After Disney’s slouchy box office earnings for the live-action “Snow White,” the future of the studio’s live-action genre looked grim.
“Snow White,” which cost Disney nearly $400 million to produce and market, earned back just $87 million in domestic ticket sales, per Box Office Mojo. Reviews for the film — which the Guardian called “toe-curlingly terrible” — were just as bleak. “Snow White” was an all-around flop.
Less than two months later, Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch” made a record-breaking debut, earning more than $145 million in domestic ticket sales during its weekend debut, per Comscore.
“Lilo & Stitch” is now one of Disney’s highest-earning live-action remake debuts, behind only 2019’s “The Lion King” ($191 million) and 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast” ($174 million).
Now, “Lilo & Stitch” has made more than $284 million in ticket sales, making it the second highest earning movie of the year so far, per Box Office Mojo.
The bulk of live-action remakes receive lukewarm reviews from critics. “Lilo & Stitch” was no different, but it was still a box office success for Disney. “Snow White” was neither.
Here are five ingredients that promote box office success for live-action remake movies.
Nostalgia-backed material
The bulk of the most successful live-action adaptations —“Aladdin,” “The Lion King” and “Beauty and the Beast” — are based on 1990s and early 2000s animated Disney movies.
Many of the original fans of these more modern animated classics are now adults with young children of their own, and their nostalgia for movies like “Lilo & Stitch” drives them to bring their kids to the live-action remake.
Of the audiences who showed up for “Lilo & Stitch” over opening weekend, 79% were part of the under-35 crowd, as reported by Deadline.
On the other hand, box-office flops like “Snow White,” “Pete’s Dragon” and “Dumbo” are based on dustier property: animated movies that came out when seniors were kids (the animated “Snow White” was released in 1937). With less connection to these movies, parents of young children are less motivated to show up.
“‘Lilo & Stitch’ is more proof that turn-of-the-century nostalgia is having a moment,” Shawn Robbins, Fandango’s director of movie analytics, told Variety. “Millennial and Gen Z audiences turned out in great numbers for (what is) now a budding generational classic.”
“It’s inevitable that Disney will venture into more remakes of its modern library,” Robbins added. ‘”Lilo & Stitch’ has certainly set a strong precedent, though.”
A large, enduring fanbase
A large, pre-existing fanbase also supports higher chances of box office success.
Love for the dog-like extraterrestrial character Stitch, who was introduced to audiences in 2002, never dwindled. Of almost 20,000 online Disney franchise communities, “Lilo & Stitch” has made the top 20 for the past five years, according to data from Fandom shared with the Los Angeles Times.
Viewership of the “Lilo & Stitch” franchise on Disney+ has grown “significantly” every year, studio insiders shared with Variety. The franchise has racked up more than half a billion hours in streams.
Stitch merchandise, such as pillows, plush toys, collectable figures and other items, generated $2.5 billion in sales in 2024, per Vulture.
Richard North, the chief executive of Wow! Stuff said Stitch has “been the biggest, broadest, all-encompassing demographic for a toy, I think, that we’ve ever created,” per the New York Times.
Blend actors and CGI
Live-action remakes that blend live actors and sets with CGI-based characters are more apt to maintain the magical elements audiences love about animated classics.
In remakes such as “101 Dalmatians” and “Snow White” — which rely heavily on actors aside from a few CGI characters — a lot of the fantasy elements are lost.
“Live-action films that place an animal or fantasy creature in live-action settings are really hybrids,” said David A. Gross, who publishes an entertainment-industry newsletter, per Vulture. “They combine fantasy creatures and human characters in realistic settings and that opens up the storytelling visually. It stretches the imagination and makes the spectacle bigger and funnier.”
“Animated fairy tales are not translating to live action well because retelling those stories diminishes the fantasy,” Gross continued. “It makes the stories smaller. The emotional range is narrower and less expressive. They’re struggling right now.”
Strategic release date
Box office competition, or counterprogramming, can propel ticket sales.
Two contrasting films with the same — or close — release dates can bolster enthusiasm around going to the theater. In summer 2023, the shared release date of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” brought in combined earnings of $244 million domestically opening weekend, as previously reported by the Deseret News.
“Not a novelty nor a flash in the pan, counterprogramming works for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the baked-in marketing hook that such a matchup provides,” senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Variety.
The release of Disney’s highest-grossing live-action remake, “The Lion King,” was sandwiched between Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” and mega-director Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.” All three were among the top five highest-earning movies in July 2019.
“Lilo & Stitch” was also pinned against some healthy competition, sharing a release date with “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning." Together, the films fueled a record-breaking Memorial Day weekend for ticket sales.
Safe, non-controversial updates
Make a shot-for-shot remake, and fans will call the live-action project worthless. Make too many alterations, particularly progressive changes, and fans might boycott — as seen with Disney’s controversy-shrouded live-action “Snow White.”
“Lilo & Stitch” walked a fine line in terms of changes made to the live-action flick. Many of the modifications, such as the new ending, upset fans, per The Hollywood Reporter. But the film stayed faithful enough to the original to keep out of controversial territory.
The safest, most successful updates to live-action happen when writers return to an original text, which an animated film is based on, such as “Cinderella” or “Jungle Book.” Or when additional backstory or musical numbers are built upon storylines from the original, such as telling the story behind the death of Belle’s mother in “Beauty and the Beast.”
“The most difficult part was both honoring the original animated film and also giving it its own identity,” the “Beauty and the Beast” producer David Hoberman told The Hollywood Reporter at the time.
He added, “But there’s also a lot you can get away with in animation that you can’t get away with in live-action.”