• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

Two major movie franchises -- Walt Disney’s "Lilo & Stitch" and Paramount’s "Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning" rocketed to a collectively massive $550 million in global box-office revenue -- the best opening ever for a four-day holiday weekend for two major movie releases, according to IMDb Box Office Mojo.

Domestically (in the U.S. and Canada) the films totaled $260 million -- with "Lilo" at $183 million and "Mission Impossible" at $77.5 million.

"Lilo" came in well above expectations (a projected $120 million), while “Mission” scored a franchise best result.

Three other movies that had previously opened had decent revenue results: Warner Bros.' "Final Destination: Bloodlines" (in its second weekend) took in $24 million, while the fourth weekend of Disney’s "Thunderbolts" scored $12 million and Warner Bros.' "Sinners" took in $11.2 million.

Another holiday weekend opening -- Angel Studios' "The Last Radio" -- came in at $5.4 million.

Movie studios amp up their national TV media efforts for the Memorial Day weekend -- with a total spend of $19.6 million across all movies for the most recent seven-day period -- up nearly 20% from the week before, according to estimates from EDO Ad EnGage.

Looking at overall TV spend for the duration of each of their respective campaigns, "Mission: Impossible" had a hefty $25.7 million in estimated TV spend (with 5,730 airings and 3.2 billion impressions). “Lilo” had a more modest spend of $12.1 million (with 4,040 airings and 2.4 billion impressions).

Through nearly five months of 2025 so far, over $354.8 million has been spent on theatrical movie advertising on national TV networks -- down 8% ($385.7 million) from the same time period a year before.