Neither Jackie Chan nor Daniel LaRusso could take down the one-two punch from Memorial Day. There were hopes that revisiting the Karate Kid franchise with a team-up after six seasons of Cobra Kai could tap that nostalgia button and at least play runner-up to the duo of Lilo & Stitch. But Ethan Hunt also continues to draw in audiences for one last run, kicking the Legends down to third place.
King of the Crop: Lilo & Stitch Repeats to no one’s surprise, but Can It Catch Minecraft?
Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch remake once again came in first place to little surprise. It did fall 56.9%, down to $63 million, from its record-breaking Memorial Day weekend. That is one area where Tom Cruise has bragging rights, as Top Gun: Maverick fell just 28.9%. The 10-day total for L&S stands at $280.1 million, which is about $12.5 million behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness while still besting its second weekend by a little over a million. That boosts the path forward for a $400+ million finish. Furthermore, no film to gross over $274 million in its first 10 days failed to reach that milestone, even if the path may be rocky to catching A Minecraft Movie domestically, where it stands at over $423 million. But Lilo & Stitch is certainly going to make a run at passing it globally (Minecraft is currently over $947 million) and becoming the first U.S.-made billion-dollar film of the year (hello Ne Zha 2), as it now stands at over $610 million worldwide.
Tales of the top 10: Mission: Impossible Holds at No. 2, Karate Kid debuts in Third
Moving over to Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning once again in second place. The film is down 57.4% to $27.3 million. That’s better than the 64.6% drop that Dead Reckoning took in its second weekend against Barbie and Oppenheimer. After 10 days, the final entry is now behind the top grosser in the franchise, Fallout, $124.8-to-$122.6 million, but Fallout had just a 42.3% drop to $35.3 million. Final’s weekend is more in line with that of The Day After Tomorrow ($27.8 million) and X-Men Origins: Wolverine ($26.4 million) and is now $6-7 million behind their pace. That is a little disconcerting for its path to $200 million domestic. Globally the film is over $353 million and headed towards Cruise’s eighth half-a-billion grosser (five of which are M:I films), though it likely has no chance of recouping its costs. But when you hand Paramount Top Gun: Maverick, spending a bit extra on a pair of Mission: Impossible films to keep those sort of action spectacles in theaters for an audience is money well spent. For us, at least.
Finally we get to Karate Kid: Legends. Sony’s attempt to bridge the original franchise with the remake with a nearly-post-credits dash of Cobra Kai opened to $21 million — hardly in the same vicinity of the $55.6 million start for the 2010 version with Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. Breaking down the original franchise’s openings for inflation, we would find The Karate Kid Part II with $37 million, Part III with $26.8 million, $15.5 million for the original and, well, just $5.6 million for The Next Karate Kid with Hilary Swank. To extrapolate just how popular these films were, the original would be equivalent to about $280 million today, with Part II exceeding it with over $336 million and even Part III just inching over $100 million. Legends is not going to be the equivalent of any of those, though with a $45 million budget and $47 million worldwide to date, it doesn’t need to stretch very far to be worth the investment. Just not for us.
The first of three R-rated horror films in a row this week is Final Destination: Bloodlines, grossing $10.8 million in its third weekend. That brings its 17-day total to $111.7 million. That is more than the combined grosses of the last two films in the franchise. These numbers are not far from A Quiet Place Part II, which had a $12 million third weekend to bring its total to $109.3 million. We’ve been estimating a $140-150 million finish for Bloodlines, and that is still holding, as A Quiet Place had a series of under-34% drops for five straight weeks in the vaccine summer of the pandemic with little competition. Worldwide, Bloodlines is at $229 million, surpassing The Final Destination’s $186.1 million haul back in 2009.
R-rated horror film No. 2 is A24’s release of Danny & Michael Philippou’s Bring Her Back, the follow-up to Talk To Me, which is still the fifth-highest domestic grossing film in the studio’s history with $48.2 million. That film opened in July 2023 to $10.4 million. Bring Her Back began with $7 million, the seventh-best opening ever for A24 but the second best this year behind Warfare’s $8.3 million. The studio’s $8 million openers (also including Robert Eggers’ The Witch) ended up between $25-26 million. Talk To Me benefited from a strong festival run that included Sundance, Berlin, South By Southwest, and Fantasia by the time it came out. Bring Her Back did not, and now it must gather word of mouth directly in the marketplace to propel it further. Critics are clearly fans, with Talk To Me earning a Certified Fresh 94% and Bring Her Back currently at 89%.
The third R-rated horror film on the list is Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, leapfrogging Thunderbolts* with $5.2 million to bring its total to $267 million. 2008’s Iron Man made $5.6 million in its seventh weekend and was about $30 million ahead of Sinners. Warner Bros. certainly would love to see this hit $300 million. It should pass The Hangover sometime next week to become the highest-grossing original R-rated film ever and is still headed around the $290 million region. Globally the film is currently at $350 million, which makes it the fourth highest-grossing R-rated film ever worldwide featuring a black lead, behind Bad Boys For Life ($426.5 million), Django Unchained ($425.3 million), and Bad Boys: Ride or Die ($404.5 million).
While not disastrous like The Marvels, Thunderbolts* is nevertheless looking like the fourth MCU release to still be well below profit by the time its theatrical run ends. That’s not even counting Black Widow, Eternals, and Shang Chi, released in 2021 during the pandemic period. With $4.8 million in its fifth weekend, Thunderbolts* is now at $181.8 million. That is below Captain America: Brave New World’s $185.6 million 31-day haul and also behind its $5.69 million fifth weekend. For weeks, we have been questioning its path to $200 million, and this now looks to be the case. $400 million globally may even be out of reach at this point (as it is still below $370 million) which is going to keep this in the red.
Rounding out the top ten this week is another A24 release, Friendship, making $2.5 million in 1,293 theaters. Its total is up to $12.3 million, currently ranking 27th on A24’s all-time list. Angel Studios’ release of The Last Rodeo made $2.1 million bringing its total to $10.7 million. Finally, j-hope Tour ‘Hope on the Stage’ in Japan: Live Viewing cracked the top 10 with $939,173 in 631 theaters despite not premiering until Saturday.
Beyond the Top 10: The Phoenician Scheme Opens Strong in Limited Release
A new Wes Anderson film always makes for an interesting limited release. His last film, Asteroid City, opened in six theaters to $845,143 for a per-theater average of $140,857. Moonrise Kingdom in 2012 opened to $522,996 in four theaters for a PTA of $130,749. Focus opened The Phoenician Scheme in six theaters this weekend, and it grossed $570,000 for a PTA of $95,000. That is his third-best PTA, and we’re talking a resume where The Royal Tenenbaums, Isle of Dogs, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Darjeeling Limited all had PTAs between $55,396-$67,469. The Phoenician Scheme expands to over 1,500 theaters next weekend. It has made $6.8 million globally to date.
On the Vine: Plenty of Thrills, from Ballerina to Dangerous Animals and More
The word of John Wick expands next weekend with Keanu Reeves’ Knock Knock co-star, Ana de Armas, as the Ballerina. Len Wiseman takes over as director and Lionsgate hopes to continue this franchise run while asking critics to hold their negativity. Sean Byrne, the director of The Loved Ones and The Devil’s Candy, returns with the shark-based serial killer thriller, Dangerous Animals, from IFC which boasts a pretty strong critical reception out of its premiere in Cannes. Al Pacino and Dan Stevens get involved with an exorcism in The Ritual, and finally, GKids will also release the anime, DAN DA DAN: Evil Eye.
Full List of Box Office Results: May 30 – June 1, 2025
- Lilo & Stitch – $63.0 million ($280.1 million total)
- Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – $27.3 million ($122.6 million total)
- Karate Kid: Legends – $21.0 million ($21.0 million total)
- Final Destination: Bloodlines – $10.8 million ($111.7 million total)
- Bring Her Back – $7.0 million ($7.0 million total)
- Sinners – $5.2 million ($267.0 million total)
- Thunderbolts* – $4.8 million ($181.8 million total)
- Friendship – $2.5 million ($12.3 million total)
- The Last Rodeo – $2.1 million ($10.7 million total)
- j-hope Tour ‘Hope on the Stage’ in Japan: Live Viewing – $939,173 ($939,173 total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast.
Thumbnail image by ©Marvel Studios
