Laika’s ‘Wildwood’ Opens Near ‘Kubo’ With $12.2 Million As Strong Audience Scores Offer Hope For Long Legs

Travis Knight’s Wildwood opened with $12.2 million domestically over the October 23–25 weekend, according to distributor Fathom Entertainment. That total, while hardly blockbuster business, did outpace many of the industry’s more cautious estimates.

Laika’s PG-13 stop-motion feature ranked third behind Clayface ($24 million) and You Can See Everything ($19.5 million), averaging $4,162 per theater across the 2,942 locations reported by Fathom.

For context, among the studio’s previous domestic releases, Wildwood more than doubled Missing Link’s $5.9 million opening in 2019 and came close to Kubo and the Two Strings’ $12.6 million debut in 2016. In its box office report, Fathom also points to similar starts for Migration ($12.5 million) and the PG-13 The Bob’s Burgers Movie ($12.4 million), though comparable openings alone say little about eventual profitability. Some movies have better legs than others, and Laika’s films have often benefited from extended runs.

Worldwide, Rentrak’s estimates put Wildwood at $14.7 million, ranking fourth over the weekend. That figure includes an $11.8 million domestic estimate rather than Fathom’s revised total. Substituting the updated domestic figure would bring the worldwide tally to approximately $15.2 million, assuming the international estimate remains unchanged. Additional international markets will get the film over the coming weeks.

Audience response during exit polling offers reason for optimism. Fathom reports an A CinemaScore and five-star Rentrak exit polling, alongside a Sunday decline of just 13% from Saturday. Those are promising early indicators, but one weekend doesn’t establish a film’s staying power. Against a reported $100 million production budget, Wildwood has a long way to go toward theatrical profitability.

That said, Laika has more room than many producers to take the long view. Backed by the biollionaire Knight family, the studio has built an enduring audience for its films. Merchandise, licensing, events, and theatrical rereleases provide opportunities to keep earning well beyond an initial run, even if their contribution to individual films’ profitability isn’t publicly known.

The clearest example is Coraline, whose 2024 rerelease generated $52.4 million worldwide, 15 years after its original debut. That doesn’t guarantee a similar future for Wildwood, but it demonstrates why opening-weekend receipts tell only part of the story for Laika.