Laika’s $100 million stop-motion film opens to $12 million — and the industry holds its breath.
Wildwood’s $12 million opening isn’t a failure. It’s a warning. The film, Laika’s latest stop-motion labor of love, landed at No. 3 this weekend with $7.5 million over the second frame, bringing its domestic total to $25 million and global haul to $35 million. That’s against a reported $100 million budget.
The numbers don’t lie — but they’re not the whole story. This is about survival. Not just for Laika, but for an entire way of making movies. One that still uses puppets, sets built by hand, and animators who move figures inch by inch.
There are no backup studios. Tippett Studio shut down last year. Laika is it. And it’s barely breathing.
Travis Knight, son of Phil Knight and CEO of the studio, spent seven years on Wildwood, building 231 puppets and 136 physical sets. The film earned an A CinemaScore and a 99% Rotten Tomatoes score. Audiences saw it. They liked it.
But they didn’t come in enough numbers. The movie opened behind DC’s Clayface and a documentary nobody can stop talking about, which says something about what Hollywood values now. The Academy could change that. With only three animated films ever nominated for best picture, and none since Toy Story 3, the Oscars have long treated animation as a side lane.
But Wildwood isn’t just a movie. It’s a plea. One Academy member called it ‘transporting’, reminded them of ’80s films where kids weren’t talked down to. Where difficult truths were told.
That’s rare. That’s human. That’s why the studio exists. Why it keeps going.
Because someone has to champion the craft. Someone has to vote. Someone has to buy a ticket. If not, stop-motion won’t be a choice.
It’ll be a memory. And the next time you see a puppet move, you might wonder: was that real? Or just code?
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