Film news: Record Memorial Day box office weekend brings hope back to cinemas
Due to the turbulent last few years, box office milestones are celebrated with widespread joy in the film industry.
Covid and several strikes have threatened the theatrical experience amid the continued rise of streaming.
But, as Film News Blitz’s David Bason writes, a record Memorial Day weekend at the U.S. box office gives cause for celebration.
A record weekend
According to reports, the four-day Memorial Day weekend is set to produce approximately $322 million at the United States domestic box office, beating a long-standing 12-year record.
As franchises falter, streaming continues to prosper, and the cinema industry persists amid the eternal struggles born out of the Covid pandemic and Hollywood strikes, moments like these need to be admired and celebrated.
In the past, it was almost a guarantee that a Marvel Studios cinematic epic would come along every few months to keep the cinema industry rolling, but it is now more uncertain where hits will arise.
Now, more than ever, cultural movements such as Barbenheimer (the joint success of Barbie and Oppenheimer in 2023) or A Minecraft Movie dictate the pace at the box office.
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The success of A Minecraft Movie was symptomatic of a growing trend in theatres whereby young audiences are driving business.
In 2024, seven of the top-10 grossing movies worldwide were family flicks, including chart-topper Inside Out 2.
This Memorial Day weekend, it is another family film leading the charge in the form of Disney’s live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch, which is set to take in $183 million through Monday, beating the entire domestic run of the animated original in 2003 ($145.8 million).
That marks the highest Memorial Day weekend opening of all time, beating 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick ($126 million).
Lilo & Stitch has thus far grossed $341.7 million worldwide.
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Tom Cruise was widely credited with kickstarting cinemas back into life with Top Gun: Maverick, and he’s back in cinemas setting milestones once again with Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.
The eighth and last instalment of the Mission: Impossible franchise takes second spot behind Lilo & Stitch for the Memorial Day weekend, setting a series-best domestic opening of $77 million through Monday with a global opening of $190 million.
This will be particularly pleasing to Paramount Pictures as it looks for a big send-off for IMF Agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise’s central character to the franchise).
Final Destination: Bloodlines is in the third spot at the box office for this Memorial Day weekend, set to earn $24 million across the four days, with Thunderbolts* ($12 million) and Sinners ($11.2 million) showing longevity by rounding out the top five.
Why is this important?
First off, the U.S. market at the box office is a key driver of the cinematic industry and more often than not drives the success of each and every film.
Moreover, Memorial Day weekend is seen as the entry point to the box office Summer period, where approximately 40% of annual box office earnings are made.
Essentially, the box office results for Memorial Day weekend act as an indicator of how successful the summer releases will be.
As a result, beating a 12-year record high, a year after Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and Garfield led the worst Memorial Day weekend in three decades ($132 million), is a good reason to be optimistic as 2025 rolls on.
With releases such as the John Wick spin-off Ballerina, the live-action remaker of How to Train Your Dragon, Jurassic World Rebirth, Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps to come, 2025 could be a big year at the box office.
The Los Angeles Times collated information from analysts showing that 2025 is tracking for $9.2 billion to $9.5 billion in annual box office earnings.
This would represent a tidy increase over the $8.7 billion recorded in 2024, and a positive step towards the $11 billion spent on heading to the movies in each of the final two years pre-pandemic.
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