Live-action 'Lilo & Stitch' smashes Memorial Day weekend box office record with $183M domestically
Moviegoers made the long Memorial Day Weekend a record-breaking one at the box office.
Domestically, estimated ticket sales were almost $327 million, and one film made the bulk of all that money.
At almost three hours, "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning" opened with a strong $77.5 million.
Double that number, and add another $28 million, and you get the estimated tally for "Lilo & Stitch" -- nearly $183 million. That's the biggest 4-day Memorial Day weekend opening of all time domestically. Worldwide, the movie brought in an outstanding $361.3 million.
On Memorial Day alone, "Lilo & Stitch" took in $37 million, making it the fourth highest-grossing domestic Monday in industry history.
The moviemakers told On The Red Carpet their thoughts about the comedy, the emotional aspects, and their young leading lady.
SEE ALSO: Watch 'On The Red Carpet Presents 'Lilo & Stitch''
"Lilo & Stitch" is a new take on the Disney animated favorite from 2002 about a little girl in Hawaii who's lost her parents and finds a friend in an alien she thinks is a dog.
The film focuses on the meaning of family, all while making you laugh and maybe cry along the way.
"We talked a lot about, you know, if the joke didn't make us laugh, let's cut it out, you know?" producer Jonathan Eirich said. "And I think sometimes people think, 'Oh, you're making a movie for families or for kids,' and we just felt like we were making a movie for us."
"I think that that was something that we really tried to focus on and really, really make it a little bit more of an emotional, you know, barn burner, and while also, obviously, respecting the legacy of the original and not losing any of the humor or comedy that we all expect," said director Dean Fleischer.
Perhaps another secret to the success of this new "Lilo & Stitch" is the little leading lady, Maia Keahola. This marked her first professional acting role.
"She's so precocious and funny, but she also just, she has a great imagination and mentality and is so positive," Fleischer said. "And I think, like, you know, usually if you're working with kids on a set, sometimes, it can be grueling and, you know, when they're flagging, you have to boost them up. It was the opposite with Maia, where she was, I think, she was always boosting us up."
"Lilo & Stitch" was originally planned to be released on Disney+.
The Wall Street Journal reports it cost a little more than $100 million to make, and is on track to gross close to, or even more than $1 billion.
The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of this ABC station.
