‘Wildwood’ Is Holding Strong at the Box Office, but Laika’s Biggest Gamble Still Faces a Steep Climb

Stop-motion animation has always lived in a precarious corner of Hollywood. The format is painstaking, expensive and slow, and it rarely produces the kind of overnight sensations that computer-animated rivals manage. Later Laika releases faced diminishing returns, with ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ grossing $77 million globally and ‘Missing Link’ bringing in only $26 million against a comparable $100 million budget.

Into that landscape stepped Laika’s ‘Wildwood’, a fantasy epic that critics have embraced with unusual warmth. After a six-year production process, the film is being hailed as the most ambitious ever from Laika and for all of stop-motion, with critics calling it the best animated film of the year. The money side of the story, though, has been far less storybook.

The film opened to roughly $12 million, landing in third place. That start was decent but not as strong as the studio would have liked, and strong reviews have yet to translate into blockbuster returns. Still, the second weekend offered a flicker of hope.

‘Wildwood’ took third place again in its second weekend after adding 150 screens, bringing its footprint to 3,100 theaters in the U.S. and Canada. It earned $7.5 million that weekend, during a Halloween frame that pulled audiences away from theaters on Saturday. That set the stage for a closely watched third outing.

Now the latest numbers are in. According to ToonHive, ‘Wildwood’ has reached $47.5 million at the worldwide box office after earning $7 million in its third domestic weekend, a drop of just 22% from the previous weekend. The film’s domestic total stands at $39.8 million, while the overall worldwide haul sits at $47.5 million.

That is a better result than many expected. Heading into the weekend, the film had already grossed $32.8 million domestically, and it had reached the top of the box office on a Tuesday during its second week. A 22% dip is the kind of hold that suggests real word of mouth, especially for a film that never had a splashy opening to lean on.

The trouble is the price tag. ToonHive notes the film carries a $100M budget, and that figure has been echoed widely. Laika hasn’t disclosed the budget, but it has been widely reported at about $100 million, more than Illumination spent on ‘Minions & Monsters’ at $85 million or DreamWorks spent on ‘Forgotten Island’ at $80 million. At $47.5 million worldwide, the film has covered less than half of that reported cost.

Even that comparison understates the challenge, since theaters keep a significant share of ticket sales and studios rarely see the full gross. In practical terms, ‘Wildwood’ needs a long, patient run to approach theatrical profitability. Its steady holds are encouraging, but the film is still a long way from the finish line.

There is also the matter of how Laika sustains this kind of ambition. Fortune reports that the real fuel keeping Laika’s puppets moving is Nike co-founder Phil Knight. Few studios could afford to spend this much on a handcrafted film without a backer willing to play the long game.

That context matters because the industry conversation around ‘Wildwood’ has often been framed as a verdict on whether stop-motion can survive at this scale. Some commentators insist the film is worth watching regardless of its box office, calling it stunning from beginning to end. Fans on social media have said much the same, urging friends and families to see it on the big screen.

Competition has also been a factor. The film has spent its run alongside ‘You Can See Everything’, which topped one weekend with $10.6 million in its third weekend of release, and the DC Studios release ‘Clayface’. Cooling attendance across the market has not helped anyone, either.

For now, the story of ‘Wildwood’ is one of quiet resilience rather than runaway success. The film is not breaking records, but it is not collapsing either, and its slim weekend-to-weekend declines show an audience that keeps finding it. Whether that is enough to turn a critical darling into a financial survivor will depend on how well it plays through the weeks ahead.