The Love for ‘Wildwood’ Keeps on Growing

Wildwood came out near the end of October, which ended up being a surprisingly busy period. Instead of getting lost in the shuffle, the latest Laika flick has been holding on, and even gained some decent momentum. Recent box office returns put the film at almost $70 million ahead of its third weekend. For reference, it opened to $14.6 million worldwide (and landed third place domestically behind Clayface and You Can See Everything). From then through this past Tuesday (November 11), it’s grossed an additional $60 million worldwide and held steady despite being in fewer theaters and declining box office in the 20-25% range. Even so, making over $40 million domestic has already turned Wildwood into the biggest theatrical film engagement for distributor Fathom Entertainment. Compared to other Laika films, it’s outgrossed the entirety of 2019’s Missing Link and is currently in touching distance of 2017’s Kubo & the Two Strings (Wildwood and Kubo share a connection in CEO Travis Knight, who made his directorial debut with the latter). In a statement, Laika marketing chief David Burke noted the film’s rarity as “PG-13 fantasy told in stop-motion. That’s part of Wildwood’s appeal, and it’s also why a recommendation from someone who’s seen it carries so much weight. What’s encouraging about this third weekend is that audiences are now making the case for the film in their own words.” On the first part, Burke is right; there’s not many animated PG-13 movies hitting theaters (or really, at all) these days, and Wildwood’s not afraid to fully lean into that rating. Beyond the shock of seeing people explicitly die, though, just being Laika’s first movie in a while and explicitly different from other mainstream animated movies definitely helps—and however it ultimately does, it’ll hopefully show studios they can try aiming higher tonally. Want more io9 news? Check out the best movies and TV shows to stream this month and all the upcoming sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books that should be on your radar.