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Straits Times
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Lilo & Stitch, Mission: Impossible rack up $633m in North American ticket sales
(From left) Sydney Agudong as Nani, Maia Kealoha as Lilo and Stitch in Disney's live-action Lilo & Stitch. PHOTO: THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY LOS ANGELES - The live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch and the adrenaline-fuelled Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning racked up a combined US$494.2 million (SS$633 million) in worldwide ticket sales, including US$208.5 million in the United States and Canada, setting the stage for a record-breaking Memorial Day weekend. Lilo & Stitch, which re-imagines Disney's 2002 animated film about a mischievous blue alien who crash-lands in Hawaii and is adopted by two sisters, brought in US$304.2 million around the world through May 25, including US$145.5 million from North American sales. The family-friendly movie set a North American box office record for the first three days of the holiday weekend, besting Top Gun: Maverick (2022), according to Comscore. That helped propel ticket sales in the US and Canada to a record US$262 million, Comscore reported. Lilo & Stitch delivered one of the strongest performances for a remake of a Disney animated movie, behind the 2019 computer-animated remake of The Lion King, which brought in US$192 million, and the 2017 version of Beauty And The Beast, with US$175 million in ticket sales, according to Walt Disney Studios. It breathes fresh life into a valuable franchise that accounted for US$2.6 billion in consumer product sales in 2024, and more than a half-billion-hours of viewing on the Disney+ streaming service. Hollywood actor Tom Cruise's reprisal of his role as the death-defying spy Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible rang up US$190 million in global ticket sales, including US$63 million in the US and Canada. That tops the opening weekend performance of the series' highest-grossing film, Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018), according to Mr Chris Aronson, president of domestic theatrical distribution for Paramount Pictures. Paramount mounted a massive marketing blitz to promote the culmination of the 29-year-old film series, including a global promotional tour and a creator campaign, in which Cruise took part. More than 40 per cent of ticket buyers were ages 18 to 34, a significant number for a series that has historically appealed to older viewers. 'The sheer spectacle of what Tom and McQ put in as the major ingredients of this film are truly remarkable,' said Mr Aronson, using the nickname for the film's director, Christopher McQuarrie. The strong holiday weekend haul marks an encouraging start to the summer, which typically accounts for 35 to 40 per cent of the annual North American box office. It also provides a shot in the arm for cinema owners after a dismal March, when ticket sales were down 45 per cent from a year earlier. Analysts say the Memorial Day weekend box office could be a bellwether for the summer season for the entertainment industry, with a number of potential blockbusters reaching movie theaters. Coming releases include Ballerina, a spin-off of the popular John Wick movies (2014 to present), starring Cuban-Spanish actress Ana de Armas; a live-action remake of DreamWorks Animation's How To Train Your Dragon (2010); and another installment in the long-running science fiction series, Jurassic World Rebirth. 'From now up until mid-August, there is at least one new release coming out every weekend with the potential of making US$100 million at the domestic box office,' said Mr Daniel Loria, senior vice-president of The BoxOffice Company, which provides online ticketing services for movie theatres. Movie ticket sales in the US and Canada are up 21 per cent from a year ago, when the 2023 Hollywood strikes disrupted film production and truncated movie slates, according to Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian. Still, the box office is off nearly 29 per cent from 2019, before the global pandemic shuttered cinemas and fuelled the growth of video streaming. REUTERS Lilo & Stitch and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning are showing in Singapore cinemas. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Lilo & Stitch (2025) review: A watered-down version of the original
(From left) Maia Kealoha as Lilo, Stitch (voiced by Chris Sanders) and Sydney Agudong as Nani in Disney's live-action adaptation of Lilo & Stitch. PHOTO: THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY Lilo & Stitch (PG) 108 minutes, opens on May 22 ★★☆☆☆ The story: In this live-action adaptation of the beloved 2002 Disney animated film, six-year-old Native Hawaiian girl Lilo (Maia Kealoha) lives with her older sister Nani ( Sydney Agudong ) following their parents' death. When a fugitive extraterrestrial created by Dr Jumba Jookiba (Zach Galifianakis) crash-lands on Earth, Lilo adopts the blue creature from an animal shelter, believing it to be a dog, and names it Stitch (Chris Sanders). This remake of the cherished story about two outcasts finding each other unfortunately treats the original's most compelling elements as blemishes to be scrubbed away. The science-fiction thrills and genuine sense of danger have vanished. Also missing are the memorable songs and scenes depicting Stitch as nearly demonic in his destructive impulses. The once-chaotic alien is now merely high-spirited, transformed from an uncontrollable force of nature into something resembling a poorly parented child needing discipline. The zany 2002 film understood that children's movies need breathing room, pauses that allow audiences to experience a child's wonderment as the world reveals its secrets. This frantic do-over never slows down to allow such moments, instead desperately filling every second with jokes that feel blandly anachronistic, as if written by defrosted 1980s sitcom writers. Adding insult to injury is the distractingly obvious product placement. Talented performers are squandered here. Galifianakis as Stitch's creator and the skilled Billy Magnussen as Agent Pleakley have little opportunity to showcase their comedic abilities. (From left) Sydney Agudong as Nani, Maia Kealoha as Lilo and Stitch in Disney's live-action Lilo & Stitch. PHOTO: THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY The original's charming scenes of aliens awkwardly disguised as tourists have been replaced with safer, high-tech camouflage options. No more cross-dressing. One bright spot is director Dean Fleischer Camp's (Marcel The Shell With Shoes On, 2021) handling of Nani's story, giving appropriate weight to her sacrifice of personal dreams to care for her sister, a reality facing many young caregivers. Both films share the same implausible premise: that a child should keep a potentially dangerous creature of unknown origin as a pet 'because love'. Hot take: The blue alien still has big teeth, but no bite. Given everything modern visual effects could have accomplished, this remake feels disappointingly and aggressively bland. The Assessment (M18) 116 minutes, available on Amazon Prime ★★★★☆ The story: In a future society post-environmental collapse, the population is strictly regulated due to resource scarcity. Childbirth is a privilege, and a couple are assessed on their eligibility over seven days of psychological torment. Alicia Vikander in The Assessment. PHOTO: PRIME VIDEO Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) is a botanist and bioengineer Aaryan (Himesh Patel) designs virtual reality pets. They are a conscientious, lovingly married pair missing only the warmth of a child in their modernist seaside house, in the sterile dystopian world of The Assessment. Virginia (Alicia Vikander) is the official assessor, who moves in for a week to determine their parenting capacity by essentially role-playing a wilful toddler. She pees on a dinner guest and flings food at 'mummy' Mia in temper tantrums, her behaviour increasingly erratic and eventually wildly inappropriate. It is one thing to observe Mia and Aaryan having sex because she says she has to evaluate every aspect of their lives, and quite another to, well, you can imagine once she crawls into bed with 'daddy' Aaryan. What she is doing is testing Mia's and Aaryan's underlying insecurities to break them emotionally. Not since she was an android seducing a hapless programmer (Domhnall Gleeson) in the 2014 British sci-fi flick Ex Machina has Vikander been this manipulative and sinister. Here is another extraordinary performance by the Swedish actress. Olsen and Patel are also very good, reacting with a mix of discombobulation and distress as the black comedy in their unnerving three-hander turns to horror. French music video director Fleur Fortune has made a memorable movie debut. Her chilling parable on invasive state control is all too real at a time when, in the United States, autonomous reproductive rights are under threat anew. Hot take: Who knew planned parenthood could be this disturbing? Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Sun
08-05-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Disney, Miral announce plans for new Disney theme park in Abu Dhabi
WALT DISNEY announced plans on Wednesday to open a Disney theme park in United Arab Emirates' capital Abu Dhabi in collaboration with regional developer Miral Group, representing its first major new theme park in nearly a decade and its first in the Middle East. The planned Disney waterfront resort will be located on Yas Island, a popular tourist destination that is home to other family-friendly attractions, including Warner Bros World Yas Island, SeaWorld Yas Island and Yas Waterworld Abu Dhabi. The city of Abu Dhabi has a population of about 2.5 million, but Yas Island recorded more than 34 million visits in 2023, a 38% rise compared to the year before, Miral has said. 'We've always been interested in this part of the world - to bring our Disney stories to new, younger fans,' Disney's Experiences unit Chairman Josh D'Amaro told Reuters, adding, 'Abu Dhabi was an ideal location for us.' Miral, the Abu Dhabi-based leisure and entertainment group responsible for developing Yas Island, will finance, build and operate the resort. The creative and technical professionals who design Disney's theme parks, known as Imagineers, will lead creative design and provide operational oversight. The U.S. entertainment company will earn royalties based on the park's revenue, according to a regulatory filing. The Disney park 'will be authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati - an oasis of extraordinary Disney entertainment that is at the crossroads of the world,' Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement on Wednesday. Abu Dhabi is known for its oil wealth, though last year it announced plans to invest more than $10 billion in infrastructure to grow its tourism business. The international airport in UAE's commercial hub Dubai aims to boost its capacity to accommodate 120 million passengers a year by 2026. Disney did not announce the opening date for the new park, though D'Amaro said a project of this scale could take a year or two to design, and another four to six years to build. Once complete, the resort will offer Disney-themed attractions, dining and retail experiences, in a way that blends the Burbank entertainment company's storytelling and Abu Dhabi's heritage, D'Amaro said. Investments in experiences unit The Abu Dhabi park, Disney's first since Shanghai Disneyland opened in 2016, represents a continuation of the company's plans to 'turbocharge' its Experiences unit, which includes its six global theme park resorts, a cruise ship line and a family resort in Hawaii. In 2023, Disney announced it would commit $60 billion over a decade to double the size of its Disney cruise ship fleet and invest in its theme parks. It also took a minority stake in Epic Games, creator of the online game Fortnite. Miral initially approached Disney to talk about their plans for creating a tourism hub in Abu Dhabi, said D'Amaro. That conversation led Disney executives to visit the prospective theme park site last September. 'We saw where our potential park might go, and had some serious conversations about what this could mean to our 'turbocharging',' D'Amaro said. After a return trip to the region in February, D'Amaro said the parties entered into serious discussions that culminated in a deal. The amount of Miral's investment was not disclosed. Miral Group CEO Mohamed Abdalla Al Zaabi issued a statement hailing the addition of a Disney theme park to Yas Island as a 'historic milestone' in the company's efforts to build the island into a global entertainment destination.
The Sun
08-05-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Disney to Open First Middle East Theme Park in Abu Dhabi
WALT DISNEY announced plans on Wednesday to open a Disney theme park in United Arab Emirates' capital Abu Dhabi in collaboration with regional developer Miral Group, representing its first major new theme park in nearly a decade and its first in the Middle East. The planned Disney waterfront resort will be located on Yas Island, a popular tourist destination that is home to other family-friendly attractions, including Warner Bros World Yas Island, SeaWorld Yas Island and Yas Waterworld Abu Dhabi. The city of Abu Dhabi has a population of about 2.5 million, but Yas Island recorded more than 34 million visits in 2023, a 38% rise compared to the year before, Miral has said. 'We've always been interested in this part of the world - to bring our Disney stories to new, younger fans,' Disney's Experiences unit Chairman Josh D'Amaro told Reuters, adding, 'Abu Dhabi was an ideal location for us.' Miral, the Abu Dhabi-based leisure and entertainment group responsible for developing Yas Island, will finance, build and operate the resort. The creative and technical professionals who design Disney's theme parks, known as Imagineers, will lead creative design and provide operational oversight. The U.S. entertainment company will earn royalties based on the park's revenue, according to a regulatory filing. The Disney park 'will be authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati - an oasis of extraordinary Disney entertainment that is at the crossroads of the world,' Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement on Wednesday. Abu Dhabi is known for its oil wealth, though last year it announced plans to invest more than $10 billion in infrastructure to grow its tourism business. The international airport in UAE's commercial hub Dubai aims to boost its capacity to accommodate 120 million passengers a year by 2026. Disney did not announce the opening date for the new park, though D'Amaro said a project of this scale could take a year or two to design, and another four to six years to build. Once complete, the resort will offer Disney-themed attractions, dining and retail experiences, in a way that blends the Burbank entertainment company's storytelling and Abu Dhabi's heritage, D'Amaro said. Investments in experiences unit The Abu Dhabi park, Disney's first since Shanghai Disneyland opened in 2016, represents a continuation of the company's plans to 'turbocharge' its Experiences unit, which includes its six global theme park resorts, a cruise ship line and a family resort in Hawaii. In 2023, Disney announced it would commit $60 billion over a decade to double the size of its Disney cruise ship fleet and invest in its theme parks. It also took a minority stake in Epic Games, creator of the online game Fortnite. Miral initially approached Disney to talk about their plans for creating a tourism hub in Abu Dhabi, said D'Amaro. That conversation led Disney executives to visit the prospective theme park site last September. 'We saw where our potential park might go, and had some serious conversations about what this could mean to our 'turbocharging',' D'Amaro said. After a return trip to the region in February, D'Amaro said the parties entered into serious discussions that culminated in a deal. The amount of Miral's investment was not disclosed. Miral Group CEO Mohamed Abdalla Al Zaabi issued a statement hailing the addition of a Disney theme park to Yas Island as a 'historic milestone' in the company's efforts to build the island into a global entertainment destination.
