MOVIE -- OPENING WEEKEND (DOMESTIC)
Coraline -- $16,849,640
Para Norman -- $14,087,050
The Box Trolls -- $17,275,239
Kubo and the 2 Strings -- $12,608,372 ...
It's surprising that, even with overwhelmingly positive reviews, Kubo did not open with a higher gross.
The Boxtrolls, by contrast, has the highest opening weekend domestic gross of any Laika feature, yet its reviews are less positive than KATTS.
Why did Kubo open so much worse? Did Suicide Squad chew into its grosses? Are audiences just not jazzed by stop motion? What is it?
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5 comments:
My totally anecdotal and not-scientific theory: timing. All of the families I know with children were intensely focused on getting their kids back into school the Monday after Kubo opened. If the film had been released a couple weeks earlier, or even a few weeks after the dust had settled from the beginning of the school year, I probably wouldn't be getting "are you kidding me" looks when I ask people if they've seen Kubo yet or plan to any time soon.
Coraline opened during the long interval between New Year's and Spring Break. Boxtrolls opened after the school year's novelty had worn off and people had settled into a routine that could accommodate a trip to their local cineplex. Paranorman is the only Laika feature with a release date similar to Kubo's, and both of them appear to have taken similar dings at the box office.
Like I said, this has been a totally unscientific and data-free observation from my very, very tiny corner of planet Earth. Apply salt to taste.
Your theory is as good as any other.
Maybe timing IS everything. Or, at least, a lot of the underwhelming launch. But maybe that was the best window Laika could get.
More likely it's that laika is more interested in visuals than creating characters and telling stories audiences care about. It's a consistent problem with their films. Audiences in general don't care much what a film "looks" like. They want to be emotionally invested. laika has never been able to do that well. Hence another flop.
Totally agree on the back to school theory. Everyone’s too busy to see movies the first week of school.
Has nothing to do with school. Has to do with it not connecting with audiences. It's a fine looking film. But that doesn't make it a good movie. It's not.
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