Wildwood's Opening Weekend Takes $11.2 Million
Laika fans are a patient lot. It's been a whole seven years since their last film, Missing Link, and they have been awaiting their next film, Wildwood, since it was first announced. It had actually been in production long before the public was made aware of it, and it actually took 15 years to reach the screen. Now Wildwood is finally here. How is it faring at the box office?
Wildwood arrived on a wave of hype. The film had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, from which emerged a tsunami of positive reviews. It achieved a rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Of course, that only includes critics who are registered with RT, and outside of that, the film did receive at least one negative review. Perhaps more importantly, the audience liked it too, and the film received an A Cinemascore.
Coraline was Laika's first film (not counting The Corpse Bride, which they co-produced) and is also still their biggest grossing. It earned over $75 million initially, and even more via three subsequent re-releases. From ParaNorman to Missing Link, each successive film has made less than the last, with the latter topping out at just $16 million. Can Wildwood halt the decline?
It's too early to say, but its opening was moderately successful and is described as "a promising start". Wildwood has debuted at third place in the US box office chart. It is behind DC Studios comic-book villain horror Clayface at number one, and the documentary phenomenon You Can See Everything at number two. The film took in $11.2 million in its opening weekend, with $4.3 million on Friday. It beat projections, which had it topping out at $6 million to $8 million. Wildwood additionally took a disappointing $3 million from international markets. The film also opened in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Italy, apparently not making much of a dent in any of those countries.
So the film is off to a better start than some of Laika's other releases. But you have to bear in mind that Wildwood has a reported price tag of $100 million- the sort of budget normally only seen in animation in a Disney or Pixar film. The only way this is coming anywhere close to making back its budget is if it turns out to have serious legs. The reviews and word-of-mouth could be enough to shield it against having much of a drop in its second week. If it hangs around the chart long enough, it could turn out to be a moderate hit. It pretty much has the family market to itself until Hexed comes out in a month. Alternatively, it could turn out to be front-loaded, with all the Laika fans rushing to see it in the opening week. Then we could see a disastrous drop-off. Either scenario is possible.
Why isn't it a bigger hit if everyone says it's so good? Laika has always been a bit more niche than the major studios. American audiences in general don't seem to have the same affection for stop-motion as other countries, most notably the UK, where Aardman are a national institution. A certain section of the audience outright hates it, describing it as "creepy". Could the PG-13 rating (or 12A in the UK) have also hurt its chances? It cuts off the younger audiences and may put parents off. Some adult audiences will still baulk at the idea of going to see a "cartoon." While the film's release was well anticipated by animation fans and film buffs, how well was it known among general audiences? Marketing outside these groups has seemed distinctly muted, buried under an avalanche of ads for Clayface. There is certainly no Wildwood Happy Meal.
So what does it mean for the future of Laika? There's a perception among fans that the studio is an underdog, a special precious thing that needs protection. But the reality is, it's kept afloat by one of the richest men on the face of the Earth. Nike billionaire Phil Knight is the Dad of Laika CEO Travis Knight (who directed Wildwood). He essentially funds his son's passion, which is why box office isn't so important to Laika, and they can concentrate on the art. Travis Knight has only directed four films: Kubo and The Two Strings, Wildwood, Bumblebee and Masters Of The Universe. Only Bumblebee was a success, which would probably land anyone else in Director Jail. So he may be a nepobaby. But he's also extraordinarily talented so noone really cares.
In other words? They're going to be just fine, even if Wildwood bombs. They have multiple projects in production, planned for years ahead.
Wildwood is already gaining buzz as the front-runner for Best Animated Feature at the 2027 Oscars, BAFTAs and other major awards. Even if it makes less than half what Toy Story 5 or The Super Mario Galaxy Movie made, it's likely to be remembered as a more significant piece of animation history. It maybe was never going to be the biggest animated movie of the year, but it might just be the most important.
Wildwoood is in cinemas now. A 4K steelbook edition UHD, Blu-Ray and DVD are already available to preorder, but no release date has been announced yet.
