Laika’s stop-motion feature Wildwood opened in third place at the North American box office with $12.27 million, according to updated weekend figures. The Wildwood box office debut came from the October 23 to 25 weekend, when the film played in about 2,600 theaters. It trailed Clayface at $24 million and You Can See Everything at $19.5 million, but it beat the more cautious estimates that had circulated before release.
Directed by Travis Knight, Wildwood is based on the 2011 fantasy novel by writer Colin Meloy and artist Carson Ellis. Peyton Elizabeth Lee plays Prue McKeel, a young girl who sets off into the forests outside Portland to find her kidnapped infant brother. Jacob Tremblay, Angela Bassett, Carey Mulligan and Mahershala Ali are also in the voice cast. The film runs 132 minutes and carries a PG-13 rating.
Wildwood box office figures in full
The Wildwood box office total reached $15.17 million worldwide, with $2.9 million from international markets added to the domestic figure. Early reports had put the domestic opening near $11.6 million, but later figures raised the three day total to $12.27 million. Rentrak estimates had put the worldwide figure at $14.7 million using the earlier domestic number, and swapping in the updated figure brings the total to about $15.2 million. More international markets will get the film in the coming weeks.
The opening more than doubled the $5.9 million debut of Missing Link in 2019, Laika’s previous feature, and came close to the $12.6 million start of Kubo and the Two Strings in 2016. Distributor Fathom Entertainment also pointed to similar starts for Migration at $12.5 million and The Bob’s Burgers Movie at $12.4 million. The Wildwood box office comparisons say little on their own about where Wildwood ends up, since some films hold their audience for weeks while others fade fast. Laika films have often benefited from extended runs.
Wildwood box office test against a $100m budget
The harder question for the Wildwood box office run is the film’s reported production cost of about $100 million before marketing. A $12.27 million opening leaves a long road to covering that sum from ticket sales alone, and several commentators have called the debut a disappointment on that measure. The film’s backers will look to a long run, home viewing and overseas openings to close the gap. Animated films aimed at families often play for weeks, which gives Wildwood more time than a typical opening weekend suggests.
What the film has in its favor is the response from people who did see it. Wildwood holds a 99 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes from 123 reviews, along with a 97 percent audience score and an A grade from CinemaScore. Critics have praised the handcrafted stop-motion work, and audiences who bought tickets rated it highly. The gap between that response and the size of the opening is the story of the weekend for Laika.
Laika returns after seven years away
Wildwood is Laika’s sixth animated feature and its first release in seven years. The Portland studio built its name on Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings, films that earned loyal followings after modest starts. The new film took years to make, and fans had waited for it since it was first talked about last year. The Wildwood box office arrival was treated in parts of the industry as a test of whether audiences still turn out for handcrafted animation on the big screen.
The weekend chart around it showed a mixed market. Clayface led with $24 million, You Can See Everything took $19.5 million in second, and Wildwood followed in third. Street Fighter fell to $8.6 million in fourth, down 72 percent from its debut. The Wildwood box office position in third kept it ahead of Wicker, which opened in fifth with $5.75 million. For Laika, third place was a respectable start that still left the film’s finances unresolved.
Attention now turns to the film’s second weekend and its openings in further overseas markets. A gentle second weekend drop would signal the kind of run Laika films have enjoyed before, while a steep fall would confirm the harder readings of the debut. The studio has not announced any change to its release plans. The Wildwood box office tally stands at $15.17 million worldwide, with more territories still to open.