar talent emerges," Yonemura said.

Miyazaki is "a fantastic artist with such a visual imagination" while both he and Takahata were "politically progressive," Napier said.

"The more I study, the more I realize this was a unique cultural moment," she said.

"It's so widely loved that I think it will carry on," said Ghibli fan Divall.

"As long as it doesn't lose its beauty, as long as it carries on the amount of effort, care and love," she said.

‘Lilo & Stitch’ Passes ‘Sinners’ to Become 2nd Highest Grossing Film of 2025

‘Lilo & Stitch’ Passes ‘Sinners’ to Become 2nd Highest Grossing Film of 2025

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Studio Ghibli Marks 40 Years, but Future Looks Uncertain

Studio Ghibli Marks 40 Years, but Future Looks Uncertain

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