For the second weekend in a row, the domestic box office was ruled over by an abomination named Stitch. Lilo & Stitch grossed $63 million, a 57% decline from last weekend. That's right on par with the 57% drop of The Little Mermaid two years ago. After 10 days, this mega-hit has grossed $280.1 million domestically, just a hair under twice what the original Lilo & Stitch made in North America 23 years ago. Excellent numbers for a middling movie. Considering its immense international figures as well, Stitch should also clear $1 billion worldwide in the near future.
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning dropped 57% this weekend to gross another $27.2 million for a $122.61 million 10-day total. Right now, this feature's heading for a final domestic total in the $185-195 million range. If it can hold well in the next three weekends, just getting past $200 million isn't impossible.
Karate Kid: Legends had an underwhelming $21 million opening this frame. At least Sony/Columbia Pictures only spent $45 million on this half-hearted legacy sequel, but that's still down 58% from the opening weekend of Jaden Smith's Karate Kid from 15 years ago. It also won't come close to hitting the box office highs of the three biggest Karate Kid movies, two of which were released in the 80s. Sony’s forgettable marketing for this feature made it something tantamount to an afterthought. There was just no hype or excitement for Legends.
More importantly, though, Cobra Kai’s already diminished the excitement of seeing older Ralph Macchio in a Karate Kid legacy sequel. Why would audiences pay to see that when they could already experience multiple seasons of Cobra Kai at home? Plus, while the 2010 film has its fans, the face of that movie was Jaden Smith, not Jackie Chan. Combining these corners of the saga produced a crossover that didn’t really seem like anything anyone wanted. Not every franchise needs a legacy sequel. Good thing Sony kept costs on this one low, at least.
Final Destination: Bloodlines was one of two holdovers easing beneath 45% from last weekend this frame for a third weekend gross of $10.8 million. Its domestic haul now stands at a fantastic $111.71 million, leaving all other Final Destination movies in the dust. The lowest weekend-to-weekend drop in the top ten by far was Sinners, which only eased 39% this weekend. Grossing another $5.2 million, this pop culture sensation has grossed $267.08 million domestically.
The Talk to Me duo returned this weekend with Bring Her Back, another grisly horror feature enacting gnarly body horror on teenagers. This film grossed a fine $7.08 million, down 32% from Talk to Me's July 2023 bow two years ago. While not the breakout hit A24 wanted, it's still a perfectly fine bow for a lower-budgeted horror title. If there was anything keeping Bring Her Back from hitting bigger numbers, it was simply that there's a lot of horror movies in the marketplace and this one didn't have quite as striking of an image to center its promotional campaign around as that hand from Talk to Me.
The lowest weekend-to-weekend drop in the top ten by far was Sinners, which only eased 39% this weekend. Grossing another $5.2 million, this pop culture sensation has grossed $267.08 million domestically. Thunderbolts* fell another 50% to gross another $4.8 million for a $181.85 million domestic total. This is now assured to be the rare post-2011 Marvel Studios title to miss $200 million domestically, a disappointing feat for the feature.
Friendship added 238 theaters this weekend (it's now playing in 1,293 locations) while grossing another $2.56 million, a 51% drop from last weekend. This crossover indie hit has now grossed $12.36 million domestically, a great haul for such a tiny indie comedy. Also in its second weekend of wide release was The Last Rodeo, which fell 60% to gross another $2.14 million for a $10.75 million domestic total.
Playing in very select showings across 631 theaters this weekend was J-hope Tour ‘Hope on the Stage’ in JAPAN: Live Viewing. It took in a respectable $939,173 for a $1,488 per theater average. The Accountant 2 fell another 62% to gross an additional $776,000 for a $64.99 million domestic total. Fellow April 2025 holdover A Minecraft Movie lost 1,263 theaters this frame and fell a steep 66% to gross another $755,000 for a $422.95 million domestic total. Peppa Meets the Baby Cinema Experience opened in 428 theaters and grossed $689,817 for a $1,612 per theater average.
The latest Wes Anderson title, The Phoenician Scheme, got off to a blazing start in limited release, grossing $570,000 from six theaters for a $95,000 per theater average. That's below the bows of The Grand Budapest Hotel and Asteroid City, but that's the only complaint one can could level at such a mighty bow. Scheme expands into wide release on Friday, where it’s bound to make a pretty penny. Look for it to quickly become 2025’s third limited release title to exceed $10+ million, following Becoming Led Zeppelin and Friendship.
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life expanded into 526 theaters and grossed $561,126 for a $1,066 per theater average. Nothing spectacular in its weekend gross, but this little indie has now grossed $977,477 after ten days of domestic play. If its theater count doesn't get obliterated next weekend, it may just crack $2+ million domestically. That's a solid achievement for a Sony Pictures Classics release. IFC Films is getting better at launching horror films, but its attempt to launch the samurai adventure film Tornado in 412 theaters shows this distributor still needs to refine how it launches non-horror titles. Tornado only opened to $130,001 for a disastrous $316 per theater average.
The top ten movie this weekend grossed $143 million, a perfectly solid post-Memorial Day weekend haul. That's noticeably ahead of the $118.39 . This frame was down 9% from this same weekend in 2019 when The Secret Life of Pets 2 bowed, but up 49% from this frame in 2018 when Solo: A Star Wars Story was still atop the box office. Altogether not too shabby, especially since there wasn’t a big post-Memorial Day weekend opener like 2017 had with Wonder Woman or 2015 had with San Andreas. Holdovers carried this particular frame and that meant hits like Lilo & Stitch and Bloodlines just kept on chugging.
It also looks like May 2025 ended with approximately $966.6 million, making it one of the biggest domestic box office months since theaters closed down in March 2020.
For comparison’s sake, before May 2025, these were the eleven biggest months at the domestic box office since March 2020:
______________________________________________________________________
June 2023: $1.003 billion
December 2024: $986.3 million
June 2022: $968.95 million
June 2024: $965.93 million
December 2021: $921.38 million
November 2024: $900.73 million
April 2023: $899.48 million
August 2024: $892.10 million
_______________________________________________________________________
May 2025, then, is the seventh-biggest month at the domestic box office since theaters shut down for COVID-19 in March 2020. That’s a spectacular accomplishment to kick off summer 2024 off with. Granted, June will be a bit of a challenging month at the box office, especially compared to the last three June’s. Right now, no newcomers in the month are gearing up to deliver the massive numbers of June 2022/2023/2024 newcomers like Inside Out 2, Jurassic World Dominion, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Still, How to Train Your Dragon and 28 Years Later are poised to be hits, and who knows how Elio, F1, and Materialists will shake out. This moviegoing season is off to a phenomenal start and there’s a chance (especially with July 2025’s slate of heavy-duty blockbusters) that this summer’s just getting warmed up.