Legends’ at This Weekend’s Box Office

Ahead of the movie’s release, Karate Kid: Legends has divided opinions and has perhaps suffered for the high praise of Cobra Kai. Currently, the film is on a 59% Tomatometer score, hovering just under a “fresh” rating, and it is expected to pull in around $30 million at the domestic box office. While this is certainly not a disastrous opening for a movie with a $45 million budget, it falls a long way short of 2010’s The Karate Kid.

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Meanwhile, in the blue corner, Lilo & Stitch is continuing to prove that some Disney live-action remakes have the ability to capture their audience, and having one of the biggest pop culture icons of the moment as one of your title characters certainly isn’t a bad thing for business. For that reason, going into its second weekend, Lilo & Stitch is projected to earn $60 million, double that of Karate Kid: Legends and well above many opening weekends of other movies released so far this year.

‘Lilo & Stitch’ Continues to Be Disney’s Dark Horse

Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures

When Disney announced their latest wave of live-action remakes, which included Snow White, the addition of Lilo & Stitch was not met with the greatest fanfare. First-look image releases stirred up the usual mix of praise and scorn from social media, but the trailers really seemed to kick the movie’s potential into gear.

While Snow White grabbed the headlines with its constant string of controversies around the casting of Rachel Zegler in the lead role, the casting of Gal Gadot in the midst of high tension surrounding the Israel-Gaza war, the inclusion of CGI dwarfs (or dwarfs at all)…etc etc, Lilo & Stitch was slowly building up anticipation with numerous fun and chaotic marketing gimmicks all centered around its central blue alien.

And as anyone who has not been under a rock for the last few years will know, Disney barely needed to do any marketing for the movie anyway, as you cannot turn around without seeing the toothsome grin of the mischievous alien on something. That alone was always going to make Lilo & Stitch a hit, as such a big presence in the zeitgeist is never going to pass unnoticed.

Snow White failed to live up to its box office potential, destined to be a bigger hit on Disney+ than it could ever be in cinemas, and even Marvel’s Thunderbolts* has not blown away anyone with its ticket sales, even though it is one of the highest-rated MCU movies ever. Thankfully, you can always rely on the cute and cuddly ones to make up the deficit, and Stitch has done that with ease.

Source: Deadline

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