Wildwood CinemaScore A ties Laika’s best as opening weekend tests acclaim

Audiences loved it. Critics loved it. The Wildwood CinemaScore A, handed out by opening-night moviegoers, ties Kubo and the Two Strings as the best audience grade in Laika’s history — and it landed the same weekend the money question came due. Wildwood opened in US theatres on Friday 23 October 2026, Laika’s first feature since Missing Link in 2019.

Information verified through 25 October 2026.

Stop-motion is a hard sell and everyone in this story knows it. Each frame is built by hand. Each puppet moves a fraction at a time. So when a handmade film gets a perfect critics’ score and an A from the people who paid, the second weekend — word of mouth, holds, recommendations — matters more than the first.

Wildwood opening weekend box office: a strong day, a small distributor

The Wildwood opening weekend box office started better than the gloomy forecasts. The film earned about $4.3 million on its opening Friday, including roughly $1 million from Thursday previews, with Deadline putting the day at $4.2 million from 2,942 theatres, pointing to an $11 million to $14 million opening weekend, Comic Basics reported. A second Comic Basics report put the tracking range at roughly $11 million to $13 million.

Context makes that number look sturdier. Missing Link managed just $1.6 million on its first day. Wildwood‘s Friday sits beside Kubo at $4.1 million, Coraline at $4.5 million, ParaNorman at $4.6 million and The Boxtrolls at $4.9 million — films released by larger distributors. An opening near $11–12 million would match Kubo‘s $12.6 million debut in 2016, though it falls short of the studio record, The Boxtrolls at $17.3 million.

The distributor is the twist. Fathom Entertainment, far smaller than the studio partners behind those earlier films, handled this release. Its calling card is Laika itself: Fathom’s 2024 re-release of Coraline grossed more than $51 million worldwide, per the first Comic Basics report, with Shortlist putting that re-release at $56 million worldwide per Fathom. Pre-release tracking had been all over the place — Boxoffice Pro projected $6–10 million after cutting its forecast on 9 October, Box Office Theory went as low as $4.5–9.5 million, and optimistic reports eyed $15–21 million. Premium large formats delivered about 15% of the weekend, the West accounted for 32% of gross against a 26% norm, and the top location was AMC Burbank at $29,000. A specialised crowd showed up first. Whether a broader one follows is the test.

Why the Wildwood CinemaScore A and Wildwood Rotten Tomatoes 100 percent matter

Grades first. ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls and Missing Link each scored a B+ with CinemaScore audiences; Kubo earned the A that Wildwood now ties, Comic Basics reported. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film held a 100% critics’ score and a 98% audience score, with the Wildwood Rotten Tomatoes 100 percent figure built from 29 reviews and an 8.7 out of 10 average in Shortlist’s count, after holding a perfect score from 16 reviews following its London Film Festival premiere.

No earlier Laika film had a perfect score; Kubo topped out at 97%. Shortlist notes the honest caveat inside a perfect number — a 100% score means every counted critic gave a passing grade, not that every critic was knocked flat, and the 8.7 average is the stronger signal.

What are audiences actually cheering? Director Travis Knight’s adaptation of Colin Meloy’s 2011 novel, illustrated by Carson Ellis, follows Prue McKeel, voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee, who enters the Impassable Wilderness to rescue her baby brother after a murder of crows carries him off, with classmate Curtis, voiced by Jacob Tremblay, in tow, Screen Anarchy’s review recounts. Screen Anarchy called it “often breathless, usually reckless, always enchanting” — an ambitious adventure built on an older sibling risking everything for a younger one.

Laika Wildwood PG-13: the rating is part of the gamble

Then there’s the Laika Wildwood PG-13 rating — the studio’s first. Every earlier Laika film was rated PG. The MPA gave Wildwood a PG-13 for strong fantasy violence and bloody images, thematic material, suicide-related material, brief partial nudity and language, Shortlist reported. The film opens with a young man leaping to his death, soon revealed to be a mechanical man grieved by Alexandra, voiced by Carey Mulligan, who rules the woods, per Screen Anarchy. At 132 minutes, it also runs about half an hour longer than any earlier Laika film.

That cuts both ways at the box office. A PG-13 fantasy can pull older fans who grew up on Coraline. It can also give parents of younger children pause — the exact audience animation usually leans on. DC’s Clayface opened the same day with forecasts between $20 million and $33 million, per Shortlist, so Wildwood was never going to win the weekend outright.

Analysis: The uncomfortable figure sits behind the applause. TheWrap reports the budget is said to be well above $100 million, via Comic Basics, which means an $11–14 million opening won’t come close to profit on its own. Laika is funded by Nike founder Phil Knight’s fortune, with his son Travis Knight directing — a patron-style arrangement where keeping the handcrafted tradition alive counts alongside returns. Final weekend numbers arrive Sunday, with Monday actuals correcting the estimates. If the A grade does what A grades usually do — send happy viewers out recruiting — the hold next week will tell a better story than opening day did.

Sources

1. Comic Basics, “Laika’s ‘Wildwood’ Scores a Strong Opening Day at the Box Office, Keeping Pace With the Studio’s Classics Despite a Small Distributor”, 24 October 2026, https://www.comicbasics.com/laikas-wildwood-scores-a-strong-opening-day-at-the-box-office-keeping-pace-with-the-studios-classics-despite-a-small-distributor/
2. Comic Basics, “Laika’s ‘Wildwood’ Scores a Strong CinemaScore, Tying ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ for the Studio’s Best Audience Grade”, 24 October 2026, https://www.comicbasics.com/laikas-wildwood-scores-a-strong-cinemascore-tying-kubo-and-the-two-strings-for-the-studios-best-audience-grade/
3. Shortlist, “LAIKA’s Wildwood Is 100 Percent on Rotten Tomatoes and Rated PG-13”, October 2026, https://shortlist.watch/blog/wildwood-laika-reviews-rotten-tomatoes-pg-13
4. Screen Anarchy, “WILDWOOD Review: Often Breathless, Usually Reckless, Always Enchanting”, October 2026, https://screenanarchy.com/2026/10/wildwood-review-often-breathless-usually-reckless-always-enchanting.html