Acclaimed ‘Wildwood’ Passes a Box Office Mark LAIKA Fans Hoped to Avoid

LAIKA has long been the animation studio that critics adore and general audiences tend to overlook. The company’s stop-motion movies, from ‘Coraline’ to ‘ParaNorman’, have never really been big draws at the box office. Even so, the studio’s loyal fanbase has proven it can show up when the moment feels special.

That was clear in 2024, when a successful re-release of ‘Coraline’ grossed over $52 million worldwide and lifted the film’s lifetime take to $188 million. The rerun also gave LAIKA a rare dose of momentum heading into its next big swing, ‘Wildwood’.

That swing was a massive one. ‘Wildwood’ is the company’s biggest production to date, following a 15-year development, and at 131 minutes it is the longest stop-motion film ever made. Travis Knight’s feature, led by Carey Mulligan, Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Jacob Tremblay, follows a teen girl who ventures into an enchanted forest to save her baby brother.

Now the numbers are in motion, and they tell a complicated story. ToonHive reports that ‘Wildwood’ has crossed $35 million globally against a budget of $100 million, a total that surpasses ‘Missing Link’ and makes it LAIKA’s second-lowest-grossing film. The figure lines up with the latest tallies, as Deadline reports a running worldwide cume of $35.8M, made up of $25M domestic and $10M overseas.

The comparison point matters. ‘Missing Link’ finished with $26.5 million worldwide after a $5.9 million opening in 2019. In other words, ‘Wildwood’ has cleared the studio’s previous low-water mark, but it has done so while carrying a far heavier price tag.

That price tag is the real problem. The film carries a reported $100 million production budget, and building a substantial theatrical run from a modest opening will take more than one decent hold. With that budget coming before marketing costs, SlashFilm argued that an opening of this size was not going to get the job done.

The film’s start was not a disaster by LAIKA standards. ‘Wildwood’ took third place on its opening weekend, and the debut nearly doubled the opening of ‘Missing Link’. Variety noted it launched above projections of $6 million to $8 million, with sterling reviews and an A grade on CinemaScore.

Word of mouth has also helped it hold up. ‘Wildwood’ held at No. 3 with $7.5 million in its second weekend, a 39% drop. That is a respectable hold, roughly in line with earlier LAIKA releases.

The international rollout is still unfolding, which leaves some room for the totals to grow. The film expanded to 36 new international territories over the weekend, bringing its release to 47 countries, with more than two dozen markets still to open over the coming weeks and months. It opened at No. 1 in Sweden and has pulled in $3.7M in the UK.

Still, the math remains daunting. World of Reel says it likely won’t come close to breaking even. Geeks and Gamers projects a final worldwide total of only around $47.9 million. Those are outside projections rather than studio figures, but they show how steep the climb looks.

For fans, that is a frustrating place to land for a film many are calling the studio’s finest work. ‘Wildwood’ holds a 100 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has earned Oscar buzz. The bigger question is whether awards season and continued international rollout can give it the second life that ‘Coraline’ once found.