Summary
Disney’slive-actionLilo & Stitchwill be released on June 30, 2025, and will give audiences the opportunity to experience Ohana in a whole new way. The trailer and teaser footage for the live-action adaptation have all been well received, withthe latest receiving over 14 million views on YouTube throughout the past month.
Disney’s live-action remakes of their classic animated films have been hit and miss to date, butLilo & Stitchappears to have a balance that is spot-on with what audiences want to see from this movie. That’s humor and heart combined, which is what made the 2002 animated film such a hit. However, after Disney made a recent decision at a corporate level, Lilo & Stitch might end up having an even bigger impact than people realize.
What Decision Has Disney Made?
This Is Due To Snow White Being A Flop
According toThe Hollywood Reporter,Disney has decided to hit pauseon some upcoming live-action adaptations, with the company deciding to rethink its strategy regarding these movies and whether or not it wants to continue making them. Disney has produced a lot of live-action remakes at this point with varying levels of financial and critical success. However, the studios have now reached the point where they’re unsure if they should continue down that path.
This is largely down to therecent release ofSnow White. The movie went through a lot of controversy during the production, and while it had mixed reviews upon release, crucially, it performed terribly at the box office.Snow Whitegrossed $194 million globally on a production budget of $240-270 million, which was short of Disney’s expectations as it only reached half of its projected opening numbers. The finances were massively below expectations, and that’s something that even a juggernaut like Disney is unable to ignore. While that could’ve been down to just one individual movie, several other live-action remakes have also been met with poor reviews, leading to interest being generally down for future projects like this.
Lilo & Stitch Being A Hit Might Alter Disney’s Thought Process
There Is An Audience For These Remakes
That is whereLilo & Stitchcould come in and save the day for Disney, as this live-action adaptation is on course to perform very well for the company.Early box office projections are predicting that this film will gross over $100 million on its opening weekend alone, which would instantly give it a brilliant start.Lilo & Stitchhas a smaller budget thanSnow White. Therefore, the potential for it to thrive at the box office is high. A big win iswhat Disney needs right now, particularly for a live-action adaptation, as Disney needs to see that they can still turn a significant profit. IfLilo & Stitchdoes that, then there’s a chance that Disney will reverse the decision they have made regarding future live-action movies.
Lilo & Stitchhas always been a popular Disney movie, with Stitch, in particular, becoming somewhat of a mascot for the company.His presence is massive within Disney’s popular theme parks, and the feedback surrounding the live-action adaptation proves that there is a genuine interest in this movie. While some of the remakes aren’t ones people are interested in, that doesn’t appear to be the case here as audiences are actively looking forward to the movie, withDisney seemingly having captured the spiritof the animation.
Fans Were Particularly Excited About Tangled
The decision to hit pause on future live-action adaptations wasn’t just something random that had no impact either, as Disney was actively working on some projects. ATangledremake was expected to take place, withFlorence Pugh and pop star Sabrina Carpenterbeing linked with the role of Rapunzel. That’s a huge animated film that audiences loved, and it would work very well in a live-action format.Meanwhile, a thirdMaleficentfilm was also supposed to be coming in the future,which makes sense given the popularity of the first two films led by Angelina Jolie. Other films could also have been in the pipeline within Disney’s creative team, but at the moment, everything is on hold despite people’s potential and general interest in them.
There will be at least one more live-action remake in the future, asMoanawill be getting this treatment.That movie, which will star Dwayne Johnson, has already been shot,and considering the popularity of the two animated films within this franchise, that’s another live-action that has the potential to be a huge box office hit. The potential success of Moana combined with whatLilo & Stitchis projected to do might end up saving a lot of the projects that Disney was hoping to create, which will likely make a lot of people happy.
