Lilo & Stitch. Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp, the movie retells the story of a young Hawaiian girl who befriends a raucous alien.

Memorial Day weekend is now featuring 2025's first huge box office battle, where Lilo & Stitch will duke it out with the Tom Cruise action movie Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. By all reports, the Disney film is expected to outperform the eighth Mission: Impossible installment by a significant margin, drawing in family crowds during the long weekend. This will be good news for Disney, especially as it seeks to win back its reputation after Snow White's poor reception, but it is especially noteworthy after their original plans.

The Lilo & Stitch Remake Was Originally Going To Streaming On Disney+

The Studio Discovered Theater First Was Better

There was a time when Lilo & Stitch was going to be going straight to streaming on Disney+. As per the Wall Street Journal, Lilo & Stitch was part of a group of straight-to-streaming titles that the producer had been working on before the 2019 launch of Disney+. If they had followed through on this, this would have created more programming for Disney+ exclusively, potentially drawing s to the platform. It was reported, however, that Disney abandoned this approach when they realized that many films are popular on streaming after having a theatrical release.

Lilo & Stitch is not the first Disney movie to majorly pivot release plans in recent years. As of just a couple of years ago, Disney had plans lined up for a Moana TV series that would pick up after the events of the well-received 2016 film. The studio later decided to morph this into what became Moana 2, combining ideas for the TV episodes into a feature-length movie. This ended up paying off for Disney in a big way, as the movie made over $1 billion worldwide.

The Lilo & Stitch Remake Is Projecting To Make $120M At The Domestic Box Office

And The Worldwide Haul Will Be Even Bigger

After Disney pivoted away from a direct-to-streaming release, Lilo & Stitch is finally releasing in theaters this weekend. Even with its Mission: Impossible competition, the movie is expected to bring in a huge haul. Early projections guess that the film could open to $120 million over the four-day weekend this Memorial Day. A recent Deadline report even projects that the movie could make $275 million worldwide during the first weekend. With this strong start, there is no telling how far the live-action remake could go overall.

The original Lilo & Stitch movie, which was released in 2002, made a total of $273 million.

If Lilo & Stitch's box office follows the predictions, its opening weekend could be higher than the entire sum for Snow White. This would be great news for Disney, as it would represent the recovery of their live-action movies' reputation. This redemption is critical, as they still have other similar movies coming down the pike, including the live-action Moana in July 2026. If Disney had released Lilo & Stich directly to Disney+, they would have missed out on a massive box office event.

One Major Franchise Has Already Regretted This Mistake With A 2022 Movie

Prey Could Have Done Well In Theaters

Disney likely did significant market research before making the decision to put Lilo & Stitch in theaters after, but the studio could also take further lessons from other major franchise films that have regretted their choices. One such film was the 2022 movie Prey, a Predator prequel that was released directly to Hulu. Prey received widespread critical acclaim upon its streaming release, garnering a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. This includes a 7 out of 10-star review from ScreenRant's Graeme Guttmann, who praised "[Amber] Midthunder's captivating performance."

Even on Hulu, the movie developed a huge following and . This result makes it easier to wonder about how the Predator: Badlands will come out in theaters in November. They are still, however, releasing an animated movie in the series, Predator: Killer of Killers, straight to Hulu.

After the likely misstep of Prey, other franchises have avoided this mistake. Alien: Romulus, for instance, decided to release in theaters rather than direct-to-streaming. This ended up being fruitful for the movie, which made over $350 million worldwide. This year's Final Destination: Bloodlines was also released in theaters after originally having a streaming-only plan, and the movie has wound up breaking records.

Disney Dodged A Major Mistake Putting Lilo & Stitch To Streaming

And They're On A Good Path

Though it could have turned into a Prey situation, Disney has opted to take the Romulus and Bloodlines approach. To the studio's credit, Lilo & Stitch is getting decent reviews thus far, holding a 71% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes. One of its champions was ScreenRant's Mary Kassel, who gave the film a 7 out of 10 and called it "Disney's best live-action remake yet." These strong reviews will likely help drive the audience up for Lilo & Stitch.

Given the reviews, early projections, and the popularity of the Lilo & Stitch trailers, this film is destined to do well in theaters. However, it is safe to say that it would not have generated nearly as much hype if the movie went straight to streaming. The ad campaigns would have been more targeted to Disney+ and other at-home platforms, and thus would not have generated as much discourse. It is this hype that will likely drive a lot of the movie's theatrical sales, proving that the movie was destined for the big screen.

Given this box office history, it seems likely that Disney will continue to use a theatrical release model.

Though they have made their fair share of controversial streaming decisions (e.g. the Pixar movies Turning Red and Soul coming to Disney+ first), the studio seems to be recognizing the value of theatrical releases of their movies as of late. Last year's Mufasa, for example, stayed in theaters for a regular theatrical window rather than being put on streaming a month after release, as some other films have been doing. Mufasa made over $722 million using this strategy.

Disney's live-action movies have done well overall, and the projections prove that Lilo & Stitch will be no exception. Despite the mockery some of them get, these are extremely fruitful projects. For instance, 2019's Aladdin made over $1 billion at the box office. Given this box office history, it seems likely that Disney will continue to use a theatrical release model. They learned from others' mistakes when putting Lilo & Stitch in theaters, and if it goes as well as many predicted, it will have been the perfect decision.

Source: Wall Street Journal, Deadline