Laika's Wildwood Took $4.2 Million on Friday, Which Already Beats Its Last Opening Day Math
Travis Knight's stop-motion landed third, with a weekend estimate north of $11 million. Missing Link opened to $5.9 million in 2019. In the UK and Ireland it is booked into 655 cinemas, the widest Laika has played there.
Laika opens a movie the way someone opens a package they spent years wrapping. Slowly, and they would like the receipt.
Wildwood, directed by studio chief Travis Knight, did an estimated $4.2 million on Friday in the U.S., previews included, Deadline said, good for third behind Clayface. The weekend guess starts north of $11 million. Dark Horizons splits that Friday into about $1 million of previews and $3.2 million on the day, and puts the three-day at $11 million to $13 million, near Kubo and the Two Strings. The number that actually sits in the room is the studio’s last one. Missing Link opened to $5.9 million in 2019. An $11 million estimate would clear that before Sunday’s column exists.
The film runs 2 hours and 12 minutes. Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan and Tantoo Cardinal are in it. Fathom has the American release. In the UK and Ireland, Black Bear put it into 655 cinemas, the widest a Laika film has ever played there, and the widest booking Black Bear has had. It is a darker afternoon than a cartoon trailer sells. There is a war in the story, and a child who goes missing. That is a strange pitch two screens away from a DC monster movie that did more than double the Friday number.
Laika has never won opening day against that kind of neighbor. It wins, on the weeks it wins, when somebody comes back with a friend. Eleven million would be the first honest receipt the puppets have had since 2019. Read it again on Monday.