LAIKA's WILDWOOD is a Box Office Bomb and Audiences Are Failing Great Movies

This is heartbreaking. LAIKA's Wildwood is one of the best movies of 2026, an absolutely incredible achievement in stop-motion animation, and audiences aren't showing up to support it.

I was in awe of what this movie delivered, and I was hoping people would turn out in droves to experience it on the big screen. Instead, we're talking about another box office flop, and I'm so damn tired of seeing great movies suffer this fate.

This is exactly the kind of movie Hollywood needs more of. It's imaginative, beautifully crafted, ambitious, and unlike anything else playing in theaters. Yet here we are, watching another incredible piece of filmmaking struggle financially while studios continue feeding audiences endless sequels, reboots, and recycled ideas.

Directed by Travis Knight, who previously helmed Kubo and the Two Strings and this year's Masters of the Universe, Wildwood opened with just $12.2 million domestically, landing in third place. It finished behind You Can See Everything, which earned $19.5 million in its second weekend, and DC's R-rated Clayface, which topped the box office with $24 million.

Those numbers are especially painful considering Wildwood reportedly cost around $100 million to produce, before marketing expenses. A $12.2 million opening weekend puts the film in a terrible financial position, and it's going to take something extraordinary for it to recover.

What's frustrating is that Wildwood isn't struggling because it's a bad movie. Quite the opposite. It's one of the most acclaimed films of the year.

The movie currently holds an incredible 99% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes from 123 reviews, along with a 97% audience score and an A CinemaScore. Critics love it. Audiences who actually bought tickets love it. The problem is that not nearly enough people are buying those tickets.

Based on the fantasy novel by Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis, Wildwood follows Prue McKeel, voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee, as she ventures into a mysterious forest outside Portland to rescue her kidnapped baby brother.

What unfolds is a visually stunning fantasy adventure that demonstrates just how spectacular stop-motion animation can be when artists are given the freedom to create something extraordinary.

LAIKA has already given us incredible films like Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, and The Boxtrolls, but I genuinely believe Wildwood is the studio's crowning achievement.

The artistry on display is astonishing, and knowing how much work goes into creating these worlds frame by frame makes the experience even more impressive.

So why aren't people showing up? There are a few possible explanations. For starters, Wildwood isn't your typical animated family movie. It carries a PG-13 rating and runs 131 minutes, which makes it a tougher sell for parents looking to take younger children to the movies.

Most mainstream animated releases are shorter and designed to appeal to the broadest possible family audience.

It's also competing in a crowded theatrical marketplace, and stop-motion animation has historically been a difficult sell compared to traditional computer-animated blockbusters.

But damn it, none of that makes this any less frustrating. We've already watched critically acclaimed movies struggle to find large theatrical audiences this year. Great reviews simply aren't enough anymore, and that's a serious problem for filmmakers who want to take creative risks.

LAIKA knows this struggle better than most. The studio has spent years producing incredible animated films that deserve much bigger audiences than they've received.

Coraline eventually became a financial success, but it took 15 years to get there. The movie originally earned $127 million worldwide during its 2009 theatrical run against a $60 million budget. Thanks to its enduring popularity and subsequent theatrical re-releases, its worldwide total has grown to $188 million.

Other LAIKA productions haven't been nearly as fortunate. The Boxtrolls earned $108 million worldwide against a $60 million budget, while Kubo and the Two Strings brought in just $76 million on a similar budget. Then there's Missing Link, which cost around $100 million and earned a disastrous $26 million worldwide.

These are expensive movies that require years of painstaking work, and their financial struggles make it increasingly difficult to justify producing more of them.

That's what worries me most about Wildwood. When an original film of this caliber fails at the box office, Hollywood executives don't necessarily look at the situation and ask how they can better support ambitious filmmaking. They look at the numbers and decide that taking creative chances isn't worth the risk.

So what do we get instead? An endless stream of sequels, reboots, and the same regurgitated shit Hollywood keeps churning out because studios know audiences are more likely to show up for something familiar than take a chance on something new.

I hate that we're here. I hate that we're even having this conversation.

Movies like Wildwood should be celebrated and supported, especially when they're this damn good. We constantly hear people complain that Hollywood doesn't make enough original movies anymore, but when something special arrives, too many people wait until it's available to stream.

I understand that going to the movies is expensive, and not everyone can make it to the theater. But theatrical attendance matters, especially for studios like LAIKA that are trying to keep this incredible art form alive.

There is still some hope. With such overwhelmingly positive reviews and audience reactions, Wildwood could develop strong word of mouth and enjoy a longer theatrical run. International ticket sales could help, and the movie already looks like a serious contender for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars.

It's also likely to find a much larger audience when it eventually arrives on digital platforms and streaming services, just as Coraline did over the years.

Unfortunately, with a reported $100 million production budget and such a disappointing opening weekend, Wildwood has an enormous financial mountain to climb. Even strong streaming performance and awards recognition might not be enough to make it profitable anytime soon.

I really hope this movie eventually gets the recognition and financial success it deserves, because the alternative is depressing.

We need studios like LAIKA. We need filmmakers like Knight who are willing to pour years of their lives into creating something original and visually spectacular. We need movies that remind us why we fell in love with cinema in the first place.

If audiences don't support these films, we're going to see fewer of them. Hollywood will have another excuse to play it safe, and the filmmakers who want to create something different will have an even harder time getting their projects made.

That's a heartbreaking shame, especially when the movie we're talking about is easily one of the year's best.

Wildwood is in theaters now. Go see it! Seriously, this is a movie worth experiencing on the big screen. Support great filmmaking while you still have the chance, because I'd hate to see a future where movies like this simply stop getting made.