Disney’s live-action remakes have always been a bit controversial. Fans originally loved an occasional remake, but many quickly grew tired of Disney appearing to prioritize remakes over original films. However, it’s hard to argue with the results—remakes like The Lion King (2019), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Aladdin (2019), The Jungle Book (2016), and more have brought the studio billions in revenue.
Unfortunately, Disney’s most recent live-action remake, Snow White, was one of the studio’s biggest flops, with Disney estimated to lose more than $100 million. A number of factors contributed to the film’s struggles, including using CGI to create the dwarves, Rachel Zegler’s comments about the original film, and even Disney’s choice to cast Rachel Zegler at all.
Related: Rare Warning Issued After Disney’s ‘Snow White’ Tanks at Box Office
Snow White’s failure was so bad that Disney recently announced it was putting its live-action Tangled (2010) remake on indefinite pause. It also had a lot of people wondering what the future of live-action remakes would look like.
However, it appears that Snow White might have just been a hiccup, and fans are still willing to spend money on remakes they deem worthy.
Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch remake, based on the 2002 animated film, will hit theaters nationwide on May 23. While some questioned how Disney would transform an animated Stitch into an equally cute CGI version, those fears were assuaged when Disney began promoting the film.
Related: VIDEO: Stitch Wreaks Havoc as Disney Promotes Newest Live-Action
Pre-sale tickets for Lilo & Stitch went on sale on May 6, and Disney CEO Bob Iger said that “tracking is enormous.” It makes sense that Disney would have been worried about the film’s potential performance, especially since it is coming out just a couple of months after Snow White’s release, but according to reports, pre-sale numbers are fantastic.
Per Deadline, Lilo & Stitch had the best pre-sale numbers for a PG movie this year to date.
Lilo & Stitch has surpassed all 2025 PG-rated titles in first-day advance ticket sales on Fandango, a list that includes A Minecraft Movie,Snow White, Dog Man and Paddington in Peru. You’ll remember, A Minecraft Movie‘s traction didn’t pick up until the Thursday before its opening. Forecasts before then sat around $60 million before the Warner Bros/Legendary feature take of the Mojang game boomed to the best opening of the year at $162.7M.
Related: Disney Says Next Live-Action Remakes Are Best in Years Following ‘Snow White’ Bomb
In addition to surpassing 2025 numbers, Lilo & Stitch has the second-best pre-sale numbers for any Disney live-action remake, only falling behind the 2019 remake of The Lion King.
Reports further indicate that the remake is expected to make $120 million over the four-day Memorial Day Weekend holiday. Memorial Day weekend is notoriously difficult for movies, but Lilo & Stitch could break that trend.
Lilo & Stitch will premiere on May 23 and stars Maia Kealoha as Lilo, Sydney Agudong as Nani, Kaipo Dudoit as David, Courtney B. Vance as Cobra Bubbles, Zach Galifianakis as Jumba, and Billy Magnussen as Pleakley. Chris Sanders will return as the voice of Stitch. Sanders voiced Stitch in the original film and wrote the 2002 animated movie.
Have you already purchased your tickets to see Lilo & Stitch, or will you be purchasing them right when you plan to see it? Will you be seeing it on the big screen, or do you intend to wait until the movie comes to Disney+? What is your favorite Disney live-action remake? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!
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