Laika Faces Another Rough Weekend Despite Rave Reviews For Its Latest Stop-Motion Epic
Stop-motion animation occupies a sacred yet precarious corner of Hollywood. In today’s volatile theatrical marketplace, independent animation studios face immense financial headwinds when trying to translate obsessive handmade craft into mainstream box office success. Few studios know that tension better than Laika.
Laika is the beloved animation studio behind stop-motion movies like “Coraline” and “ParaNorman,” yet its movies have never really been big draws at the box office. Even the studio’s biggest recent win came from nostalgia: the 2009 favorite ‘Coraline’ passed $51M globally after its 15th anniversary re-release.
That history made the studio’s latest swing a closely watched one. ‘Wildwood’ was first announced back in 2021, and it is Laika’s first stop-motion film in seven years, following a teen girl who rescues her baby brother from a flock of crows. Critics were charmed, too: reviewers hailed it as the best animated film of the year with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.
The opening weekend numbers, though, tell a more sobering story. According to a post from DiscussingFilm on X, ‘Wildwood’ opened with $11M domestically, making it the second lowest opening for a Laika film. That puts it ahead of only one title in the studio’s catalog.
The film that still holds the bottom spot is ‘Missing Link.’ That 2019 release opened to $5.9 million, finished near $26.5 million worldwide, and carried a reported budget of $102 million. ‘Wildwood’ clears that bar, but not by the kind of margin a film this expensive needs.
Still, $11M did land inside the range analysts had sketched out. Box Office Pro’s long range forecast pegged the opening at $10M to $15M, while Box Office Theory had it eyeing a debut between $5 and $10 million. The result sits at the low end of the optimistic forecast and above the pessimistic one.
The financial math is where things get tricky. ToonHive, citing Box Office Pro, noted an estimated $100M budget, which means ‘Wildwood’ will need a long theatrical life to approach profitability. That likely requires an outsized turnout overseas, unusually long legs beyond opening weekend, or both.
The release strategy added its own wrinkles. Laika set the nationwide opening for October 23, with Fathom Entertainment handling a full theatrical release across the United States. Boxoffice Pro noted that Fathom has less of a history launching full theatrical runs than Laika’s earlier distribution partners, which made screen counts hard to predict.
Other factors may have capped the film’s ceiling. One analysis noted that a lengthy runtime means multiplexes can offer fewer showings, and the film is the first Laika release to receive a PG-13 rating. That combination makes it a tougher sell for the family audiences that usually power animated openings.
The competition did not help. ‘Wildwood’ opened directly against DC Studios’ horror film ‘Clayface’, a weekend where ‘Wildwood’ was billed as the only family-friendly pick. That distinction may matter more in the coming weeks, once word of mouth has time to work.
There is some precedent for a comeback. ‘Migration’ overcame its rough $12.4 million opening to reach $300.1 million worldwide, although that run came with far less seasonal baggage than an October release. For Laika, the hope now is that its glowing reviews do what its marketing could not.
