Laika's 'Wildwood' Earns $35 Million Against a $100 Million Budget

Laika spent a reported $100 million on "Wildwood" — and after two weekends, the film has grossed $35 million worldwide. Travis Knight's studio built 231 puppets and 136 sets for the feature. Audiences at 2,942 theaters returned a $12.2 million opening three-day weekend, roughly a tenth of the film's reported cost, behind DC's "Clayface" and the Elizabeth Holmes documentary.

The numbers improved slightly in weekend two: another $7.5 million, a No. 3 finish, $25 million domestic and $35 million global to date. Critics and audiences responded strongly. "Wildwood" earned an A CinemaScore and a 99% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes — with a PG-13 rating and a 131-minute running time, unusual handicaps for animated family fare.

Why one studio's box office matters for an art form

What does this change for stop-motion animation? Potentially everything. Tippett Studio, the shop that helped Hollywood move from puppets to pixels, has announced it is closing. Laika is now the only American studio still investing nine figures in the form, and it survives largely because Phil Knight's Nike fortune has absorbed losses that would have shuttered almost any other operation.

The precedent is sobering. Laika's previous film, "Missing Link," grossed just $17 million domestically in 2019. The studio then spent seven years making its follow-up. Stop-motion costs more than other animation because every character is a physical puppet, every set is built by hand, and animators nudge each figure a fraction of an inch dozens of times for a single second of film. That labor force is shrinking.

Travis Knight, Phil Knight's son, serves as Laika's CEO. The family's backing amounts to patronage at a moment when competitors are switching off the lights.

'Art needs advocacy'

Knight has framed the stakes plainly. "We've tried to keep the art form alive for over 20 years now," he told Variety after a "Wildwood" screening at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. He added: "Art needs advocacy. It needs champions. It wears its humanity openly. It deserves to stay alive."

The Academy could matter here. Only three animated films have ever been nominated for best picture; the most recent, "Toy Story 3," arrived 15 years ago. Laika has earned five animated-feature nominations in five attempts. A best-picture nod for "Wildwood" would place physical, handmade filmmaking on the industry's biggest stage amid a news cycle dominated by AI.

One Academy member offered this assessment of the film: "I was transported. It reminded me of the movies my children would watch in the '80s, when movies believed children were smart enough to understand the difficult moments of life."

Where 'Wildwood' sits in the Oscar race

Variety's Awards Circuit predictions, updated Nov. 5, 2026, currently list "Wildwood" — credited to Travis Knight and Sam Wilson — as the front-runner for animated feature, ahead of "Toy Story 5" (Pixar), "Ray Gunn" (Netflix), "Iron Boy" (Sony Pictures Classics) and "Tangles" (Independent Film Company). The film also appears in the visual effects race alongside "Avengers: Doomsday," "Dune: Part Three," "Project Hail Mary" and "Whalefall."

The best-picture field, by contrast, is projected to include "The Odyssey," "Dune: Part Three," "Project Hail Mary," "La Bola Negra," "The Debut," "Artificial," "Elsinore," "The Invite," "Wild Horse Nine" and "You Can See Everything" — with no animated title among them.

The practical conclusion is blunt. Not every film needs to be made the way "Wildwood" was made. But if Hollywood wants that possibility to remain open, somebody has to buy a ticket, and somebody has to vote.