When Will the Live Action ‘Lilo & Stitch’ Be on Disney Plus?

After fans patiently waited, the live-action version of the popular 2002 Disney animated film, Lilo & Stitch, was finally released during the Memorial Day weekend to record box office numbers. Despite being in theaters for less than a week, fans are already anticipating when they can watch it on Disney+.

Lilo & Stitch stars young newcomer Maia Kealoha in her feature film debut and writer-director Chris Sanders reprising his voice role as Stitch from the animated version.

Based on the streaming release model of other films in its library, fans can expect for Lilo & Stitch to be available to watch on Disney+ just a few months after its worldwide theatrical release.

Per Forbes, Lilo & Stitch will likely arrive on the streaming platform three months after it was released in theaters, making for a late August or early September premiere on Disney+.

However, for those who don’t want to wait that long, the film will be available to buy or rent digitally during a much earlier time frame, specifically about 45 to 65 days — meaning that the earliest fans could watch the film from the comfort of their homes would be on July 7, according to the outlet.

During the four-day Memorial Day weekend, which is known in Hollywood as the official start of the summer movie season, Lilo & Stitch was a massive hit just as industry experts anticipated it would be.

The film topped the box office with $183 million domestically during the long weekend and racked up $341 million worldwide. These figures make it the sixth highest-grossing opening of the year, according to Deadline.

In an exclusive interview with Deadline, the film’s director Dean Fleischer Camp spoke about the 2025 version. “It’s always been my favorite Disney animated film, and it’s always been the one that I felt like I could do a live-action adaptation of because when I saw the original in theaters and it didn’t look like any other animated Disney movie I’d ever seen,” he said.

“The characters felt so authentic and a little rough around the edges in a way that I now know is the influence of Chris Sanders’s actual, original art style,” Dean continued. “But at the time, I just thought, wow, this is such a different look for a Disney movie."

He also shared the vision behind the film highlighting a modern family dynamic. “I think that was one of the things that we talked about, thematically modernizing and updating for this live-action version was broadening the idea of Ohana and complicating it with a little more nuance,” Camp told the outlet.

“It just felt like the right thing to do,” he added. “Given that Nani, who I always felt was a little too rose-colored glasses for somebody in her situation, was so smart and has had to abandon a lot of these dreams or defer them because she had to take care of her little sister and inherited all this responsibility at such a young age.”