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The Acolyte star Manny Jacinto is hoping that fans have not seen the last of Qimir. The actor has not been seen in a Star Wars project since The Acolyte was canceled last year after just one season.

In an interview with Comicbook to promote his new movie, Freakier Friday, Jacinto touched on his brief involvement in the Star Wars galaxy, confirming that he "would love to" return as the apprentice of Sith lord Darth Plagueis. "I would love to run it back. I love that character, that franchise, that team," the actor remarked. "We’ll put it out there. Star Wars is a big universe, galaxy, what have you. But if the fans want it, I’m down and ready to go."

Created by Leslye Headland, The Acolyte was the first Star Wars series to be set during the High Republic era, following the Jedi as they investigate a series of crimes.

It’s been 22 years since Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan first swapped bodies in “Freaky Friday,” but they’re ready to do it again with a new generation in Disney’s “Freakier Friday,” out in theaters next month.

At Tuesday night’s world premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, the Oscar-winning actress explained why audiences need feel-good movies like this highly anticipated sequel to the 2003 family classic now more than ever.

“There’s math involved. You couldn’t make this movie if Lindsay didn’t have a teenage daughter, so she had to be old enough,” Curtis told TheWrap. “And there’s a nostalgia about the movie. In a time of turmoil, you cling to something nostalgic and familiar, so it’s like comfort food.”

“I think ‘Freaky Friday’ is sort of cinema comfort food: it’s satisfying, makes you feel good, makes you laugh, makes you cry.

More smelling salts at the box office this weekend, which will continue to wake up audiences from superhero fatigue as Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps is looking to do between $190 million-$210 million around the world. This comes in the wake of DC Studios’ success with James Gunn’s Superman, which is soaring beyond $409M worldwide. Also, First Steps’ global start here is pegged at being around Superman‘s $220M.

The international box office projection for Fantastic Four is $90M-$100M, with room for upside, particularly if families lean in given the film’s themes. The domestic projection is anywhere between $100M-$110M at 4,100 theaters in the U.S. and Canada. The movie starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner and Ebon Moss-Bachrach movie has all the galactic powers of premium upcharges, i.e., PLFs, Dolby, Imax, Dbox, 4Dx, etc. Previews stateside start 2 p.m. Thursday.

Advance...

The 2025 live-action remake ofLilo & Stitchhas broken yet another major record. The Disney live-action/animated hybrid based on the 2002 movie of the same name has become the first Hollywood production to pass the $1 billion barrier at the box office. The first spot remains in the hands of the animated film from China, Ne Zha 2, which has grossed $1.8 billion so far. The Asian production holds several records: it is the highest-grossing animated film of all time, the highest-grossing film in a language that's not English, and the fifth highest-grossing film of all time.

However, the House of Mouse has plenty to celebrate right now. Per the report by Variety, Lilo & Stitch became the first movie of 2025 to hit $1 billion at the global box office. The official North American gross stands above $416 million, and the overseas box office earnings register more than $584 million. We're still halfway through 2025 but few releases this year...

Four Emmys. Three Oscars. Two Grammys. One-half of a legendary songwriting team who made an enduring impact on the soundtrack of Hollywood.

Alan Bergman — whose collaboration with wife Marilyn resulted in dozens of indelible songs performed from everyone from Frank Sinatra to Barbra Streisand to Michael Jackson, and soundtracked everything from In the Heat of the Night to Severance — died Thursday at the age of 99. (Marilyn died in 2002.)

The Bergmans formed a formidable lyric-writing duo, teaming with several of the greatest composers of the 20th century, including Quincy Jones, John Williams, Ennio Morricone, Henry Mancini, and Marvin Hamlisch.

They received the Trustees Award from the Grammys in 2013 and were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980; the couple also received the organization’s highest honor, the Johnny Mercer Award, in 1997.

Here are 10 must-hear classics from their award-worthy songbook.

“Nice ‘n’ Easy” (1960)

Cowritten with Lew Spence, the swinging lead single...

Alan Bergman, the award-winning songwriter who helped craft Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were” and Michel Legrand’s “The Windmills of Your Mind,” had died at the age of 99. The lyricist racked up a myriad of accolades for music he created in a songwriting duo with his wife Marilyn Bergman, who died in 2022 at the age of 93.

Bergman’s representative Ken Sunshine confirmed Bergman’s death, noting that he experienced respiratory issues in recent months, “but continued to write songs till the very end.”

Throughout his career, Bergman’s...

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that lyricist Alan Bergman, who worked with his late wife Marilyn on numerous hit songs for the screen, passed away on Thursday at his Los Angeles home at the age of 99. He is survived by their daughter, Julie Bergman, and a granddaughter. Marilyn passed away in 2022 at 93 years old. In their 50+ year career together as songwriters, Alan and Marilyn Bergman collaborated frequently with many artists, including Dave Grusin, John Williams, Quincy Jones, James Newton Howard, Michel Legrand, Johnny Mandel, Cy Coleman, Henry Mancini and Marvin Hamlisch. Among many other accolades, the pair won three Academy Awards, three Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and one Cable Ace...

Variety reports that Hollywood legacy artist, Alan Bergman, has passed away at the age of 99 years old. Bergman had a songwriting partnership with his wife, Marilyn Bergman, that lasted over six decades. Marilyn had passed back in January of 2022. She was the first woman president and chairman of the board of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), which was a leading performing-rights society for music-makers. After her death, Alan would continue to write music.

Bergman is a near Egot winner as he garnered Oscar, Emmy and Grammy wins for his work that includes “The Way We Were,” “The Windmills of Your Mind” and “In the Heat of the Night.” Alan and Marilyn have hundreds of songs in their resume for movies and television. Their style would combine the sensibilities of traditional Great American Songbook era artists — Rodgers & Hart, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin — and marry it with...

Alan Bergman, the three-time Oscar-winning lyricist who teamed with his late wife, Marilyn Bergman, to form one of the most celebrated writing duos in the history of movie music, has died. He was 99.

Bergman, whose work includes such classics as “The Windmills of Your Mind” — wonderfully employed for the second-season finale of Severance — “Nice ’n’ Easy,” “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” and “The Way We Were,” died Thursday night of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, his daughter, producer Julie Bergman Sender, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Marilyn Bergman died in January 2022 of respiratory failure at age 93.

The husband-and-wife lyricists worked particular magic with songstress Barbra Streisand and composers Marvin Hamlisch and Michel Legrand.

They won Academy Awards for the best original songs “The Way We Were” (shared with Hamlisch) from the 1973 Streisand film of that name and “Windmills of Your Mind” (shared with Legrand) from The Thomas Crown Affair...

Disney's Lilo and Stitch passed $400 million worldwide after playing in theaters for less than a week, so a $1 billion global haul always seemed highly likely, and the Mouse House's latest live-action remake has now officially passed this major box office milestone.

The family-friendly adventure grossed $416.1 million in North America and $584.8 million internationally for a global tally of $1.001 billion.

This makes Lilo and Stitch the first Hollywood movie released this year to pass $1B - Chinese animated phenomenon Ne Zha 2 actually managed to pass $2 billion worldwide.

Not too surprisingly, a sequel to Lilo and Stitch has already been announced.

"We knew there was a lot of love for Lilo & Stitch with audiences around the world, yet we never take that for granted, and we’re proud of how this new film has connected with people,” Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman said. “I’m thankful to our filmmakers, our cast and all...

Alan Bergman, the lyricist whose collaborations with his wife Marilyn were behind the Oscar-winning songs “The Way We Were,” and “The Windmills of Your Mind” as well as such beloved TV theme songs for such series as Good Times, Maude and Alice, died on Thursday night at his home in Los Angeles. He was 99.

His death was announced by a family spokesman, Ken Sunshine. (Marilyn Bergman died in 2022.)

According to Sunshine, Bergman suffered from respiratory issues in recent months, but continued to write songs till the very end. His daughter Julie Bergman was present at the time of his death.

For most of the three decades starting in 1970, the husband-and-wife team scored 16 Oscar nominations. A partial list of their notable songs includes:

“I Knew I Loved You” (music by Ennio Morricone) recorded by Céline Dion for the Morricone tribute album We All Love Ennio Morricone (2007) “The Windmills of Your Mind...

Alan Bergman, the Oscar-, Grammy- and Emmy-winning songwriter whose lyric-writing partnership with his wife Marilyn lasted more than six decades and produced such hits as “The Windmills of Your Mind,” “The Way We Were” and “In the Heat of the Night,” has died. He was 99.

Bergman died on Thursday night at his home in Los Angeles, per the New York Times.

Marilyn Bergman, who died in January 2022, was the first woman president and chairman of the board of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), a leading performing-rights society for music-makers. Alan soldiered on even after her death, continuing to put words to music.

The Bergmans, who penned hundreds of songs, mostly for movies and TV, bridged the traditional Great American Songbook era of Rodgers & Hart, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin with the more modern pop sensibility of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.

Their poetic touch, combined with...

Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch” has become the first American movie of 2025 to hit the $1 billion mark at the global box office. According to Disney, the film has earned $416.2 million in the United States and Canada, while the rest of the world brought in another $584.8 million. In Mexico alone, the movie made $67 million, becoming Disney’s top-grossing live-action film in that country.

Speaking about the movie’s success, Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman said in a statement, “We knew there was a lot of love for ‘Lilo & Stitch’ with audiences around the world, yet we never take that for granted. We’re proud of how this new film has connected with people.”

Disney also confirmed that a sequel is already in the works.

Released on May 23, the movie made a huge splash during its opening weekend, earning $183 million in North America. That was enough to beat “Top Gun: Maverick...

Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch” has just hit a huge milestone. The movie has officially made over $1 billion worldwide, making it the first U.S. film in 2025 to pass that number. The movie, which came out on May 23, has done especially well both in the U.S. and around the world.

It earned $416.2 million in the U.S. and Canada, and another $584.8 million from international theaters. In Mexico, it even became Disney’s highest-earning live-action film ever, pulling in $67 million.

Speaking about the success, Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman said in a statement, “We knew there was a lot of love for ‘Lilo & Stitch’ with audiences around the world, yet we never take that for granted. We’re proud of how this new film has connected with people.”

The movie is based on Disney’s 2002 animated film. Back then, the original didn’t make nearly as much money,...

Lilo & Stitch, the 2025 live-action remake of the beloved Disney classic, has been a box office hit for Disney. It turned out audiences just couldn't get enough of the misbehaving little alien and his human friend.

The movie has now passed the $1 billion mark at the box office - and it's the first Western film to do so this year. It took in $416.2 million domestically and $584.8 million overseas, proving there's a worldwide market for Stitch's antics. Lilo & Stitch totaled $1.001 billion in the box office rankings, surpassing A Minecraft Movie and Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.

However, it's not the highest-grossing film of the year. That honor goes to the Chinese film Ne Zha 2, an animated adventure that's wildly popular in its home country. It's brought in $1.899 billion so far - so Disney will have to be content with second place. Over the past two years no less than three...

Disney’s Lilo & Stitch has become the first Hollywood studio film of 2025 to cross the $1bn mark at the global box office.

The live action/CG take on Disney’s 2002 animated original reached a US/Canada gross of $416.2m this week and an international take of $584.8m. It stands as the year’s highest grossing release from a Motion Picture Association member company both globally and internationally.

The film’s biggest international takes include $67m from Mexico, $49m from the UK, $42.5m from France and $37.4m from Brazil. China has delivered $25.2m.

Lilo & Stitch, for which a sequel is now in development,...

It's official: Disney has become the first Hollywood studio to score a $1 billion box office hit in 2025. The movie in question is the live-action "Lilo & Stitch" remake, which opened to more than $180 million across the four-day Memorial Day weekend in May. Ever since then, it's been on a tear and has now amassed more money globally than any other American-made movie this year.

To date, director Dean Fleischer Camp's "Lilo & Stitch" has made $416.2 million domestically to go with a whopping $584.8 million internationally for a grand total of $1 billion worldwide. That makes it the 58th movie to ever cross the milestone, just behind "Jurassic World Dominion" ($1.001 billion). Rather crucially, though, it is not the top-grossing movie of the year overall. That honor goes to the animated Chinese blockbuster "Ne-Zha 2," which made well over $2 billion earlier this year, with most of that money coming from China alone.

That aside,...

Aʻole! Disney’s Lilo & Stitch is making Hollywood history after crossing the $1 billion mark at the global box office! The live-action animated film’s grand total sits at $1.001 billion through Wednesday, making it the first major motion picture in 2025 to do so. The divide comes from $416.2M domestic and $584.8M at the international box office, and the movie’s still playing in theaters.

“We knew there was a lot of love for Lilo & Stitch with audiences around the world, yet we never take that for granted, and we’re proud of how this new film has connected with people,” said Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman. “I’m thankful to our filmmakers, our cast, and all on our studio team who have made this film such a success, and we look forward to more adventures with these characters ahead.”

Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch stars Maia Kealoha as...

Ohana means... one billion dollars? Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitchhas officially crossed the $1 Stitchillion mark at the worldwide box office, becoming the first film of 2025 to hit the milestone. As of Wednesday, the Dean Fleischer Camp–directed family adventure has raked in $1.001 billion globally, with $416.2 million domestic and $584.8 million internationally — and it's still playing strong. The heartwarming tale of a lonely girl and her chaotic blue alien pal has now become the top-grossing MPA film of the year, both globally and overseas, and has reignited a major wave of affection for the beloved Disney property.

It’s a historic run for a film that opened over Memorial Day weekend with a bang, smashing records with a $183 million domestic debut in four days — the biggest Memorial Day opening in box office history. Since then, it has gone on to become one of just two films this year to surpass the $400 million domestic mark.

Disney’s Lilo & Stitch has crossed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office, now with $1.001B through Wednesday. The sweet little girl and her mischievous blue alien finally give Hollywood its first billion-dollar movie of 2025, with Lilo & Stitch the only studio film to reach the milestone this year. The split is $416.2M domestic and $584.8M from the international box office while play continues. L&s is the No. 1 MPA movie of 2025 both internationally and globally.

The Disney/Rideback production directed by Dean Fleischer Camp passed $1B with Wednesday’s grosses included, this after an eighth weekend that saw increases and strong holds in a handful of overseas markets.

Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman said, “We knew there was a lot of love for Lilo & Stitch with audiences around the world, yet we never take that for granted, and we’re proud of how this new film has connected with people.

All hail Stitch!

Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch” remake is the year’s first Hollywood release to hit $1 billion at the worldwide box office. After eight weekends in theaters, the family comedy has grossed $416.1 million in North America and $584.8 million internationally for a global tally of $1.001 billion. China’s blockbuster “Ne Zha 2,” however, remains by far the biggest film of 2025 with $1.899 billion in the bank.

Originally planned as a straight-to-streaming release, “Lilo & Stitch” is the latest example of the outsized returns that Disney can mine from theatrical with the right property at the right time. “Moana 2” was also developed for Disney+, as a television show, and became a billion-dollar box office smash last Thanksgiving after the studio first routed the animated sequel to the big screen. With those achievements, Walt Disney Studios has released four billion-dollar films in the past 13 months alone, including Marvel’s “Deadpool & Wolverine...

After nearly two months in theaters, Disney’s remake of “Lilo & Stitch” has passed $1 billion at the global box office, becoming the studio’s 29th theatrical release to cross that milestone and fourth in the last 13 months.

It is the second movie this year and the first from Hollywood to cross the $1 billion threshold, joining the $2 billion-plus Chinese animated hit “Ne Zha 2.” It is also the fifth Disney remake to pass the milestone, joining remakes of “Alice in Wonderland,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King” and “Aladdin.”

“We knew there was a lot of love for ‘Lilo & Stitch’ with audiences around the world, yet we never take that for granted, and we’re proud of how this new film has connected with people,” said Disney co-chairman Alan Bergman. “I’m thankful to our filmmakers, our cast, and all on our Studio team who have made this film such a success,...

At last.

Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch has cleared the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office, becoming the first Hollywood pic of the 2025 to achieve the milestone and cementing its status as the year’s top-grossing Western movie both globally and internationally, the studio announced Thursday.

It finished Wednesday with a domestic tally of $416.2 million and $584.8 million overseas for a worldwide haul of $1.001 billion.

China’s Ne Za 2 is the 2025 record-holder overall, with more than $1.899 billion in ticket sales. The vast majority of that film’s earnings, or $1.832 billion, coming from the Chinese box office. (It has earned $20 million in North America.)

Lilo & Stitch, an adaptation of Walt Disney Animation Studios’s popular 2002 animated film, has exceeded expectations all along the way since opening over Memorial Day, thanks to families and Gen Zers who grew up on the original title.

The milestone means Disney’s film empire has...

At Sun Valley 2024, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav predicted a surge of media M&a and said he didn’t care who became president as long as deals got done.

Four months later, Donald Trump won the White House and purged the watchdogs of the former regime, as many executives had hoped. With 2025 now past the halfway point, mergers have been muted, and Trump is laying legal siege to media companies as his hand-picked FCC launches investigations into their journalism or Dei practices. That stark reality gives moguls nestling in the woods at this year’s Allen & Company annual retreat much to ponder as they gather around campfires, take hikes and – symbolism alert! – paddle the rapids.

Sun Valley is typically associated with deals, given the number of potentates it draws, and a handful of notable M&a moves have indeed originated there over the decades. But it’s more about the schmooze.

La familia es lo primero… y también la taquilla. © Disney

Disney ha anunciado que la película live action de Lilo y Stitch tendrá secuela. El anuncio se ha hecho el pasado 26 de junio, fecha escogida con guiño incluido: el llamado “Día 626”, en alusión directa al número del experimento que da nombre al entrañable alienígena protagonista. Dicha noticia se ha acompañado de un breve vídeo en el que Stitch causa estragos en los estudios de Walt Disney.

Dirigida por Dean Fleischer Camp y protagonizada por Maia Kealoha como Lilo, Sydney Elizebeth Agudong como su hermana Nani y el regreso de Chris Sanders como la voz original de Stitch, la versión en acción real ha superado ya los 945 millones de dólares de recaudación mundial. Una cifra que impresiona más si se tiene en cuenta que el filme, concebido inicialmente para su estreno directo en Disney+, contaba con un presupuesto estimado de apenas 100 millones.

To commemorate “626 Day” — a global celebration of the mischievous yet beloved Stitch from Lilo & Stitch — Walt Disney Studios announced on Thursday that Lilo & Stitch 2 is now officially in development.

The sequel to the live-action reimagining of the 2002 animated classic was announced via a playful video featuring Stitch (a.k.a. Experiment 626) wreaking havoc across the Walt Disney Studios lot.

The live-action Lilo & Stitch — which was directed by Dean Fleischer Camp and stars Maia Kealoha as Lilo and Sydney Elizebeth Agudong as Nani — not only exceeded industry expectations but also set a new benchmark as the highest-grossing 4-day Memorial Day weekend opening in U.S. history.

Since its debut, the film has grossed approximately $923 million worldwide at the box office. The film received an “A” CinemaScore from the audience.

“The love that people have for Lilo & Stitch continues to grow, and the goal with this new retelling was for audiences to...

It’s hard to believe nearly a decade has passed since Pixar’s Coco, an original, music-infused fantastical yarn about a Mexican boy who travels to Land of the Dead, grossed nearly $800 million at the global box office to rank No. 11 on the year’s list of top-grossing films. That was in 2017, a time when no one could have anticipated it would be quickly followed by a dramatic downturn in the appetite for original animated fare.

For Pixar, that downturn hit a new tipping point with the debut of Elio over the June 20-22 weekend. The original summer tentpole, about an orphaned boy whose wish to be abducted by aliens comes true, debuted to a dismal $20.8 million domestically and $14 million overseas in what’s by far a record-low opening for the storied animation studio co-founded by the late Steve Jobs and later acquired by Disney.

Publicly, Disney execs are putting...

For billionaires and business moguls, summertime means interrupting trips to Portofino by gassing up the corporate jet and heading to Idaho for Allen & Co.’s annual leadership retreat in Sun Valley.

Variety has obtained the guest list to this year’s gathering of the one percent of the one percent, and it’s packed with tech giants, Hollywood moguls and politicians on the hunt for a few deep-pocketed backers.

They include usual suspects like Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and the company’s founder Jeff Bezos; Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg; Apple chief Tim Cook; Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai; and Netflix Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters. All of these men lead companies with far larger market caps than the Hollywood set.

But there’s a sizable contingent of old media players including David Zaslav, fresh from announcing plans to split Warner Bros. Discovery in two, as well as Comcast’s Brian Roberts,...

Veteran movie producer Kathleen Kennedy became president of Lucasfilm in 2012, around the time Disney bought the company. She was in the big chair during the Star Wars revival that kicked off in 2015 with The Force Awakens. That movie went over really well, but follow-ups The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker were far more controversial. There have also been ups and downs on the TV side of things, with The Mandalorian and Andor becoming hits while The Book of Boba Fett and The Acolyte quietly dying in embarrassment.

Fans have a lot of opinions of Kennedy, but she's stuck it out for over a decade and made her mark. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she's one of several high-profile executives expected to step down in the near future. But who replaces her?

Per THR, the current hope is to replace Kennedy with two people who would act as co-heads: Carrie Beck,...

It was clear that Disney had a hit on its hands back at CinemaCon, when a sizzle reel showed Stitch popping up in several Mouse House movies. That was further accentuated by recently named Global Distribution Boss Andrew Cripps taking the stage at Caesar’s Las Vegas Colosseum in a Stitch jacket alongside IP mastermind, Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman.

Yes, Disney did have a plan that it’d make less live-action features based on classic animated titles. However, sometimes the company can’t help itself, and that’s for the better. Because when you’re sitting on a brand that rakes in billions annually in global retail, go for it. Last year alone, Lilo & Stitch consumer products generated an estimated $2.5 billion-plus, according to sources, and was one of 11 evergreen franchises for The Walt Disney Company that surpassed $1 billion-plus in retail sales in 2024.

All of this just underscores the power...

After the surprisingly humble performance of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning in 2023, Tom Cruise’s immediate follow-up, The Final Reckoning, reached a series best with Thursday preview totals at the box office. Ethan Hunt’s latest daredevil adventure would earn $8 million in Thursday night early previews, according to Deadline. This start bests Dead Reckoning‘s $7 million early previews and Mission: Impossible – Fallout‘s $6 million early previews. With IMAX screens and other premium theaters, Final Reckoning is being estimated to take in $75 million to $85 million over four days with the Memorial Day holiday.

The bigger story so far this weekend is Cruise’s second bout with Lilo & Stitch. Cruise would face off against the original animated Disney movie back in 2002 with his Minority Report, but would barely come out ahead. This time, Lilo & Stitch emerges as the victor of the two with the live-action remake taking in a whopping...

Disney’s live-action animated hybrid of its 2002 classic is poised to make a ton of money at the box office this Memorial Day Weekend, and the House of Mouse is already looking ahead to what the future holds for the film’s chaotic critter with endless energy. Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman said, “It feels like it’s going to work very well, and it’s the kind of property that lends itself to more.” More, you say? I smell a Lilo & Stitch sequel!

In addition to audiences getting excited for Stitch’s return to the silver screen, Disney is rubbing its claws together at the thought of all that sweet cash it’ll make from selling Lilo & Stitch merchandise. Sales for Lilo & Stitch products are booming, with everything from original film copies to t-shirts, popcorn buckets, and wearable Stitch ears flying off shelves.

Disney executive shares a promising update on Lilo & Stitch's future following the 2025 live-action movie. The remake of Disney's 2002 animated movie of the same name stars Maia Kealoha as Lilo Pelekai. Coming to theaters on May 23, the movie sees the original director and writer, Chris Sanders, reprising his voice role as Stitch. Ahead of its release, the Lilo & Stitch movie has already gained positive first reviews.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman offered a positive update on the movie's sequel potential. The executive shared that the company was very confident about the movie's performance and was already thinking ahead about what could come next. Check out his comment below:

It feels like it’s going to work very well, and it’s the kind of property that lends itself to more.

What This Means For Lilo & Stitch Disney Is Prepared For Lilo...

After Sinners overperformed, Thunderbolts* underperformed, and Final Destination Bloodlines proved there's plenty of life left in that classic horror franchise, this Memorial Day weekend will see Experiment 626 go head-to-head with Ethan Hunt.

After Sinners overperformed, Thunderbolts* underperformed, and Final Destination Bloodlines proved there's plenty of life left in that classic horror franchise, this Memorial Day weekend will see Experiment 626 go head-to-head with Ethan Hunt.

However, according to Variety, Lilo & Stitch looks set to make short work of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.

Opening weekend estimates point to the latest live-action Disney movie vastly exceeding initial $120 million projections with a massive $150 million - $160 million domestic haul over four days. Tom Cruise's last Mission movie, meanwhile, is eying a respectable $75 million - $85 million debut.

Lilo & Stitch is expected to earn $125 million overseas, taking its global total to upwards of $275 million by Monday. As for The Final Reckoning, Cruise's movies always do big numbers overseas,...

Memorial Day weekend 2025 sees a box office rematch between Lilo & Stitchand Tom Cruise, and not only is Disney's live-action remake set to beat Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning for the number one spot at the box office, but Experiment 626 might take another box office record held by Tom Cruise. Initially set for release on Disney+ in 2024, it was decided to bump Lilo & Stitch to a theatrical release, and Disney gave it the highly coveted Memorial Day weekend slot. In the 23 years since the original Lilo & Stitch, the franchise and particularly the title character, have become one of Disney's most beloved IPs, one that will pay off big time at the box office.

The Wall Street Journal notes that Lilo & Stitch is projecting a $150 million opening over the four-day Memorial Day weekend. Variety notes it could go up to $160 million or higher. At $150 million, it would easily land...

The live-action Lilo & Stitch movie will open alongside Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning this weekend, and Disney is reportedly extremely confident in the film’s ability to perform at the box office. Early metrics have Lilo & Stitch earning much more than Mission: Impossible 8 at the box office during opening weekend, which wouldn’t be a surprise considering the track record of live-action remakes of beloved animated films.

However, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, Disney is so sure that Lilo & Stitch will perform well that the studio is already talking about a sequel to the live-action film. Produced on a reported budget of around $100 million, Lilo & Stitch could break even on opening weekend with $200 million or more. Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman told the WSJ that Lilo & Stitch is “the kind of property that lends itself to more.”

This doesn...

At Tuesday night's 2025 Sports Emmy Awards, Lady Gaga took home her first Emmy. She won for Best Music Direction of "Hold My Hand" for the Super Bowl Lix pregame show. With previous victories at the Oscars and Grammys, that places her just a Tony Award short of Egot.

This marked her fifth try at winning an Emmy following nominations for her variety specials Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live!, and One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, plus the special class program Super Bowl Li Halftime Show Starring Lady Gaga.

Lady Gaga won her Academy Award for the song "Shallow" from the 2018 film A Star Is Born. She is a 14-time Grammy Award winner, with the first for The Fame and "Poker Face" in 2010 and the most recent earlier this year for...

Yes, Andor is a Star Wars show with political overtones, the story about a rebel army slowly building and organizing to fight a fascist oppressor. Yes, there are laser gun battles and Tie fighters flying. But, as guests at a THR Frontrunners panel spotlighting the acclaimed Lucasfilm show learned, it’s also a show about love.

“You can’t talk revolution if there’s no love involved; here is something romantic and naïve behind the idea of revolution,” said Diego Luna, the actor who plays budding rebel, Cassian Andor, to the crowd at the San Vincente Bungalows in West Hollywood earlier in May. Showing support in the audience were Ariel Kleiman, who directed the first six episodes of the show, Andor writer Tom Bissell, and the show’s composer Brandon Roberts. Also in attendance were Ryan and Brett Bergman, the sons of Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman.

“What drives revolution is that sense of love,...

Justin Connolly, a veteran Disney distribution executive, has exited the company just as it enters into a consequential series of negotiations.

After more than two decades at ESPN and Disney, Connolly departed on Friday, according to a person familiar with the details. He had just last week taken part in ESPN’s high-profile media briefing about the sports division’s forthcoming, eponymous streaming service. Disney CEO Bob Iger, ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro and a range of other top execs attended the New York event on the morning of the company’s upfront presentation to advertisers.

Sean Breen, EVP, Platform Distribution, and Jimmy Zasowski, EVP, Platform Distribution Strategy, will serve as interim leaders of the Platform Distribution group, sources familiar with the shuffle told Deadline.

Puck sports media specialist John Ourand broke the news Friday, adding that it wasn’t clear where Connolly was headed but that industry speculation centered on YouTube TV.

The live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch is nearly here, and Disney are hoping it'll readjust their fortunes after the Snow White remake turned out to be a disaster. Fans are certainly impressed with what they've seen so far.

Now, Disney has released a new look at the film ahead of its theater release on May 23. A new clip of the movie debuted on Disney+, and it shows a very important scene - the one where Lilo (Maia Kealoha) meets Stitch for the first time. After the clip, the trailer for the movie played, showing off characters such as Nani (Sydney Agudong) and Cobra Bubbles (Courtney B. Vance).

Gather your 'ohana and check out the new Lilo & Stitch Special Look on #DisneyPlus.And be sure to see Lilo & Stitch only in theaters May 23. pic.twitter.com/OtnRf72wQd— Disney+ (@DisneyPlus) May 19, 2025

The clip starts with Lilo entering the dog shelter.

The Mission: Impossible franchise's next mission, should Tom Cruise choose to accept it, is to outdo Lilo & Stitch at the box office.

At Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning's Los Angeles premiere, Courtney B. Vance spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about his and Cruise's films premiering the same week and how their financial competition might play out. "Tom, how are you gonna do bro? I don't think you can compete with Stitch, Tom, but you're gonna give it your best shot," said Vance, whose wife, Angela Bassett, will reprise her Mission: Impossible — Fallout role in the new movie as Erika Sloane. As a positive parting shot, the actor added, "We love you, you know we love you. I'll be there for MI8, I'll be there."

Vance also confessed that, despite joining the live-action Lilo & Stitch remake as federal agent Cobra Bubbles, his history with the original film is slim. "Everyone...

Twenty-three years after the animated film became a hit, Lilo & Stitch is back as a live-action adaptation, once again exploring the friendship between a young Hawaiian girl and the blue alien she adopts.

Though Disney’s recent live-action remakes have had varying levels of success, Lilo & Stitch is estimated to be headed for a four-day domestic debut of $120 million over Memorial Day weekend, marking one of the best showings ever for the studio’s reimaginings. It opens the same weekend as Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning (on course for an $80 million debut), which star Courtney B. Vance played into at the film‘s L.A. premiere on Saturday.

With wife Angela Bassett appearing alongside Tom Cruise in the latest Mission: Impossible, Vance joked to The Hollywood Reporter, “Tom, how are you gonna do bro? I don’t think you can compete with Stitch, Tom, but you’re...

Los Angeles, California – May 17: (L-r) Asad Ayaz, Chief Brand Officer, The Walt Disney Company and President, Marketing, The Walt Disney Studios and Disney+, Chris Sanders, Jonathan Eirich, Billy Magnussen, Alan Bergman, Co-Chairman, Disney Entertainment, Zach Galifianakis, Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong, Courtney B. Vance, Kaipo Dudoit, Dean Fleischer Camp, Amy Hill and David Greenbaum, President, Disney Live Action and 20th Century Studios attend the world premiere of Disney’s Lilo & Stitch at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on May 17, 2025. (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for Disney) As the cast and creatives behind the much awaited live-action reinterpretation of Disney’s Lilo & Stitch came together to mark its impending release, ”Ahana’ was alive and well in Hollywood. The blue carpet in front of the legendary El Capitan Theatre was converted into a vivid Hawaiian party. Among the many themed events offered to visitors, creating what was the ideal atmosphere...

Disney sailed into the cruise business in 1998, moving it from “a little bit older clientele” to a family vacation juggernaut and now has six ships on the water with two more set to launch a month apart this fall — the Destiny out of Florida in November, and the Disney Adventure, the company’s biggest vessel yet, out of Singapore in December.

“I’m incredibly excited about the cruise space,” Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences, said at a MoffettNathanson Media Conference Wednesday, the day after hitting Disney’s Upfront presentation to advertisers in NYC. “They are one of the highest rated experiences we deliver.” He was about to visit two German shipyards where construction of the last two liners are underway.

Parks are the cornerstone of Experiences but cruise ships are having a moment. with an increasingly higher profile in every conversation with Wall Street and big chunk of change...

Executives from several of Hollywood’s major studios met Friday by phone with the Motion Picture Association to discuss the foreign film tariff Donald Trump called for earlier this week.

Details about the meeting, organized by MPA CEO Charles Rivkin, have not been made public. However, two individuals with knowledge of the proceedings told TheWrap that it began with discussion of what studio bosses want Trump to know about the current state of play for production, before eventually turned to California’s film and TV tax credit incentives.

Their conversation reflected public sentiments shared by several studio executives who spoke Wednesday at the Milken Global Conference, TheWrap learned: that U.S. film and TV production problem is, essentially, a California problem.

“So, while it’s true a lot of production has left the United States, it’s even worse for California, and there are a lot of people — including our...

The leaders of the major Hollywood studios and streaming companies gathered on Zoom on Friday for a special meeting with Motion Picture Association chief Charles Rivkin to strategize about how to address President Trump’s threatened film tariffs.

The goal was to find a delicate way to educate the White House on the complexities of the film business, as well as the difficulty of applying a tariff on a product that is not a traditional good in the sense of a car or a hammer. Moreover, many films are shot in multiple foreign locations both because a story calls for a certain setting, and because of the costs. Post-production work on visual effects and editing also can take place in different countries to take advantage of subsidies.

The executives argued on the call that many films are still shot in the U.S, including in such production hotspots as Georgia,...

Top Hollywood studio execs are scheduled to hold a call with Motion Pictures Association chair-ceo Charles Rivkin on Friday to discuss President Donald Trump’s surprise proposal to impose tariffs on movies shot outside of the United States, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The film industry was left reeling over the weekend after Trump took to social media on Sunday to proclaim that it’s time to “make Hollywood great again” and that shooting films in other countries is nothing short of a threat to national security.

The very next morning, however, the White House seemed to downplay Trump’s decree when issuing a statement clarifying that “no final decisions have been made” regarding such tariffs.

So far, the MPA — which is the main trade organization representing movie studios and their parent companies — has yet to officially respond to Trump’s comments regarding tariffs. (Also on Sunday, he suggested reopening...

Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament has returned, and as you’ll see from the most profitable films of 2024 that we’re disclosing, a movie’s game doesn’t end at the box office. Rather, its downstream revenues and subsequent home windows must be taken into account. Streaming continues to be a wildcard: While traditional motion picture studios such as Disney, Warner Bros, Sony, Paramount and Universal rely on lucrative pay two and pay three streamer deals to catapult their slates into the black, those streamers who’ve embraced theatrical (specifically Amazon MGM Studios and Apple Original Films) have a clandestine metric as to how they evaluate a movie’s post-cinema success. By traditional studio P&l standards, some of those releases would be considered flops. Given that, Apple and Amazon are excluded from this year’s survey. The Most Valuable Blockbuster series runs later rather than sooner as we gather...

The bad boys and bad girls superhero movie Thunderbolts*, about the continuing adventures of Yelena Belova, Winter Soldier, Alexei Shostakov, Ghost and John Walker, is hoping to keep the box office ball in play with a $175 million global start as Marvel Studios kicks off summer Friday, a traditional feat that it wasn’t able to attempt a year ago due to the aftermath of the strikes.

Currently, U.S. and Canada presales for Thunderbolts* stands at $12M+, which is on pace with another first installment MCU movie, 2021’s Eternals ($71.2M). The presales figure is also ahead of that year’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings ($75.3M) and behind this year’s Captain America: Brave New World ($88.8M). Hence, the current opening projection on Thunderbolts* is $70M-$75M domestic at 4,300 theaters, with another $90M-$100M abroad.

Like previous MCU titles, the expected draws are males over and under 25. Given...

Disney and Marvel say there just may be more Deadpool down the line, and they don’t want Justin Baldoni to know anything about the “ongoing movie franchise.”

Actually, in the midst of resetting the MCU with upcoming Thunderbolts* and Fantastic Four, the Bob Iger-run media giant doesn’t want to reveal much of anything else to do with Ryan Reynolds when it comes to Baldoni’s ongoing and sprawling It Ends With Us legal battle with the superstar and Blake Lively. Actually, Disney would prefer to exit the whole thing or have the pause button hit. Baring that, the company at least want a judge to limit what Baldoni’s team can ask for or see.

In a series of sharply worded letters sent to federal Judge Lewis J. Liman over the past few days, lawyers for the parties have been taking potshots at each other over a...