Get ready, a live-action “Lilo & Stitch 2” is a go at Disney.
The studio tapped its favorite blue alien experiment to share the news Thursday on social media. Fans of the film associate June 26 — or 6/26 — with Stitch, who is known as Experiment 626 until Lilo gives him a real name.
The announcement is unsurprising. The live-action adaptation directed by Dean Fleischer Camp has so far grossed more than $914 million worldwide since its opening over Memorial Day weekend in May. It’s on track to become the first movie of the year to surpass $1 billion at the global box office.
The announcement, which features Stitch taking a joyride in a pink convertible through Walt Disney Studios, is basically a victory lap. (The live-action “Snow White,” which was also released earlier this year, grossed just $205.7 million worldwide.)
Stitch is also one of Disney’s most popular characters. The chaotic and cute alien introduced in the 2002 animated “Lilo & Stitch” ranks among the top-selling Disney franchises. While the original film was a modest box office success — grossing about $275 million worldwide — it also spawned a follow-up animated TV series and a couple of direct-to-video sequels. (Audiences will have to wait and see whether the live-action sequel will be based on 2005’s “Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch.”)
“Lilo & Stitch” centers on the friendship forged between Lilo, an orphaned young Hawaiian girl being raised by her older sister, and Stitch, an aggressive and destructive illegal alien experiment who escapes to Earth. Although it has been positively received by audiences, the live-action remake earned lukewarm reviews from critics. In a review for The Times, Carlos Aguilar wrote the film was “less vibrant and proficiently pleasant” and suggested viewers “revisit the superior hand-drawn version.”
“Lilo & Stitch’s” success comes at a time when original films — including animated movies like Pixar’s “Elio” — are struggling at the box office. Studios have turned to mining familiar and reliable past successes for remakes and sequels. DreamWorks’ live-action adaptation of “How to Train Your Dragon,” for instance, has earned more than $371 million worldwide since hitting theaters earlier this month.
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