BOX OFFICE: “Lilo” and “Mission: Impossible” punch out “Karate Kid”

Remakes, reboots and sequels are selling all the tickets as May winds down and the summer cinema season marches into June. The “live action” remake of “Lilo & Stitch” is still pulling in parents, grandparents and the kids who insist on being taken to see it.

Deadline.com points to a $60 million+ second “Lilo” weekend, maybe $65 as they traditionally underestimate the appeal of family oriented kid fare.

The “Mission: Impossible” finale, “The Final Reckoning,” is doing half the business — if that — of “Lilo,” with a $25-28 million weekend, putting it over $120 million in two weeks while “Lilo & Stitch” might clear the$280 million mark after two weeks.

Not much left over for the umpteenth iteration of “The Karate Kid,” a venerable franchise revived for TV not once but twice, adding Jackie Chan and bringing back Ralph Macchio for “Karate Kid: Legends,” which moves on from Will Smith’s nepo baby Jaden Smith for this, the sixth big screen “Kid,” dating back to 1984.

Indiffent reviews aside, it should clear $20-21 million, and if it doesn’t — of does, barely — that should be the end of that series for another generation.

The revived “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” is raking in another $10 million, with the decades old horror franchise clearing the $100 million mark Saturday en route to a $110 million total by weekend’s end.

Conversely, A24’s original horror title “Bring Her Back” is lurching towards a $7-8 million opening weekend.

If you wonder why Hollywood is perfectly content to serve up nothing but remakes, rehashes and sequels, there’s your explanation. Cinematic comfort food pays off. Even the exhausted “Karate Kid” will out earn most “original” titles. “Sinners” was both a unicorn, and the exception that proves the rule.

It’s doubtful Wes Anderson’s “The Phonecian Scheme” will earn enough in the biggest cities (limited opening this weekend) and elsewhere (next weekend) to make much of a dent in the BO leader board.

But if you’re limiting yourself to truly “new” film fare, the pickings have been slim this spring and summer.

This weekend’s other “news” is that “Thunderbolts*” and “Sinners” exit the top five, but not the top ten.

“Hurry Up Tomorrow” exits the top ten and puts The Weeknd’s big screen dreams to bed.

“The Amateur” finishes its run after earning just over $40 million, and Disney’s live action “Snow White” won’t reach the $90 million mark and it loses the last of its screens at $87.

“The Accountant 2” might reach the $70 million mark — barely — as it hangs around one more week.

“Friendship” and “The Last Rodeo” are eyeing the $10 million mark hurdle, which both may clear by weekend’s end.

I’ll update these figures as more data comes in Sat. and Sunday.

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About Roger Moore

Movie Critic, formerly with McClatchy-Tribune News Service, Orlando Sentinel, published in Spin Magazine, The World and now published here, Orlando Magazine, Autoweek Magazine
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