It's been an amazing year for movies, and we still have the full fall slate and award season left to watch in theaters and on streaming services. There have already been so many great movies that became blockbusters and new fan-favorite staples, like Thunderbolts*, Superman, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps — and those are just the superhero movies we loved this year!
This summer especially featured some great hits, from Freakier Friday to Weapons, and boasted an exciting return to Jurassic Park with the smash sequel Jurassic World Rebirth. There was also plenty of nostalgia to go around, and not just with the Freaky Friday sequel, but with the new reboot-sequel hybrid for the '90s slasher I Know What You Did Last Summer and a fresh take on The Naked Gun.
See? We have been spoiled rotten with great movies this year, and there are still lots more to come before the year ends. But it's time to relive one of the year's biggest box office successes as 2025's most bankable movie finally made its arrival on streaming for us all to watch again!
Lilo & Stitch live-action makes streaming debut on Disney Plus (and tops the charts!)
Disney's live-action/animated hybrid Lilo & Stitch remake has finally landed on Disney Plus, and even though the sci-fi comedy created some discourse following its May 2025 theatrical release, the new movie shot straight to the peak of the streamer's charts. The remake film premiered on Disney Plus on Wednesday, Sept. 3 and soared to the No. 1 position on the platform's top 10 most popular movies and shows ranking. As if we doubted the power of that lovable blue alien!
From the moment the live-action remake film was announced, fans who grew up with the original 2002 animated Lilo & Stitch movie doubted that Disney could capture the magic of the story and its characters. The long wait for the movie, from the reveal of its development in 2018 to its big-screen release in 2025, allowed time for nostalgia to build. While there were some criticisms of the new movie's changes, its financial success ensured that it's the biggest US movie of 2025.
Lilo & Stitch (2025) topped out its box office run with a worldwide gross of just over $1 billion, making it the only movie from the United States to hit and exceed the billion mark. It's the second highest-grossing movie of the year and the highest-grossing American film of the year. The movie also become the highest-grossing live-action/animated hybrid film, which is a unique and very specific statistic, but it's just more proof of just how successful the remake was with audiences.
The remake far eclipsed the $273.1 million gross of the original animated movie, but there's one way the new iteration couldn't overtake the original. Lilo & Stitch (2002) holds an 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while the live-action remake holds a 72% rating from critics. (Viewers liked the remake a lot more than critics, as the movie boasts a 92% fan score on Rotten Tomatoes.) It's a big win for Disney, too, especially after the unfortunate falter with this year's live-action Snow White.
Lilo & Stitch's billion-dollar gross allowed Disney to quickly announce about one month after the movie hit theaters that a sequel is now in development. The original movie also had the sequels and spinoff titles Stitch! The Movie, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, Lilo & Stitch: The Series, and Leroy & Stitch, though these were direct-to-video or television releases. It's currently unclear if the upcoming sequel will lean on the narratives of any of the past animated offshoots.
There's still lots of excitement in store for the future, but that will all come in due time. Right now, we can watch and rewatch Lilo & Stitch's live-action remake since its now streaming on Disney Plus!